Artists Are Weird

Artist tend to be weird. So do musicians and writers. Eccentric, peculiar, strange. If a man plays death metal, he has to be insane. If a woman writes horror, she'd screwed in the head. If they paint alien landscapes, they are warped. You know how it is. The art reflects the heart. And to some extent I think that's true. Is Stephen King okay in the membrane? Was H.R. Giger normal? Surely the guys in Canibal Corpse are disturbed. Whatever is inside the soul makes its way out through the pen, the paint brush, the voice.
But I'm not complaining.
Let us look at some modern art, shall we? Weird modern art that you make you gape in wonder or shrivel in terror:

Zdzislaw Beksinski was a Polish painter. Was because he got stabbed 17 times in 2005 by the teenaged son of his friend. What a way to go at 75! He left behind a large body of work, none of which could be sold as wall décor at Walmart:

I think he waited to long for the groundhog.

Joel Osteen's new church.

Dr. Manhattan?

This gravedigger did a half-cocked job. Bum. This last piece was used as an album cover for metal band Antestor. I can't explain all the fingers:

Speaking of metal bands, Dan Seagrave does plenty of album covers for the death metal genre. From Morbid Angel to Demon Hunter, he is in demand. He lives in Canada, but grew up in England. He hasn't been stabbed yet, but maybe he'd paint it for you:

That's the Demon Hunter logo in the center. The Crystal Cathedral?

A bad experience in a McDonald's bathroom.

Cool.

 

Krypton on crack?

 

 

 

Isn't this an R.E.M. song? Shiny Happy People? Dan is a self-taught artist, which means he is awesome. I wish I was half as good!

Lastly, Marc Cooper of Mind Rape Art paints some whacked-out stuff. Nightmare-induced landscapes and abysmal humanoids populate his art. Go and see:

What the hell is that? What was going on inside his head? Now look at this:

That is the cover to Rings Of Saturn second album. Death metal bands have the best album covers. Imagine if Lionel Richie had a cover like this:

Oh, what a feelin', when we're dancin' on the ceiling! Can you see it?

Maybe Barry Manilow  will use this one. I'm amazed at this guy's art. Sure it's weird, but wow, he's good! There are countless more pieces, but this blog may never load if I jam it up with too many images.

So there you have it: Art by apparently disturbed members of our society. However, these guys aren't eccentric in person. They seem to be normal. Beksinski was said to be pleasant with a sense of humor. But, is art a window into the heart? If so, what's in that window?

 

Christians Who Failed

Every Christian screws up. None of them are perfect, even if some think they are. But when a big-name Christian falls, it really hurts the church. Christians look bad, look like hypocrites, and their message loses its power. It causes scandal, which some drink up like fine wine. Let us look at a few modern brothers who really messed it up.

Tim Lambesis

 

 

This guy was the vocalist to metal band As I Lay Dying. These guys rocked, man. Ever heard "Nothing Left"? Go listen to it now. They were a Christian band at one point and did pretty well for themselves. But Tim fell away from the faith, got into bodybuilding and steroids, listened to godless philosophy, had an affair, and finally tried to hire a guy to murder his wife. Fortunately it didn't happen, as the killer-for-hire was an undercover officer.

 

Tim had it goin' on until he got self-absorbed and had the bright idea to off his estranged wife. Now he's in prison and probably won't ever see his three adopted children again. His bandmates went on to form another band, Wovenwar. Hopefully Tim is using his time now to repent and return to his Lord.

Ted Haggard

 

 

Pastor of New Life Church in Colorado, Ted looked like a fine man with a fine family and fine ministry. Big church, big pay, big-selling books, big speaker. He had great ideas for ministry, too. The typical "he's got it all going on" thing. He did indeed have it all going on, with a guy named Mike Jones in a hotel room! Oops! Sorry, Gayle, I just couldn't keep my hands off that hairy man. This while preaching against gay marriage.

 

 



 

Ted lost his church, but not his wife. Miraculously, she stayed. She took her vow seriously. They  started a new church in their barn, and have since moved to a bigger, nicer smelling place. Ted said he has repented, but only God knows for sure. I hope so.

 

 

Bob Coy

 

 

Pastor of mega-mega church Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, Bob really brought 'em in. Scores of people got saved there every week. A huge campus was built. Radio ministry. T.V. show. Popularity.  And all the while cheating on his wife. It's not widely known just how long he was having affairs, but it sounds like years.

 

And he was teaching the Bible! Effectively! At multiple show times! I mean services. How did he do it? You would think he would feel guilty and not be able to pastor effectively, but such was not the case. He did seem full of himself though, having gone there myself for a few years. He would dialogue with himself, which was pretty entertaining. Hence the big crowds. (I'm not sure church and entertainment are supposed to go together. . .)
I don't know what's going on with Bob right now. I hear he is living apart from his wife and getting some counseling. All hush-hush, I guess. Nothing wrong with privacy.

