Where There is Light, Darkness Cannot Be

By:  Brandon James Scott Scholl 

The bible says in 1 John 1:5 that where there is light, darkness cannot be.  Within that paragraph where that verse, it explains that in the instance of light and darkness, it's talking about Christ and Satan.

   With that thought of Christ being light and Satan being darkness, this got me thinking about two things in particular.  The first, and the smaller of the two thoughts, is without light, darkness is abundant, which I'll explain in a moment.  The other thought is, if you're possessed or were possessed and then later in life went to church and went through being saved, does the fact you were possessed previously mean that you won't end up in Heaven?  That I'll go into more detail next to explain what I mean.

   Now, it isn't like darkness is a complete entity like light is.  Darkness is a primary thing unless there's a light in place, turning darkness away and light taking over that particular place.  In this case, that would have to do with Christ being within the heart of a man or woman who are saved and born again.  Now, with that, it makes me think back to the Fall in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve eat the fruit off the tree of knowledge, and God casts them out of the Garden.  That's when God curses both Man and Woman and man's inherently sinful nature starts throughout the Human race.  With following this thought a little further, it would show that when the bible talks about Christ being the light and Satan and sin being the opposite of what Christ stands for, it would be confirmed that regardless of age or lifestyle, that darkness dwells in you unless you're saved as a Christian.

   This thought may make people uncomfortable if they open their mind up to the complete list of scenarios that this would be applied to.  Whether you're talking about a grandparent that was the best grandparent in all of history and led a life full of giving and charity, then dying.  If there was no light within that person's heart or soul as a result of accepting Christ, that would mean they wouldn't be going to heaven.  Or, the other end of the spectrum, and I know this is the type of thought that people get up in arms about and don't ever want to even think about, but the same would go for a baby that was born and died within it's infancy.  Babies are innocent and may not have even had a chance to choose between making a right or wrong decision.  However, that doesn't change the Word of God simply to make us feel better to sleep at night.

   Think about it.  As a child grows, you don't have to teach them how to steal, cheat, or be violent.  That's all part of human nature.  In fact, you have to teach them the opposite and stop that behavior from being primary.  That's an example of darkness being the state of the soul due to not having the light that is Christ within it.

I went and listened to a guest speaker one night at Northwest Nazarene University here in Idaho.  My girlfriend is now a senior there and she had to listen to the speaker for one of her classes at the time.  While the speaker was talking, he told the audience about what it's like coming from a native american background and becoming saved and fighting with the side of himself that was raised around sweat lodges, and praying to various gods and sacrifices of various sorts.  As he continued, he explained about how he wanted to be educated and no more about the Bible and then go and teach young Native Americans that were in a situation like his and were saved or even simply curious about his beliefs.  He went on about how, when reading the Bible, we shouldn't be reading it within a scope or parameters of what we THINK it should say or mean, but have the Bible and God's Word itself tell us in it's completeness how to live and believe.  RIGHT after he said that, he said that he believes that when an infant or child dies, they automatically go to heaven.  He didn't have a reason as to why this was a correct belief and said they were 100% sure that they would eventually find the scriptures to back up their belief on that.

This is the type of people out there nowadays that believe what they want and take only parts of the Bible that THEY decide, and simply ignore the parts they don't agree with or feel uncomfortable with and simply blame it on the Bible being translated so many times or that it was so long ago that it can't be confirmed that something was ever said or done contrary to their beliefs.

Honestly, there are things I read in the Bible that I wish I didn't even know existed or that I have come across while reading.  But, that doesn't change the fact the Bible says what it does and supports itself by saying that it's God breathed and His words don't come back void.  So, the next time you read something in the Bible that makes you uncomfortable or you don't want to be true, do your research on the matter and see what other scriptures say.  Don't put a set of parameters on the Bible when you read it, but let it put parameters on how you're to live your life and conduct yourself as a man or woman of God.

Supernatural or a Lack of Understanding?

By: Brandon James Scott Scholl

If you have read some of my posts on this blog, you may have noticed that I like to research and question things. Well, this one isn't any different.

I was having a conversation with my mother a few days ago and we were talking about Schizophrenics. To be more specific, we were talking about people with multiple personality disorder. I've heard of situations where someone with multiple personality disorder can have a personality manifest that changes the outward appearance of an individual so much that it actually changes things like eye color or even different health diagnosis such as asthma.

As the conversation continued, my mom told me she believed that it must be people who are possessed. Honestly, I have heard this explanation for not only this topic, but other disorders such as paranoia and people who are bi-polar. Many Christians that I've talked to told me that this is the reason why there are bi-polar people and schizophrenics in the world. It's simply a result from the Fall in the Garden of Eden. But, I'm not convinced.

