Reformation Day

Do you know what happened on Halloween back in 1517?

It was on that day nearly 500 years ago in Germany that an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther gave a corrupt and apostate church its worst nightmare.

In the German town of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, Luther went to the front doors of the Castle Church in the center of town and nailed onto it what we know today as "The 95 Theses". Luther was at the time a professor at the University of Wittenberg, and he wrote down 95 points of contention and rebuke with the Roman Catholic church over issues such as purgatory, works righteousness, and the selling of indulgences. It was written in Latin, the language of the intellectuals and scholars, and he wanted to enter into a debate with his colleagues on the theses.

The church was in the center of towns and of life at that time, and the church front doors served as a community bulletin board, where townspeople could nail on it news and announcements of all kinds, much like a newspaper or internet message board today. The theses caught the attention of some of his students, and thanks to new inventions like the Gutenberg printing press the document was mass-produced and read all over Germany, prompting like-minded individuals to also question the church's corruption and decadence. It ultimately led to a series of events that shook the church to its very core and restored the biblical understanding of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. Those events are known as the Protestant Reformation, and are dramatized in the 2003 motion picture "Luther". While the secular world celebrates witches and goblins on this day as Halloween, the Lutheran church and many other denominations celebrate October 31 as Reformation Day.

In other Protestant churches, particularly evangelical ones, I have perceived a love-hate relationship with Martin Luther. I hear pastors on the radio complain that while Luther went far in reclaiming the truth of the gospel and reforming the church, in their eyes he didn't go far enough. The one thing they get tripped on the most is that Luther supported infant baptism. While Mark 16:15-16 was among Luther's Bible verses to support the practice, pastors like Chuck Smith and Pat Robertson consider that a flimsy excuse for an unbiblical ordinance. Luther wanted to reform the Roman Catholic church and bring it back to a biblical understanding of salvation by grace; why didn't he simply break away to begin with if the Vatican was already so entrenched in and defensive of its heretical practices? Temperance-minded Christians like myself may also be disturbed that Luther loved his beer, and wrote proudly about it being part of good fellowship and fun with his fellow students and scholars. And then there was Luther's sometimes coarse sense of humor, like joking about flatulence in his "Table Talk" series of books and bluntly referring to one of his critics in the Vatican as a donkey's rear end.

In living a life led by the Spirit as it is understood today, Luther fails on all counts, so how and why could the Lord use such a worldly man to bring about the reformation of Christianity? And why, pray tell, do we celebrate this beer drinker who has a denomination named after him?

We celebrate Martin Luther because despite his flaws, this was a man the Lord chose to shake up a church that had been corrupted with money and power, which had cast aside salvation by grace for good deeds and indulgences, which jilted its followers with the man-made concept of purgatory and asked for money to spring their souls out of it, which rarely taught from a Bible many of its own priests could not even read, which replaced God's Word with relics and venerated objects. And at just the right time in history, Luther was so outraged that he stood up against such formidable opposition with the very Bible the church claimed to believe in but had long ago betrayed.

It led to other men joining Luther against the corruption, men such as John Calvin, Philip Melanchthon, Ulrich Zwingli and Prince Frederick the Wise of Saxony. And it ultimately led to a breakaway from Rome in the declaration of the Augsburg Confession in 1530. Luther translated the Bible into his native German so the masses could read and understand God's Word in their own heart language instead of in Latin. The flames of reformation spread across Europe, later giving rise to the Church of England, the Puritans, John and Charles Wesley, and so forth. Despite our differences in secondary doctrinal issues such as modes of baptism, eschatology (the end times) and styles of worship, the various churches and denominations we are all a part of today ultimately had their start with the Protestant Reformation.

I personally find a lot of comfort in hope in the example of Luther. Here was a man with many flaws and shortcomings like all of us. He didn't clean up his act or try to be as righteous as possible in the sight of God before he nailed those 95 theses; he tried doing that for several years and went insane because he realized he could never be justified on his own power. But he discovered from the Bible that righteousness is not by good deeds or works, but solely by faith, and that is faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for us on the cross. While that today does not absolve us as believers from living a life that is guided by God's Word and his Spirit, Luther's life is a prime example of how liberating the Good News really is. We cannot earn our salvation, nor can we keep it, by going good deeds, for "No one is good--not even one" (Romans 3:10). But the good news is that "God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins... We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus Christ shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us" (Romans 3:23-25).