All three of these men had the same problem: They took their eyes off their Lord. They focused on themselves, and fell hard. It can happen to anyone. You. Me. The pastor. The president. Don't judge too harshly; you could be next. Sin strikes anytime it can. But thankfully the price has been paid:

God is in the business of redemption. That's what He does. He can heal anybody, He can save anybody. And he can restore a penitent man.
He loves to do that.

 

 

 





Will You Believe The Lie?

Many people believe we are living in the last days. They point to nuclear proliferation, terrorism, rampant immorality, economic chaos, pandemic diseases, and Lady Gaga as examples. "How much longer can we last as a species?" they ask. Good question that no one has the answer to.

But a sign of the end, at least in Biblical terms, is a great deception that many people will willingly believe. Read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. This is the "man of sin" passage. After Paul describes this man, he goes on to say that his appearing will be accompanied by counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders. We saw before how Satan can reproduce God's miracles to a certain degree. These lying wonders are meant to deceive those "who are perishing". Here are the next few verses:
  "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness."

Simply put, God will send a delusion to people who want to believe the delusion. He will give them what they want. They will refuse the truth, and choose to believe this lie even if it damns them.
But what is this "lie"?
Paul does not say what it is, so I will speculate based on what I see going on in the world.

• Alien take-over
• Atheism
• Ecumenical religion

There's that alien thing again! It keeps popping up. The belief that aliens are responsible for major shifts in our history is growing. As is the general belief in UFOs and abductions. Are we getting prepared for something big? Possibly the "lie" will be a global belief in aliens after some kind of disclosure or even an "appearing".

"Jesus was one of us". "It was us who parted the Red Sea". "Where do you think your technology came from?" People will believe them and worship them. That great question will finally be answered!
"Where do we come from?"
From E.T.!

Number 2: Atheism. This philosophy is spreading like wildfire. Just go on the Internet and you will see some serious negativity directed toward religion, especially Christianity. Atheist scientists like to point out how our universe didn't need a designer or a beginner, thus eliminating God from the picture. They try to evangelize the masses with their message, but the big problem they have is that people want to believe in God. Atheism looks to be trying to turn itself into a religion, which may help it's cause, since it gives a person something to believe in. Even if it's nothing.

As we unlock more and more mysteries of the created order, we may find we don't need God anymore. This is the atheist's greatest weapon.

Number 3: Ecumenism. This is the syncretizing of all religions. "All roads lead to God." If someone could fuse together the great religions of the world we would all be better off. There is a huge movement for this, especially from the Vatican.

Yeah, I know it's not the current Pope but it's a cool pose. I bring him up because they're an easy target. His followers won't blow me up. (I'm glad Catholics have a sense of humor!) But really, the coming of the man of sin, who sets himself up as God, is in accordance with counterfeit miracles and the delusion that follows. Perhaps Paul was referring to the coming Papacy and all the miracles that flowed from Catholicism (stigmata, saints performing miracles, etc.). Maybe the alien disclosure will come from the Vatican! Supposedly they have been preparing for their arrival for years.

Ken Ham believes "The Lie" is a great book title. I mean, he believes "the lie" is evolution. I don't think evolution is going to make people abandon God, since a lot of folk just combine the two. Sorry, Ken, but you can believe in both and still go to Heaven!

So what does that leave us with? What lie could deceive the whole world? How about this: The lie that God isn't watching. That He's impotent, aloof, uncaring. We all believe this already. We behave as if He isn't there, as if He isn't keeping an account. And that is the biggest deception of all, for we go on building our lives on sand without any concern that a storm may come and blow us all away. We are constructing a new Tower of Babel while shoving God out of the way so we can deify ourselves. In effect, we are saying "We don't need you anymore."

 

Who Wants To Go To Hell?

"Hell ain't a bad place,
 Hell is from here to eternity!"

- Iron Maiden

Bruce got it wrong. Hell is a bad place. "Prove it!" you say. I can't. I don't have any Hell-rocks. But I believe what the Bible says, that it is a real place. A place for the unrighteous, the unrepentant, the unholy. A place of everlasting suffering.
But what is it really, and why do people go there?

That looks painful. The Bible says that Hell was "created for the Devil and his angels". When the time comes, that is where they will go. They aren't there yet! Not all of them anyway. Some are indeed locked up in darkness somewhere, but that is another story. Hell predates the creation of mankind. I know, you could say the concept was created by the Egyptians or Greeks and then passed down to the Jews who incorporated it into their theology, but the Jews didn't talk about it much. Not until Jesus showed up. Isn't it possible, though, that the first man knew about Hell and passed the knowledge down to everyone else after that? That the idea originated with God, not man?

