The Marc Axelrod Book Awards for 2008

1. Best Biography - People Who Shaped The Church, by Todd Temple
2. Best Book for Preachers - Preaching With Power, edited by Michael Duduit
3. Best Book About Missions - Facing Terror, by Carrie McDonnall
4. Best Biblical Studies book - Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, edited by I.H Marshall
5. Best Classic Book - Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Doestoevsky
6. Best Book About Christian Living - Good to Great in God's Eyes, by Chip Ingram
7. Best Novel - Storm, by Jack Cavanaugh
8. Most Touching Book - It Was Never About Books, by J. Taylor Ludwig
9. Best History Book - Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940, by David Kyvig
10. Best Sports Book - My View From the Corner, by Bert Sugar and Angelo Dundee

Best Overall Book I read in 2008 .......


drumroll ......
Good to Great in God's Eyes, by Chip Ingram

The Top Five
1. Good to Great in God's Eyes - Ingram
2. Storm, Jack Cavanaugh
3. Preaching With Power, edited by Michael Duduit
4. People Who Shaped The Church, by Todd Temple
5. Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, edited by I.H Marshall

What happens to people who die without ever hearing the gospel?

This is a question I get quite often. How could God punish someone for not believing in Jesus when they've never even had an opportunity to hear about Jesus?

It would be like your boss yelling at you for not preparing a report when he never mentioned to you anything about it in the first place. You'd say "That's not fair! I never even knew about the report!"

Usually the question gets phrased this way: What about tribal people from the jungles of Africa? Or what about other 3rd world societies? They don't have Bibles or missionaries or churches. How can a loving God condemn entire societies for not believing in someone they've never encountered?"

Number one: The Bible says that "the Lord is a God of justice." (Isaiah 30:19) And Psalm 145:17 says that "The LORD is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made." Notice the words "In all His ways." God is righteous in everything He does, including His acts of judgment. Therefore, we can have confidence that in every situation, God is going to do what is right and fair and loving.

Number two: Romans 8:29 says that those God foreknew, "he predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." In other words, God knows everyone, and He knew us even before we were born.

Since God knows us so well, He knows the people who will eventually respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And He knows the people who WOULD have eventually responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ if they had been offered an opportunity.

He also knows those who would NEVER respond to the gospel of Christ. Does this mean that when it comes to those who never heard, God saves some and not others based on what he foreknows about them? It's entirely possible.

However, I cannot say this with certainty because it is an inference from scripture rather than a declaration of scripture. It is crucial that we share Christ with as many as we can and as clearly as we can. Jesus says in John 14:6 that "no one comes to the Father except through Me."

Number three: Romans 1:20 says that there is so much evidence for God's existence based on an understanding from what has been made that man is without excuse. In other words, there is no excuse for anyone being an atheist. Acts 14:17 says that God "has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."

Jesus loves you this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

This is My Creed

They say it's not a good idea to talk shop in church. You want to concentrate on expounding the scriptures and applying them to daily life without getting too technical.

But on my blog, I can just let it rip! I am a Jewish Christian. I am Jewish because my mom is Jewish, and so were all of my ancestors as far back as we know. I am Jewish by blood.

But I am a Christian because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him, I have been grafted back into the olive tree of God's covenant people! Yes!!!!!!

I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. It is inerrant and infallible in the original manuscripts. This does not believe I am blind to paradoxes and puzzles and mysteries (for example, why is the Last Supper a Passover meal in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but in John 13, it seems to take place the day before Passover). Write me if you want to know what I believe to be the answer!

I am a moderately conservative evangelical who believes that there is no other way to be saved other than through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again on the third day (Acts 4:12, John 14:6, 1 Corinthians 15:3-6).

I use the word "moderately" because I will fellowship with anyone and everyone who believes in Christ, unless they are hateful and mean. Then maybe I'll just back off and pray for them!

I am conservative because I believe the Bible cover to cover. I believe in the Trinity, the divinity and humanity of Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles His atoning death and bodily resurrection, and that our mission in life is to worship God and bring as many people to faith in Christ as possible.