That is the gospel in a nutshell, and the driving force of the Reformation. And that is why what happened in Germany on Halloween 1517 was so important.

A Good Old Fashioned Bible Burning

Here we go again. In our last post, I told you about a "Conservative Bible" translation now underway from the folks at Conservapedia, who believe that today's English Bible translations are corrupted with a liberal bias and a translation must be made that follows free-market, capitalist, politically conservative principles. The resulting translation now underway is a simply horrible rewriting of Scripture to fit a specific economic worldview.

Now there is a church in North Carolina that has taken it a step further, whose pastor says that not only are all English Bibles other than the King James Version corrupted, but are under the inspiration of Satan and must be destroyed. And he's inviting you to a good old fashioned book burning this Halloween.

On Tuesday, ABC affiliate WLOS in Asheville, NC is reporting that on Halloween night, Amazing Grace Baptist Church in nearby Canton, NC will be burning Bibles that are not the King James Version (KJV). The church's pastor Marc Grizzard told the station that the KJV is the only translation his little church of 14 members follows, and that all other English translations are satanic and perversions of God's Word.

Here's the text, misspellings and all, of the good ol' fashioned Bible burning as it appears at the church's website, www.amazinggracebaptistchurchkjv.com, as reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Halloween Book Burning

Burning Perversions of God's Word

Oct. 31, 2009
7pm - Until

Great Preaching and Singing

Come to our Halloween book burning. We are burning Satan's bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect.

These are perversions of God's Word, the King James Bible.We will also be burning Satan's music such as country , pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, contemporary Christian, jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.

We will also be burning Satan's popular books written by heretics like Westcott & Hort, Bruce Metzger, Billy Graham Rick Warren Bill Hybels , John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham , Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa, The Pope, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, etc.

We are not burning Bibles written in other languages that are based on the TR. We are not burning the Wycliffe, Tyndale, Geneva or other translations that are based on the TR.

We will be serving Bar-b-Que Chicken, fried chicken, and all the sides.

If you have any books or music to donate, please call us for pick-up. If you like you can drop them off at our church door anytime. Thanks.

Our Scriptural Bases For Burning

The Scriptural bases for what we are doing each year is found in Acts 19:18-20 "And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed."

This thing is both laughable and lamentable. No wonder it only has 14 members.

Pastor Grizzard, like many other King James-only advocates, argues that the Textus Receptus, the printed Greek version of the New Testament used as the basis for the original German Bible translated by Martin Luther, the Tyndale Bible and of course the King James Version. However, the Textus Receptus was only half the Bible. The Old Testament in the KJV was translated from the Masoretic Text, which was printed in Hebrew. Does this mean that Pastor Grizzard will have to tear out his Bible's Old Testament and add it to the bonfire as well?

Translation and typographical errors were found in the original 1611 KJV publication, and there were so many misprints over the years a newer, corrected KJV was released in 1769 by Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Which version does Pastor Grizzard hold to?

Then there are the numerous discoveries of older, more accurate Hebrew and Greek texts since the KJV was first published, the Dead Sea Scrolls being the prime example. These newfound texts have been used to create modern translations much more accurate than ol' King James.

Also, I pray thee, who in the 21st century doth speake the Queene's English, in like manner of Shakespeare? English is a dynamic language that has changed drastically in the past 400 years, making the KJV very strange and archaic. "Get a dictionary", the KJV-only advocates say. But most Bible readers would rather have a readable translation that speaks to them in their own language.

Finally, many King James purists tend to have a very twisted, legalistic interpretation of the translation they hold so dear, giving birth to heretical doctrines and outright cults. Harold Camping of Family Radio, who claims secret coding in the KJV tells him the world will end in 2011, is one such cult. False teachings based on the wording from the KJV fall apart when applied to other English translations.