See, I don't disagree that there are, in fact, situations where people can be possessed and the side effects can mimic multiple personality disorders. But, I think there's more to why people automatically jump to the conclusion of possession with these medical and mental diagnoses. I, personally, believe that possession is something that still happens today. The volume of it happening, however, I"m not exactly sure. I wouldn't claim it's on the rise or it's a high number.

Now, I think the reason why so many Christians jump to the explanation of possession in these situations is because of a lack of understanding of something that is considered unknown. I would relate it to how people used to view fire or other technological advancements as magic or wizardry. I'm sure if you were to take something like a cell phone or perhaps a motorized vehicle back a couple centuries, people would consider you to be casting spells. I relate this situation to the immediate response of possession to multiple personalities and other disorders that we just simply don't understand.

The brain is something that is so powerful and little is known about it. It releases chemicals in certain situations, makes us brilliant or not so intelligent, controls our breathing, makes different parts of our bodies move at different times such as walking or me currently typing this on the computer. I heard of a man who was diagnosed with cancer. He had always heard that laughter was the best medicine so he locked himself in a room and watched all the Three Stooges movies. After doing this, he had cured himself. My question is, how in the world does that work? Obviously there's also a chemical composition involved that the brain released to do this, but what in the brain causes this response in this situation?

So, perhaps the next time you consider something to simply have a supernatural answer because you don't understand it, consider it may be the result of something you simply don't understand. I'm not saying that most things can be explained away because they seem supernatural but aren't. I strongly believe in miracles, possessions, situations, cures, even things that aren't physically or in any way possible to be supernatural. However, I don't think that ALL things that we can't wrap our head around is a supernatural situation. Just something to think about.

Personal Convictions

By: Brandon James Scott Scholl

I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine about drinking alcohol. Now, as of this moment, he and I are both underage and haven't drank before. However, I won't mind having a drink when I"m older just not with the intent to ever get drunk. He, however, prefers to stay away from most forms of alcohol. Perhaps maybe a glass of wine every blue moon when he's married, but nothing really beyond that. His reason? Because he's crazy and weird enough that he doesn't need anything to alter him.

Now, I don't disagree with him on this at all. In fact, it's a different reason than what I'm used to. This friend of mine wasn't raised as to be afraid of alcohol either. As we continued talking about all of this though, it changed the subject to people and their personal convictions.

A personal conviction, in my own words, is something that perhaps God has or is working on you in your walk of life. An example of this would be something like the type of music that you might listen to. Some people may not have a problem listening to all genres of music while someone else may feel convicted that listening to rap music isn't in their best interest or it simply is just something they shouldn't be around.

In different situations I've dealt with, there are people who believe that a personal conviction that God may be working on within themselves should be preached and pushed on other people as a universal conviction. An example of this is when the person who feels convicted listening to any form of rap music tells all the people they are around that rap music is, let's say, the work of Satan. I have actually worked with people who have told me Rap music as well as loud Rock music has a negative force and undertone in it that is a spiritual attack and we, as Christians, shouldn't take part and listen to it. Perhaps I may consider myself to be a rebel, but I don't see things in this way or even agree with this claim.

See, one of the MANY problems I've seen Christianity start to run into is the belief that we should be the police for every other person that claims to be a Christian. Granted, we are supposed to be able to hold other Brothers and Sisters accountable. However, that doesn't mean that every aspect of our person Christian walk should be explained and applied to everyone. In my experiences, I have been told from numerous people things like "Rock and Rap music are the tools of the Devil", "Psychology and Sociology are wrong because it takes God out of the equation of life", or my personal favorite "Debating about Doctrine and Theology is unbiblical, wrong, and that's what the Enemy simply wants us to do. Instead, we should just simply love and embrace each other because that's what Jesus wants us to do."

To be fair, there are some beliefs that are universal. Things such as,

“You shall have no other gods before Me." ~Exodus 20:3

"You shall not murder." ~Exodus 20:13

It scares me how close minded some Christians can be to these things simply because they can't understand the difference between personal and universal Biblical convictions. It actually is quite sad that it has turned into this type of lifestyle. I mean, people used to do their research and not take people's word on things that they believed. Not because they didn't necessarily trust Pastor So and so, but because they made a point to read their Bible and learn how to apply these doctrines to their life.

So, when you're talking to a Brother or Sister in Christ, or maybe you're talking with friends who perhaps aren't Christians, think about what you're talking about with them. Is what you're talking about a personal or a universal Biblical conviction?