I am a dispensational premillennial pretribulational Arminian. Now this really requires some explanation! I am dispensational because I believe that even though salvation has always been by grace through faith in God's Messiah, I also acknowledge that there have been different expressions of grace through the centuries. The time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the time of promise, when the people of faith looked ahead to the fulfillment of God's promises of land, security and salvation.

The time of law was from Exodus 20 until John 19, where God's gracious gift of Torah was our guide as far as how to live for God. Of course, we all fell short (Romans 3:23), and needed a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:25-26). And so through Christ's sacrificial substitutionary death for us on the cross, we have entered by faith into this grace in which we now stand (Romans 5:2). Today, this is the time of grace! Amen!!!!

I am premillennial because I believe that Jesus Christ will come back with His angels and with the raptured church to conquer the beast and reign in glory over the earth for a thousand years. Christ returns BEFORE the millennium begins. That is why I am PRE-millennial (Pre means "before," millennium means "period of one thousand.")

I believe in a two stage return of Christ. Christ comes back FOR His saints to take them to be with Him in the Father's house (heaven, see John 14:1-3). This could happen at any time, like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:2, followed by a seven year period of tribulation and destruction for the inhabitants of the earth). That's why I am pretribulational, which means "before the tribulation."

At the end of the tribulation period, the time of Jacob's trouble (Jeremiah 30:7), Christ will return WITH His saints to beat up the bad guys and reign for a thousand years!!!! Yeah!!!!!

I am also Arminian. I believe that we are totally depraved, and that we cannot lift a hand or foot toward our own salvation. We are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). On this point, Arminians agree with Calvinists.

But we disagree on the second point. Calvinists say that God has predestined certain individuals to be saved and He has passed by the others.

But this flies in the face of texts such as Revelation 22:17-18, John 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:4, and 2 Peter 3:9 which teach that God loves everyone and wants everyone to come to faith in Christ. If God really wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, why in the world would he write off whole masses of humanity without even taking into consideration whether or not they would respond to the gospel? That is not the God I serve!

Here's what I think based upon my understanding of the Scriptures: God has chosen Christ to be the Savior of the world, and based on His foreknowledge of who will respond to the gospel, he chooses them to be in Christ, which is exactly what Ephesians 1:3-4 and 1 Peter 1:1-2 teach!

In other words, God knew before the beginning of time that on September 15th, 1985, I would get down on my knees in my Ohio University dorm room and ask Him to be the boss of my life, and to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior and as my atonement for my sins. Therefore, based on this foreknowledge of me, He chose me to be a part of His family.

This view of predestination is the Arminian position on election. I also believe that Jesus's death is for everyone, but effective only for those who turn from their sin and trust in Christ. I believe that those who are predestined will eventually respond to His grace and that those who God foreknows will be secure in Him. Can a person forfeit their own salvation? It certainly sounds that way when you read 2 Peter 2:20-22. We should also take the warnings of Galatians 5:18-21 and Hebrews 2:1 seriously. But John says that those who permanently leave the Christian community were never a part of it to begin with (1 John 2:18-19). And Jesus will say I NEVER knew you (Matthew 7:21-23), not "I knew you at one time, but then you lost your salvation.

In other words, people who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and permanently fall away (Hebrews 6:4-6) were (from God's perspective) probably never true believers to begin with! And yet the true believers in Christ can experience security through the promises of God to keep us safe (John 10:27-30). But my experience tells me that we feel even more secure when we remain in Him (John 15:1-6).

I believe that all of the gifts of the Spirit are in operation today. But I also believe that there have been three main periods where supernatural miracles have been particularly prominent: 1. The time of the Exodus 2. The ministries of Elijah and Elisha 3. The ministry of Christ and the apostles. In each case, God was giving new revelation of Himself to His people. Hebrews 2:4 tells us that this is the primary purpose for supernatural miracles, to confirm the message that God is sharing with His people.