The pastor at my church has always said that God's Word should be taught and presented in the heart language of the people. That's why Wycliffe Bible Translators, Lutheran Bible Translators and other ministries have endeavored for so many years to translate the Bible into thousands of regional languages and dialects. One very impressive effort from Wycliffe is Da Jesus Book, the New Testament translated into Hawaiian Pidgin English, a dialect spoken by thousands of Hawaii residents and considered a distinct language all its own.

And there is Pastor Grizzard's tagging all secular and modern music as "Satan's music". I would shudder to think if he would also attribute to Satan some of the great hymns of the faith like "Amazing Grace", for which his church is named, if it were done in a soft and easy, jazz or pop arrangement, let alone a beautiful Hawaiian-language version I heard on the PBS special "Hawaii: The Sounds of Aloha".

And while some of the Christian book authors Grizzard names are clearly heretical because of their Word of Faith prosperity doctrine (Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer), I can only guess that all the names he drops are Satan's favorites because they teach from translations other than the KJV.

Finally, Acts 19:18-20 has been taken grossly out of its original context. Many of the people of Ephesus burned their books and articles of pagan arts ("curious arts" in the KJV)because they became Christians after witnessing the miracles done by the apostle Paul in Jesus' name.

I don't know if Pastor Grizzard went viral about his Bible burning to draw attention to himself or if it's a diversion tactic to make us ignore how tiny his cultic little church really is. Allowing himself to be interviewed on camera while wearing Billy Bob overalls doesn't necessarily help his cause either. But he, like the Conservative Bible Project, is another example of selfish, sinful pride that draws attention to oneself instead of Jesus Christ, and ends up dragging His name into the mud. Non-Christians will have a field day making fun of it, and Christians will now have to spend time distancing themself from such outrageous heretics. Let it be known that the church at large does not take Marc Grizzard and his Bible burning seriously, and neither should you.

Oh, and by the way, the church and Pastor Grizzard were not available for comment the day after this story broke, and the church website was shut down and put "in system reserve".

A Politically Motivated Bible Translation

Recently on Crosswalk.com I learned of a new online Bible translation which claims to set God's Word free from liberal scholarly bias, but after looking at it reminds me of the dangers of twisting the Word to fit a predetermined political or otherwise subjective worldview.

Conservapedia, an online encyclopedia similar to Wikipedia but with a conservative American political bent, is currently working on a new Bible translation called the Conservative Bible Project. It claims that liberal bias has infiltrated and distorted most Bible translations through three errors:

1. a lack of precision in the original language, such as terms underdeveloped to convey new concepts introduced by Christ,
2. a lack of precision in modern language, and
3. a translation bias in converting the original language to the modern one. "But the third -- and largest -- source of translation error", it says, "requires conservative principles to reduce and eliminate."

Conservapedia writes that as of 2009 there is not a "fully conservative translation of the Bible" that meets ten guidelines. Among them:

1. Excluding later-inserted "liberal passages" that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story in John 8:1-11;
2. not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity (the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level);
3. expressing free market parables; that is, explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning; and
4. preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."

It claims that socialist terminology permeates English Bible translations, thus lending support to left-leaning "social justice" movements in the church. In the English Standard Version (ESV) the word "volunteer", deemed conservative, is mentioned only once, but these other words branded as socialistic are more liberally used (no pun intended): "comrade" (3x), "laborer(s)" (13x), "labored" (15x), and "fellow" as in "fellow worker" (55x).

It also suggests the following quote from Luke 23:34, where Jesus prayed "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing," which does not appear in some ancient manuscripts, is an after-the-fact liberal corruption: "This does not appear in any other Gospel, and the simple fact is that some of the persecutors of Jesus DID know what they were doing. This quotation is a favorite of liberals but should not appear in a conservative Bible."

And how will this new Conservative Bible be translated? Online, as an open wiki project, with each verse from the public-domain King James Version posted online, a suggested conservative correction, and side notes. Conservapedia writes that it can be done quickly with the right amount of volunteer translators: Retranslation at rate of 20 verses a day would complete the entire New Testament in about a year. "With 5 good retranslators, that would be an average of only 4 verses a day per translator. At a faster rate of 20 verses per day by 5 good translators, the entire New Testament could be retranslated in less than 3 months."

