Canceling Bill Bright?

His breathing slowed and then finally stopped. At last, he was face to face with his Master.

I will never forget that moment 18 years ago today. My dad was so looking forward to the moment he would “graduate.” He was like a child anticipating entering Disneyland for the first time. My son, Keller, crawled up on his bed a few moments after he passed and softly said, “Grandfather, I hope you have fun in heaven.” My eight-year-old son understood.

Today, my dad’s body lies in a crypt. He carefully chose the words engraved on his headstone. Words that gave testimony to his all-consuming purpose in life. Words some counseled him not to use. Words he refused to water down because some might be offended. Words that today could get him “canceled.” My dad knew who he was, and Who he spent every waking moment serving. What are the words?

“A SLAVE OF JESUS BY CHOICE”

In this day of self-focused Christianity, with many demanding their “rights,” such God-focused faith is increasingly hard to find. The Apostle Paul’s opening words from Romans 1:1, “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ” are not found on the list of today’s most popular sermons. Paul’s declaration in 1 Cor 9:19-20, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more,” isn’t exactly the hallmark of modern Christianity in the West.

Like the Apostle Paul, my dad voluntarily gave up his “rights” because he wanted to wholeheartedly follow Jesus.

When I was about 10 years old, a group of key leaders within Campus Crusade for Christ came to him the morning after he arrived back from a six-week trip to Asia. Demanding his immediate resignation, they sought to seize control of the ministry. Most of us would be deeply offended and fight back. How did my dad respond? “Let’s all get on our knees and ask God what He wants.” He didn’t get defensive. He didn’t lose his temper. A slave doesn’t have rights. A slave doesn’t own what he pours his life blood into. A slave of Jesus is at peace, no matter the circumstances, because he can completely trust his good and faithful Master.

Twenty years later, one of the men who had been a part of the group that day confessed to me, “I realized the moment your dad said, ‘Let’s get on our knees and ask God what He wants,’ that the contest was over and we had lost.” Bill Bright never demanded his rights, he simply wanted to do the Master’s will.

When he won the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, he became a millionaire—for about 30 minutes. Then he signed away the check in order to promote prayer and fasting. As he said to me a few days later, “I gave it away over 45 years ago.”

Shortly after graduating from college I was sitting in my dad’s office while a reporter from a Christian magazine interviewed him. At one point the reporter posed a question I had never heard before, “Dr. Bright, share with me a problem you face that the average Christian can relate to.” My dad responded, “I don’t have problems.” The reporter then proceeded to ask the question seven times, seven different ways trying to get him to admit he had problems. Finally, my dad leaned forward and uttered heartfelt words I will never forget:

I am a slave of Jesus. It is not the slave’s responsibility to be successful. The only responsibility of a slave is to do what the Master asks him to do. When you understand this, you also understand that a slave doesn’t have problems; a slave only has opportunities to see the Master work.

What was the result of being a slave of Jesus for over 50 years? A life filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. A life of incredible purpose and vision. A life free of fear, anxiety and the pressures of the world. We are all slaves to something or someone. As Bob Dylan opined, ‘Ya gotta serve somebody.” It’s not a popular thought but it is reality. There is only One person I want to be enslaved to. My dad showed me the way.

Can you say with Bill Bright “I am a slave of Jesus by choice,” or do you take offense at every perceived slight? Would you like to be able to declare, “I don’t have problems, I only have opportunities to see the Master work?” The first step is to become a slave of Jesus by choice. No one can ever cancel that.

P.S. The better you know the Master, the easier it is to follow Him! Dad's book, GOD, Who Are You Anyway? is a great place to start!

©2021 Brad Bright

Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden...and other fairytales

Yesterday I read about a new partisan political organization called Pro-life Evangelicals for Biden. I stared at the screen in disbelief. Wouldn’t that be the same as forming an organization during the Civil War called Abolitionists for Robert E. Lee?

Let’s analyze exactly what it means to be a Pro-Life Evangelical for Joe Biden.

- If you are “pro-life” it means you are against murdering innocent, defenseless, unseen babies.

- If you are “for Joe Biden” it means you support someone who believes it is acceptable to rip the

arms and legs off the fetus.

In other words, Pro-life Evangelicals for Biden means: Evangelicals who believe it is wrong to murder innocent, defenseless babies in the womb who support a candidate who believes it is okay to murder innocent, defenseless babies in the womb. Am I the only one who sees the chilling hypocrisy?

Now let’s look at this from God’s perspective. If God is okay with this political position, then we are effectively saying that God believes it is wrong to murder innocent, defenseless babies in the womb but He also believes it is okay to vote for someone who will work hard to keep the murder of innocent babies legal. Seriously? What would that say about God’s character? His love? His justice? Could you trust such a capricious, unloving, unjust God?

God is neither capricious nor does He take any pleasure in people who think ripping the arms and legs off an innocent fetus is justified for the sake of some perceived greater good. Just as the abolitionists called on America to repent of her evil ways 160 year ago, I call on my brothers and sisters who give cover to such evil to repent.

Legalized enslavement (and murder) of blacks created in the image of God was evil then, and legalized murder of innocent babies is just as evil today. What does it say about the moral compass of those Christians who claim to be pro-life and then campaign for a politician who spent 47 years clawing his way to power over the dead, torn carcasses of millions of defenseless children.

Today’s Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden, would have been yesterday’s Abolitionists for Robert E. Lee. They can rationalize it all they want, but at the end of the day they are accomplices to murder, which God abhors.