What about some of the hot potato issues of our day? We'll start with homosexual behavior. I believe it is an abomination, just like all other sins. Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1 are quite clear. Also, the word porneia (sexual immorality) in texts such as Mark 7:21 and 1 Corinthians 6:18 are intended to cover the gamut as far as sexual sin is concerned, including homosexual contact.

I think we are all born with baggage and obstacles that can only be overcome with God's help (Thanks a lot, Adam and Eve!) We are all in this together, and with the help of our loving God, we can experience victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57, Romans 7:24).

What about women pastors? This is where I am inconsistent. When I read 1 Timothy 2:8-15 and 1 Corinthians 14:33-36, I take this to mean that God's intention is for men to be the teaching pastors in the congregation. I know that my friend Dr. Ben Witherington has done outstanding work in this area, and He vigorously defends an interpretation of these texts that applies them to the first century patriarchal culture of the day. But the Timothy text in particular seems timeless to me.

Having said that, I know some awesome lady preachers! God seems to be blessing their ministries! And we do have the examples of women ministers in Acts 18 (Priscilla) and perhaps Phoebe in Romans 16:1 (though neither appears to be a senior pastor per se).

My personal belief is that the teaching pastor of a church is meant to be male. But I inwardly rejoice when God does great things through women pastors. And if my wonderful beautiful niece sensed a call from God to be a Bible teaching pastor, I would support her. So like I said, this is a doctrine I struggle with. My Bible says that a woman should not be the teaching shepherd of the church. But my heart says "Then why are You blessing Jill Briscoe and so many others?"

What about baptism? I think the Bible teaches believer's baptism. As soon as someone confesses Christ as Savior and Lord and is born again, they should be baptized as the first step of obedience to Him (Acts 2:41, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 16:31ff).

What about Holy Communion? I believe that the bread and the wine symbolize the body and blood of Christ. Christ is present in an inexpressibly special way through the administration of this sacrament (a sacrament is a sacred ceremony), but I do not believe that the bread and the wine are physical representations of the body and blood. When Jesus says "This is my body," He is using a metaphor. He means "This REPRESENTS my body. This is symbolic of my body."

Did I mention that I am a trinitarian? Just in case I forgot to mention it, I believe in the trinitarian conception of God, even though analogies fail to capture this awesome mystery (Matthew 28:19, 1 Corinthians 13:14).

Well, this is my creed. This is where I stand. Write me and let me know what you think. Love and God's blessings to all!
Marc

Getting Older

Every time I get sick, it reminds me that the body that God gave me is like a car. It runs good when it's young. But it wears out when it gets older. And the older it gets, the more you have to take it in for repairs.

I've had a sore chest for four months. After an EKG and a chest Xray (which were clear), I had an endoscopy, where they take a flexible tube with a camera, and they look down your throat all the way to your small intestine.

The doctor found moderate inflammation by the gastro-esophageal junction. They tested for cancer. Last weekend was one of the longest weekends of my life. But one thing that made me feel OK while I was waiting was knowing that I was living my life with no regrets. I spend time with Him every day in scripture and in prayer. I'm doing the work He's calling me to do. And I know that whether I live or die, I belong to the Lord (Romans 14:8).

The biopsy came back yesterday. I have a hiatal hernia with chronic esophagitis. But no cancer! I'm so happy! Not that I have esophagitis, but that I am cancer free! Thank you God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

And so now, I'm going to celebrate with a big juicy double cheeseburger and a large coca cola with steak fries. Just kidding. It's probably going to be leftovers. I'll pig out Friday night!

Egg Harbor, Wisconsin

I haven't checked in for a while. It is Easter Sunday, and we have just had a rousing worship service at Peace Church in NE Wisconsin. I preached on What Easter Means to Us Today. My text was Luke 24:36-49, and my message was that "Because of Christ's resurrection, forgiveness is available for everyone." The key word is "available" because even though it is available, you have repent of your sins to access God's offer of forgiveness.

I also stressed the universal nature of this offer - it is "to all nations." I felt that it went well.