And what's the result? Well, the translation is ongoing. I've been going through the Conservative Bible online, and while the folks at Conservapedia have a right to do a new Bible translation, looking at what is being proposed and changed, I think they're all a bunch of nuts.

Here are some verses taken from their translation, located at http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible:

1. The prophet Jeremiah's name is changed to Jeremy in Matthew 2:17-18.
2. The Holy Spirit (Ghost in KJV) is changed to Divine Guide in Matthew 1:18, 1:20.
3. Matthew 3:7 is translated thus: "When John saw how many Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized by him, he said to them, "You jerks! Who has warned you to flee from the divine sentence that's coming to you?"
4. Mark 10:33 -- "Listen carefully: we will arrive in Jerusalem, where the Son of man shall be betrayed and handed over to the Elites, who shall condemn Him to death for execution by the Gentiles."
5. Mark 14:3-5 -- "At that time, he was in Bethany at Simon the leper's house, having a meal. A woman came in with an expensive white crystal container of valerian oil, which she opened and poured over his head. Some of the onlookers were shocked, saying 'Why did she waste that nice oil like that? We could have sold that for more than three dollars and charitably donated the money to the poor!' They kept whispering about what a bad thing she had done."

As I see it, they are creating a wooden translation that does away with the poetry that makes the KJV such a revered English translation, as evidenced in Matthew 3:7. The wobbly translation of the expensive perfume as "valerian oil" is one thing, but to value it as "three dollars" is an ridiculously bad reworking when the NKJV, NIV and NLT more correctly define the original Greek as "three hundred denarii", the equivalent of a day's wage. The NLT precisely paraphrases it as "a small fortune". Worse yet, it seems they doing exactly the very thing they accuse theologically liberal Bible scholars of, deliberately injecting a conservative American bias such as renaming the scribes and Pharisees "the Elites", which is a current conservative-activist buzzword.

Conservapedia was founded by Andrew Schlafly, son of Eagle Forum founder and longtime conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. While God is very clear in calling homosexuality sinful behavior, giving great value to life still in the womb, and that faith in Christ His Son is the way to salvation--all of which are rightfully considered "conservative" values, He needs no help from conservative activists in the United States with no biblical translation or theological background.

The Bible in and of itself, regardless of translation, has been used to support liberal, conservative, socialist and anarchist ideologies. Because of the stated goals of the Conservative Bible Project, it bothers me that Mr. Schalfly and his associates are rewriting and revising it to fit their specific political worldview--a practice no different than "The Woman's Bible", a feminist translation created in the 1890's by Elizabeth Cady Stanton or the New World Translation by the Jehovah's Witnesses. It also smacks of twisting holy writ out of its context so a predetermined heretical template can be forced upon it, as done by Harold Camping of Family Radio, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, or the late Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God, not to mention numerous Word of Faith prosperity teachers like Benny Hinn, Joel Olsteen, Joyce Meier and Todd Bentley.

In conclusion, I would not trust this ongoing translation to other conservatives, Christian or not. The fact that it is an open wiki project makes it lamentable. I'm sticking to my modern translations.

When Death Happens in Threes

When Michael Jackson died the week of June 25, two other celebrities passed away as well: Johnny Carson's TV sidekick and lifelong friend Ed McMahon and "Charlie's Angels" star Farrah Fawcett. I met people who were a little superstitious and spooked about deaths happening in threes and that it's an omen or prophecy of bad things to come when they happen. I don't believe such things; they are concidental when they happen, tragic as they still are when they do.

Last week one of those threes happened again, but this time it got personal. We lost guitar legend Les Paul, Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver... and I lost a close friend to a sudden heart attack, Joe Snell, director of multi-ethnic programs at Azusa Pacific University in California. He was only 46 when God called him home. He recently went back to Texas to settle matters with his late mother's estate, of whom he was the executor, and I hadn't heard from him for a few weeks. When I learned of his passing, it hit me like a ton of bricks because it's the first time in my entire life that a friend has died on me. Family members, yes, but friends, not until now.