But what is really going on here? Pro-Life Evangelicals for Biden are trying to hijack the term “pro-life” to include other issues that are more important to them than the lives of defenseless children created in the image of God, all for the sake of putting their favorite political hack in the White House. That may be shrewd politics, but I doubt the God who said, “Thou shalt not murder,” is fooled.

GOD is the issue!

©2020 Brad Bright

BradBright.org

Is God Pro-Choice?

It doesn’t matter how you feel about abortion. It doesn’t matter how I feel. It doesn’t even matter how your pastor or priest feels. The only thing that matters is how God feels. If you are pro-choice and God is pro-choice then you are golden. God is the issue.

So, is God pro-choice? Let’s start with the source of the current controversy: Roe V. Wade. The majority opinion of the Supreme Court in this landmark case stated the justices did not know if the fetus was an actual “person” or not. Therefore, they concluded they could not mandate the fetus be entitled to full protection under the Constitution. In my opinion, this ambiguous, philosophical distinction the Court concocted between the fetus being “human” and being a “person” borders on idiocy, but that was their stated rationale for the decision.

However, since the highest court of the land publicly admitted in writing it did not know whether or not the fetus is a person, we must look elsewhere for moral clarity on the matter. Of course, for Christians, our source of moral authority is the Bible, not nine attorneys dressed in black robes who can’t even agree amongst themselves.

In light of that, what does God say in the Bible about abortion? Have you ever dug deeply to find out?

Many Christians, in an attempt to provide evidence that God considers abortion wrong, quote Psalms 139:13-16. Verses 13-14 say, “For you formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am wonderfully and fearfully made….”(NAS) It is a beautifully poetic and inspiring passage that gives us hope, but unfortunately those verses never clearly delineate at what point in the process I became a person. Look at it closely. All it says is that God wove me in the womb, not that I was a person or even fully human in the womb. So that does not provide explicit clarity.

However, there are other passages of Scripture that represent God’s point of view with far less ambiguity. It takes a little more work to get there, but if you really want to understand God’s perspective it’s worth the effort. Let’s start by looking at three verses:

Luke 1:41a “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb…” (NAS)

Luke 2:12 “’This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’” (NAS)

Luke 18:15a “And they were bringing even their babies to him [Jesus] so that he would touch them.” (NAS)

What do all three of these verses have in common? They all use the exact same Greek word “brephos” to describe a baby.

The first “brephos” is still in the womb. (Luke 1:41)

The second “brephos” is a newborn. (Luke 2:12)

The third “brephos” describes infants in general. (Luke 18:15)

God, in His Word, makes no distinction between babies in the womb and babies outside the womb. It plainly implies God sees the baby in the womb the same as the baby outside the womb. The language could not be clearer.

Therefore, if God is okay with killing a “brephos” in the womb, then it logically follows that God is okay with killing any “brephos,” including those outside the womb. Of course, that clearly violates the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not murder.” Conversely, if God considers it murder to kill a six-month old post-birth “brephos” then it necessarily follows that He considers it murder to kill a “brephos” still inhabiting the womb. Again, God makes no distinction. According to Scripture a “brephos” is a “brephos” is a “brephos.” In this case, segregated personhood (real or imagined) is irrelevant to the outcome. Either God loves every “brephos” or He doesn’t. Would you agree?

Although I regard this as sufficient information on which to make an informed decision about God’s view of abortion, let’s keep going and take a look at it from another perspective. Since the Supreme Court purportedly does not believe that a human being in the womb necessarily qualifies as “person” let’s go to the lowest possible common denominator of what qualifies a person as a person: personality.

Let’s go back to the Scriptures again. Do we ever see a fetus portrayed as a person or as possessing personality?

Open your Bible to Luke 1:39-44. It’s the story of when pregnant Mary meets her pregnant cousin Elizabeth. What does the text say? “…when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby [brephos] leaped in my womb for joy.” (NAS) Did you catch that? The Bible indicates the in utero “brephos” leaped for “joy.” In other words, the fetus felt and expressed joy. In what world does a non-person feel and express joy? If you feel and express joy, you clearly possess a personality trait. And if you possess personality then by the most basic definition you are a person.

If you still remain unconvinced, let’s go back to Luke 1:15. This verse occurs in the middle of the story of the angel informing Zacharias that his wife Elizabeth will bear a son (John the Baptist): “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb.”(NAS) A “brephos” in the womb was filled with the Holy Spirit. Every other instance of the phrase, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” in Scripture always denotes a person—no exceptions. Therefore, the only reasonable conclusion, based on the evidence in Scripture, is that God considers the fetus (brephos) in Elizabeth’s womb to be a person.

You get the point. God does not distinguish between a fetus (brephos) in the womb and a baby (brephos) outside the womb. However, just to be abundantly clear, God made sure to let us know that babies in the womb are persons because they can feel and express personality traits thereby making them persons in the most basic sense of the word. And finally, God let us know that a fetus can be “filled with the Holy Spirit,” again implying personhood.

So, is it possible to be pro-choice and a Christian? I am not the Judge so I’ll leave that between you and your Creator. It really doesn’t matter how I feel. You’re answerable to Him, and Him alone—not me. My intent is simply to give you the best information I can.

However, the critical question is, do you, in your heart of hearts, believe the God of the Bible is pro-choice? Or to put it another way, do you think it makes God happy when a doctor rips the arms and legs off a (brephos) fetus He created in His image? God loves the “brephos” and mother alike; He created both in His image. That’s why both possess infinite, irrevocable value in His eyes.

Proverbs 24:11-12 says, “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?” (NIV)

GOD is the Issue.

© Brad Bright 2020, All rights reserved.