New Videos

New YouTube channel set up. I'll be doing more videos on topics than writing for a while because it's easier to watch than to read necessarily. Leave comments and tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/user/COSM5000

A Saturday Night Atheist Debate

~Brandon James Scott Scholl

I went to a debate between Christian Apologist Matt Slick and L.A. Lawyer and Atheist Edward Tabash at BSU. The debate was extremely interesting and quite enjoyable as well. There were lots of things, however, that didn’t seem to make sense to me at all. When Mr. Tabash was talking he explained that a God couldn’t exist because he/she/it would have to have a brain with synapses and such. His defense for this position was science. Science was basically the entire defense for his side of the debate. Anyways, what I didn’t understand is science as we know it, in some areas, is basically from our observation of something. I don’t believe that you can say that a God can’t exist because it wouldn’t have a brain and therefore it can’t think and claim science backs you up because science, in this case, is a perspective of what we observe. I hope that makes sense. Another thing that I’ve noticed with various Atheists that I’ve talked to and from debates as well is they find a way to use emotion in their debate to sway the audience. For example, Mr. Tabash said that God cannot exist because if He was a good God then He wouldn’t allow suffering and why would a good God allow for his grandmother to have been abused in a Nazi concentration camp. This was something that was brought up quite a bit in his debate. The debate was not on historical issues at all. Granted, it’s sad that happened to his grandmother but why bring it up in the first place? We, as Christians, can say that the Nazi concentration camps and slaughter was a horrible event but we have a moral basis, the bible, to make that call. Atheists get their morals from licking their fingers and sticking them up in the air to see which way the winds are blowing that day. How can they claim that the Nazi camps or anything is bad without a moral basis? Secondly, just to clarify, the debate was on whether or not God exists. Also, in the middle of the argument Mr. Tabash machine gunned questions at Matt and Matt did answer as many of the questions as he could. Some were not relevent to the debate but he answered them anyways. In the closing arguments Mr. Tabash proceeded to point out every question that was shot at him earlier that wasn’t answered. His closing argument should have encompassed what he said in the debate. Therefore, I believe that the atheist lost the debate.

Religous Thought & Schooling

~Brandon James Scott Scholl

Consider this: Amateurs built the Ark, professionals built the Titanic.

There are all sorts of things that you can get out of this statement. It could be saying that you may think you know everything but without God you won’t succeed. How about without God you sink. Something to definitely to think about.

This week has been quite crazy so far. The person who came up with the original saying that life was like a roller coaster should be given a national holiday. On Monday I was to turn in a character analysis on someone from the Canterberry Tales by Chaucer. When we went over the characters last week in class there was a specific character that came up and was claimed to be a pure character. The more I looked at the story and his character points from the story I realized that he wasn’t even near pure in any way shape or form. Various students in my class including my teacher (who I hope is reading this and rolling her eyes :D) told me that there was nothing wrong with the guy and that I should do my character analysis on this person and prove that he was corrupt. That weekend I wrote up a paper about the character’s personality profile, ESFJ. It wasn’t that hard for me to work with that because the more I read the character’s profile the more I realized that I was also an ESFJ. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing that I’m an ESFJ but that’s not the point. Once the teacher read the paper she explained that numerous people have tried this before and failed and that I was the first person to prove this successfully. It was quite a lot of fun not only to do the assignment but to hear that kind of feedback. However, it’s extremely difficult to personality profile a fictional character from a story just from a few paragraphs.

Hopefully by next semester of school I will be enrolled in three different schools. I’m currently enrolled with iSucceed and I’m taking college courses through University of Phoenix. However, it’s a challenge to take a speech and debate class through text or through the internet. I believe that body language and facial expressions as well as tone of voice are things that you need to be successful in learning something like that so I’m attempting to get in with one of the local highs schools to take this class. Because of my previous experience in public school I believe there will be a few outcomes. I’ll either: A. Get kicked out because I’m confrontational and religious, B. Everyone will enjoy me and it’ll be a great experience, or C. it won’t be either way because the students and the teacher honestly just won’t care or take the class seriously. I’m definitely hoping that the third outcome isn’t what happens. I’m totally fine with the first or second one happening. If this all works out I’ll be taking two-three classes through University of Phoenix, a full class load through iSucceed, and at least one class at one of the high schools in my area. It may seem like a lot but I’m going to enjoy every single class because each one has an aspect that I can use throughout that’ll make things enjoyable, interesting, and just plain unforgettable for anyone that is willing to work with me. That may come off as cocky or just plain mean but if we don’t find a way to entertain ourselves while doing school then what’s the point in the first place and what separates me from everyone else that goes to school looking like a mindless zombie?