For the past few days I have been going between depression, fatigue and a lot of sleeping over Joe's death. He was a guy with a great sense of humor, a love for his job and the students he served at APU, and a love for Jesus, whom we both serve. I always liked his wickedly wild sense of humor, his stories about how bad the weather in Seattle was when he was working up there for Washington State, his slight Texas twang and his liberal use of "y'all" whenever he was excited and/or in a good mood. He was also, however, under a lot of stress over his dying mother in the past two years, the family friction it brought about, and the legal dealings over settling her estate. Joe is now buried next to his mom in San Antonio, home in his beloved Lone Star State until the day of resurrection, as we Christians believe.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was also emotional for me because I competed in the Special Olympics back in fifth grade. I was in what is called "Adaptive P.E." because of problems I had with physical coordination, sudden growth spurts and inability to participate in mainstream P.E. classes, and my teacher enrolled me in a local Special Olympics event. Most of the ribbons I won were "participant" because I was the slowest and dead last in a lot of events, including the 50 yard dash, but I won third place in sit-ups, which I was very proud of. And while many of my fellow athletes that day had intellectual disabilities, that didn't matter to me, because I was having too much fun competing just like in the 1980 Winter Olympics I saw on TV the year before.

As a kid, I always thought Eunice was a funny name for a lady. On the old NBC sitcom "Mama's Family", Eunice was the name of Mama's argumentative daughter and played by Carol Burnett, and it marked me for life. To my chagrin, I later learned it was a biblical name; Eunice was one of the many supporters of St. Paul the Apostle. But it also means in Greek "rebirth" or "new energy", and it perfectly described Eunice Kennedy Shriver's zest for life and tireless dedication to the mentally and intellectually disabled, especially in the founding of the Special Olympics. When I saw Mrs. Shriver's funeral service on the internet last Friday, I cried as one person after another shared about her love for lifting others up ahead of herself and as a Special Olympic athlete escorted by a police officer led the recessional carrying a lighted Olympic torch.

And then there is Les Paul. Modern music as we know it today would simply not exist if not for his invention of the electric guitar and multitrack recording. He was a damn good guitarist, too. An inventor as well as a musician, he put a phonograph needle to a guitar as a teenager to amplify the sound of his playing, using his mom's radio as a loudspeaker. He experimented with stacks of studio recording discs played at different speeds to create special effects such as overdubs, echoes, and modified guitar licks without a sound filter. He helped invent the world's first multitrack tape recorder. And there were those amazing songs he recorded with his wife Mary Ford, such as "How High The Moon" or "Mockingbird Hill". Always a tinkerer, he kept busy performing and working all the way until his death at age 94. He is ultimately responsible for the magic behind the sound recording equipment and software I use today, and for that I am grateful.

So this past week death again happened in threes, but it was a little personal for me. But I am grateful for how Joe, Eunice and Les personally touched my life. And I am privileged that I got to know one of them personally.

So I'm On This Aloha Trip...

...because late last night I was on my church denomination's website looking for member churches aross the USA, particularly in Hawaii. I've been on this aloha trip of sorts ever since I created a Hawaiian-themed Christmas card last year called "Mele Kalikimaka" (Hawaiian for Merry Christmas), as shown above. It was very popular among those I sent it to.

My pastor's mom was born and raised in Hawaii, and she's very proud of her Hawaiian heritage. That, along with getting to know other island people over the years at work and at church, having a Hawaiian-born president in the White House, and the aforementioned Christmas card has rubbed off on me, thus the Lutheran Hawaiian church search.

I found a local congregation in Honolulu called Good Shepherd Lutheran, which has a lot in common with my own church besides the Hawaii connection. It is geared toward evangelism and outreach, meeting people in the community where they're at in the real world spiritually, practically and emotionally. Instead of expecting people to come flooding through the front door into the sanctuary, it's doing the polar opposite, going out into the community and sharing God's aloha through the witness of their lives, which is exactly how Jesus wanted us to do it via his Great Commission.