Now, Jeanne and I are relaxing at one of our favorite relaxation spots in the whole world - the Bay Point Inn, an awesome little place overlooking Green Bay (on the peninsula of Wisconsin).

Tomorrow, I am sleeping in! For me, anything past 7am constitutes sleeping in. I'm usually up and about by 630am. I have breakfast, then it's 30 minutes on the treadmill, followed by an hour long quiet time.

Oh, by the way, I'm reading a terrific devotional book during my quiet times with God. It's called One Month to Live by Kerry and Teresa Shook. If you knew you only had a limited amount of time left on the earth, what would you change? What would you do different? What would become more important, and what would become less important? Wouldn't you want to make sure that you were right with God? Wouldn't you want to live a no regrets life for Him?

The truth is that we are all on God's clock. We all have a limited amount of life left on earth. So we should make this time count! We should focus on the things that are most important (prayer, Bible reading, spending time with family, spreading God's message of forgiveness and love in Christ, and enjoying this beautiful world He has made).

I also read scripture and pray and it's almost always a wonderful time.

My only wish: I wish it was WARMER! Wisconsin has had a very harsh winter - We've had LOTS of snow and sub zero temperatures. In fact, the thermometer hasn't hit 50 degrees in 130 days! I never used to believe in Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I do now! I'm itching to get back to going to the park and hiking through the woods and warmer temps.

Do We Really Have the Tomb of Jesus Christ?

1. It is hard to imagine how Christianity could have gotten started in Jerusalem if Jesus Christ was in a burial box. The Pharisees and priests could have just said, "Hey, there he is, right over there in that cave!"

2. How likely is it that a faith that believed and rooted itself in the resurrection of Jesus would at the same time be building a tomb for the body and bones of Jesus? How likely is it that they would be able to roll away the stone and steal the body from under the watchful eyes of the Roman government? And how likely is it that the disciples would be willing to suffer and die for a religion that they knew was a lie? The answer is that it is unlikely to the extreme.

3. What we have here is 1) a cave full of people with very common names, 2) a man whose DNA doesn’t match that of the woman buried with him, and 3) a tomb in the wrong part of the country to belong to Jesus’ family but in the right part of the country for the Pharisees and priests to turn up the body if it was really His.

4. These burial boxes were found in Jerusalem back in 1980. But the family of Jesus Christ is from the other side of the country! They’re from Nazareth! For this reason, the boxes were studied and shelved years ago, with the conclusion that they were not related in any way to the biblical characters.

5. This story is all about making waves and making money. It is ironic that the director of Titanic has jumped on board another sinking ship. And just like the Titanic, it is dead in the water.

6. The word of God is still the most reliable source for information about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is not here, He is risen, just as He said!

My Take on the Tulip - The Five Points of Calvinism

There are two common theological positions in evangelical theology: Calvinism and Arminianism. I want to highlight the beliefs of Calvinism and then explain why I come out as an evangelical Arminian.

The five teachings of Calvinism form an acrostic called T-U-L-I-P. The T stands for Total Depravity. Because Adam and Eve fell from grace in the Garden of Eden, we are totally depraved and lost in our sins apart from the grace of God. We have fallen and we cannot get up. The scriptures to support this teaching are Psalm 51:5, Romans 3:10-23, Galatians 3:22-25, and many others.

Although I do not think that we are as bad as we could be, I agree that we are depraved to the point where we cannot lift a hand or a foot toward our own salvation. Titus 3:5 says that "He saved us not because of righteous things we have done, but because of His mercy."

The second teaching of the T-U-L-I-P is Unconditional Election. This teaching says that before the creation of the world, God chose certain individuals out of the mass of humanity to be saved, and he passed by everyone else. These people are elected to salvation not because of their response to the gospel or because of their own efforts, but simply because of God's own purpose and sovereign grace. Calvinists appeal to Acts 13:48, Romans 8:29, and Romans 9:16, and 9:22-23 and Ephesians 1:3-14 to support this teaching.