Thanks to "Lilo and Stitch", the culture at large, especially the kids, knows the meaning of the words ohana (family), mahalo (thank you) and aloha (love, hello, goodbye--but mostly love). Although I have never been to Hawaii, from what I have learned from my Hawaiian friends is that love, family and fellowship are deeply ingrained in the culture there. It's not the stereotypical easygoing, Manny Ramirez-type way of life influenced by the balmy weather; one would be a lolo (idiot) to believe that.

Such is the kind of aloha God had for all of us. So much, in fact, that He could not leave us in our wretched sinful state. He sent His own son Jesus to live among us and take the fall for us on the cross, so that all who would trust His sacrifice for their sins would not be cut off from God, but enjoy eternal life as part of His ohana, and not only in heaven, but even right now here in this life.

In Hawaii there is a version of the New Testament translated into Hawaii Pidgin English called Da Jesus Book, and its translation of John 3:16 is one of the best I have ever read. In Pidgin the word "believe" does not exist; instead the word trus (trust) is used. It's one thing to say you believe in Jesus. To actually put your trust in Him is another thing altogether, for that's what believing Him really is.

So what say you?

Mahalo for hearing me out.

The Michael Jackson Memorial Service

I just saw the Michael Jackson memorial service from Staples Center as it was carried on ABC. It was incredibly moving. And for all the worries and concerns that 1 million fans would storm the Staples Center/L.A. Live area, none of that ever materialized. It was orderly, respectful and dignified. And rightfully so, since even though 11,000 people packed the arena, it was a memorial service. It seemed everyone heeded the calls of the LAPD to watch the event at home on TV.

Right now KNBC reporter Patrick Healy at its News Raw digital subchannel 4.2 is getting reactions from those just leaving the arena. None of these folks are acting like weirdos; they are all respectful and complimenting of the whole event. Again, none of the zoo atmosphere the tabloid media was whipping up and hoping would erupt.

For me, the high points were when Stevie Wonder sang at the piano, Usher breaking down at MJ's casket while singing "Gone Too Soon", Brooke Shields remembering her childhood friend's favorite song "Smile" written by Charlie Chaplain, which Jermaine Jackson then sang; the Jackson family huddled on the stage, Marlon Jackson grieving.

And then suddenly MJ's daughter Paris Jackson was given the microphone, sobbing as she said she loved her dad so much. This was the first time Michael's kids have been seen in public without masks or coverings, and to hear one of them speak, then cry and grieve, was incredible. I did not cry at the whole coverage until then; it was the capstone of the memorial. For all the controversy and hype about their conception and future custody, three kids have lost their father, and Paris brought that reality home.

I was bothered when the Rev. Al Sharpton tried to politicize the event in making reference to MJ's well-known eccentricities and accusations, under the guise of telling his grieving kids his daddy wasn't strange, but what he dealt with was. But thankfully, all of the aforementioned high points drowned out that low point.

Clearly, Michael Jackson's music and philanthropy have touched many people around the world. And yet Motown founder Berry Gordy stated that MJ was only happy when he was performing on stage. A reference, perhaps, to his private loneliness despite all that fame, fortune and adoration.

MJ was indeed an incredibly talented entertainer; that cannot be denied. But as his casket at the memorial service made clear, he has died. Once again I am reminded that one day my own day will come when I will die, expire, "go mahke", and then be buried or cremated. And what will it profit me then if I gained the whole world and lost my soul? None of the treasures of this world will matter.

But what does matter is that there was another king, the King of Kings, came to this earth and died for my sins, so that I would inherit eternal life by accepting His finished work in the place of my sinfulness and righteousness. He has taken my sins, my crazy doings, my stupid attempts to gain God's favor on my own... all out of love for the whole world (John 3:16).

One of MJ's signature songs is the peace anthem "Heal the World", which was sung at the memorial. The only way that nations will beat their swords into plowshares, make this world a better place for you and for me, will be through the Prince of Peace.

Thanks for hearing me out.

The Sudden Death of Michael Jackson

I was signing in at a local one-stop employment center to look for work when I heard from the front desk about what just broke on the news that moment: the death of pop icon Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop", at the age of 50 from an apparent heart attack. Just a few hours before, I saw TV news reports on the death of "Charlie's Angels" star Farrah Fawcett at age 62 from terminal cancer. Michael's death overshadowed Farrah's, and I suppose rightfully so, because while we have known Farrah was dying and a Roman Catholic priest gave her last rites at the hospital the night before, Michael's passing was sudden, unexpected, and shocking.

As I write this, MJ has all but taken over the global news headlines, trumping the unrest in Iran, the economic crisis here in California, the global warming vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, and so on. I knew that Michael continued to enjoy huge popularity overseas, but I had no idea how huge he was until he died. It was a testament to his being one of the few truly global entertainers of our time. I used to think of his hardcore fans in Europe as crazy, amoral and forever stuck in the 1980's, but now I realize they love his music, not his strange private life, like the fans of many a musician.

As a child in the 70's and 80's I was like many of my generation a big fan of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. I sang along to "ABC", "Dancing Machine", "Enjoy Yourself" and "Shake Your Body" and marveled at all their huge afros. When MJ truly broke out as a solo artist with "Off The Wall" during the disco era, it was a lot of fun. As a 13-year-old, I sensed something special and historic happening before my eyes when Michael danced, popped and moonwalked to "Billie Jean" on the "Motown 25" anniversary program on NBC. That was probably the event that he became a global megastar, something I never new about before in my young lifetime.

But then of course came all the stories about his private life. Surrounding himself with preteen stars like Emmanuel Lewis and Macaulay Culkin. The sleepovers at his Neverland Ranch. His obsession with Peter Pan and experiencing the childhood he never truly had. The brutal accusations of child sexual abuse. Dangling his baby son Blanket over the hotel balcony in Berlin. Persisting in his strange lifestyle even after it got him in trouble with the law and a few days in a county jail. It seems that MJ was emotionally stunted at five or six, when he and his brothers broke into showbiz, and the rest of his life was spent on trying to make up for lost time.

Whether or not Michael really did what he was accused of doing to those kids, only God knows. But what can we learn from such a strange, lonely and tragic life?

As a former MJ fan and as a conservative, evangelical Christian, I am reminded of Christ's words:

• "If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?"
  (Matthew 16:25-26, New Living Translation)

Although Michael had the adoration, riches and success of the world, it couldn't give him happiness. He tried desperately to stay a playful, innocent man-child even as he entered middle age. And ultimately, he died at a time nobody expected him to.

Michael was raised a Jehovah's Witness, and stories abound that even his abusive father wasn't even a good practicing JW. As an adult he explored the Nation of Islam, the Kabbalah, the New Age, Scientology, anything that would seemingly affirm his childlike but unbiblical and skewed view of the world. His later songs, including "Heal the World", "Will You Be There", "Childhood" and "Cry" were desperate calls for help out of the isolation surrounding him amidst his private zoo, amusement park and multiple platinum records.

The one word that keeps coming to mind on MJ's death is sad. It's just so sad that he died as he did, on the verge of much hyped comeback tour. Whether or not he is in heaven is not my right, nor anyone else's, to proclaim. Other self-righteous Christians on message boards all over the web have no problem condemning him to hell right away, but their legalistic view of justification by works instead of Christ's sacrifice blow their rants to smithereens.

Before many of us Christians came to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were a lot more like Michael Jackson than we would want to admit. We had hurts and abuses from our past, and we tried desperately in vain to fill that aching hole in our heart with all the world offers--wealth, fame, bling, fancy stuff, pleasure, maybe even so-called spirituality. Like Michael, we found all of the above wanting. But we finally found the One who alone could fill the void in our heart. Not only did he give us a ticket into heaven when we die, but also a purpose for living this life here on earth, and the peace to deal with all the trials and tribulations that this world throws at us.

Michael is survived by his parents Joseph and Katherine Jackson, his siblings including Janet and Jermaine, his ex-wives Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe, and his children Prince, Paris and "Blanket" (Prince Michael II). Pray that God would provide his love, comfort and peace to them in this time of grief, and that they may all be open to the Good News of Jesus Christ.