I do not believe in unconditional election. I believe in CONDITIONAL election. Number one: I believe that God chose Christ to be the Savior of the world (Luke 23:35, Hebrews 1:2). Secondly, I would say that before the creation of the world, God looked into the future and He saw the people who would repent and turn to Christ for salvation, and these are the ones who have been chosen for eternal life. 1 Peter 1:2 talks about those "who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God," and Romans 8:29 says that "Those He foreknew, He predestined."

In other words, God looked into the future and saw that on September 13th, 1985, Marc Axelrod would get down on his knees in his dormitory room, and acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord of God's people. Based on this foreknowledge, God made the decision to elect me to salvation.

You may want to ask me at this point, "How can we repent and turn to Christ for salvation if we are totally depraved?" The answer is that God gives us the grace to respond. Jesus says in John 6:44 says that "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him." I believe that God draws the depraved sinner to Himself so that He can respond to the gospel. Ephesians 2:4-5 says that "He made us alive in Christ while we were dead in our trespasses."

Another problem I have with the second point of Calvinism is that it makes God appear insincere. God says in 1 Timothy 2:4 that He wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. But how can this be a sincere offer if God has arbitrarily decided to pass by millions of people? It doesn't make sense! But it does make sense if people are chosen based on how they would respond to the gospel. In other words, conditional predestination makes more sense than unconditional predestination.

The third teaching of the Calvinist T-U-L-I-P is Limited Atonement. Since only a certain number of people have been chosen for salvation, Jesus died only for these chosen people, not for the whole world.

But this teaching flies against the Bible verses that teach that Jesus tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9), and that He died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2, John 3:16).
I would say that the death of Christ is universal in its scope. It is SUFFICIENT for everyone, but EFFICIENT only for those who repent of their sins and trust in Christ for their salvation.

The fourth point of the Calvinist T-U-L-I-P is Irresistible Grace. Since Jesus died only for a certain number of chosen people, these people will not want to resist the grace of God, indeed, when the time comes, they WON'T be able to resist it.

I would say that anyone who has heard the gospel but has not accepted it is currently resisting the grace of God. Eventually, those who are predestined will come to a place in their lives where they stop resisting. You may have a cousin or a son who resisted the grace of God for years, but got to a point in life where they realized their need for God and their need for the church. I think about the apostle Paul in Acts 9, who resisted Christianity furiously until he had a personal encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Many others can give a testimony of how they resisted the Holy Spirit for years until they came to an hour when they realized their great need for the Savior (Augustine, John Wesley, etc).

The fifth point of the Calvinist T-U-L-I-P is the Perseverance of the Saints. Those who are unconditionally chosen to salvation and respond to the grace of God will persevere in their faith. In other words, they will hold on to their salvation without losing it.

It is not crystal clear what Jacob Arminius thought on this issue, but a good case can be made for it. Philippians 1:6 says that "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Furthermore, John 10:28 says that "I give them eternal life and they will never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand." What we have here is not so much the perseverance of the saints as it is the PRESERVATION of the saints. God preserves His people and delivers them safely into His heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18).

Now I realize that there are many warnings in Scripture aimed at those who do not live for the Lord the way they ought to be living. Galatians 5:21 warns that these people will not inherit the kingdom of God, and many similar warnings can be found in John 15:1-6, Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:26-29, 2 Peter 2:20-22, and 3:17, and in many other places. I take these warnings very seriously, and so I strive to work out what God is working within my life.

Nevertheless, I believe that those who truly repent of their sins and trust Christ as their Savior will endure to the end (Matthew 24:10-13). Those who don't will be told "I never knew you (Matthew 7:21-23, 1 John 2:18-19)," not "I knew you at one time, and now you are lost again." I am not rock solid one way or the other, but I think a person can believe in the preservation of the saints while taking seriously the warnings of Scripture about falling away.

When all is said and done, even though I find some things in the Calvinist system that I admire and agree with, I would have to say that I am a moderately conservative evangelical Arminian Christian. Arminians like to emphasize the goodness and grace of God. They teach that God wants everyone to be saved, but that man, in response to the prevenient grace of God, must accept the gospel message and believe in Christ for him or herself.