Like I said above, it can't be proven. It has to be believed on in faith. So from a Christian perspective, is Hell a place of eternal torment in a lake of fire, or is that figurative language to describe a horrible place? I think it's both. Revelation talks about the "lake of fire and burning sulfur", but the book is symbolic. "Fire" can mean cleansing or destruction. In this case, destruction. Hell isn't meant to clean anyone up. It isn't annihilation, either, but eternal torment.

This a film maker's idea of eternal torment. "Torment" in some people's minds means hooks, chains, demonic torture, blood, dismemberment. Remember, though, that the demons will be suffering too, and not torturing anybody!

Dante had the Devil in a frozen lake at the center of Hell. Some have described it as having many levels, with varying degrees of torment. I think Mary K. Baxter as well as Clive Barker read Milton and Dante when they were kids. Baxter wrote that book about how Jesus took her on a tour of Hell so she could tell the world about it. As if the Bible wasn't enough. Jesus Himself told a parable about the rich man and the beggar, how the rich man went to his place in torment, which was a place of flames. The Old Testament talked about Sheol, where the "shades" are.

Constantine showed Hell as a blasted-out city. This one was particularly unnerving for me for some reason. Imagine a place with no reprieve from the heat. . .

Then there is the painting above, which is downright weird. A "vision of Hell", by a Polish artist named Zdzistaw Beksinski. Everyone has their own idea. But George Foreman's vision is most interesting of all. He said he died and went to a place that was dark and lonely, a place absent of light and feeling. God was not there. And that, my friends, is what Hell really is. Eternal separation from God.
Whether or not it is literal flame or metaphorical flame is not important. What is important is that it's a real place, and you don't want to go there. Or do you? If a person wants nothing to do with God here, why would they want to be with Him forever in Heaven?

Why do people go to Hell anyway? Sin, plain and simple. Sin lands a person in Hell. See, sin demands judgment. If it is not atoned for, there is punishment. In Christian theology, Christ paid for the sins of those who believe and they are then considered "righteous". Not because they are good, but because Jesus bought them at the price of His own death. The reward is eternal life. All you have to do is follow Jesus and believe what He said. R.C. Sproul put it this way, badly paraphrased: Pygmies in Africa don't go to Hell because they never heard the Gospel of Jesus, they go to Hell because are sinners. Sin, that rebellion towards God, is what damns us. Not a lack of hearing. Jesus saves because He wants to, but He's not obligated to do so. We are eternal beings, and there is an eternal reward for us, destruction or life.

Hell, it would appear, is a perpetual state of wickedness. There will be no parties, and no reprieve from whatever torment is assigned. The Bible hints at people being "stuck" in their sin even after death. It is a place of utter, continuing ruin. No relief from the addictions, no peace, no grace, no forgiveness. Just anguish.

Does anyone really want to go there?

GALACTUS!

Deep in the primordial past, before our universe began, lived a man named Galen. He dwelled in a place called Taa, one of the last planets left in the shrinking universe. Galen had a plan to survive the Big Crunch, which he implemented with success. He flew through the implosion of his universe and out into our own Big Bang. He incubated for a billion years and became the most feared being in the Marvel Universe:
GALACTUS!

Man, I love Galactus. When I was a kid, I first read about him in the Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe, under the entry for Silver Surfer. This was the 'S' volume, so there were no pictures of him. I just imagined some gigantic being who had a mouth big enough to eat planets! Being the World-Eater and all. Some time later I picked up Fantastic Four #262, the one where Reed Richards was on trial for saving Galactus's life. There I saw his big purple and blue self, and found a new character to adore. Anybody remember that story?

This was after Reed couldn't let Big G die from hunger. Reed saved him, but Galactus went on to devour the Skrull's Throneworld. They weren't happy about that. . .

Next I saw Galactus in Rom, where Rom tricked Galactus into leaving Galador and going after the Dire Wraiths world. It didn't work out. The Wraiths were some sick freaks.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came up with the idea of a God-like being and his fallen angel-like emissary, the Silver Surfer. Galactus needed to devour the life energies from planets to survive. He first encountered the Fantastic Four, naturally, and was driven away by something called the Ultimate Nullifier. You know you're cool when something named the Ultimate Nullifier is used against you!
Bam!

Next came Secret Wars. 1984, that is. The first one. All the villains are gathered together, waiting for the Beyonder. Well, Ultron was there, and he was a egotistical psycho. He bumped into Galactus and got all uppity. Not good. Ultron is powerful, but. . . take a look.

And then:

Snuffed him like a candle! So much for the clown who's going to give the Avengers so much trouble in a few months. Big G only had to lift a finger.
Some time before this, Galactus was searched out by Reed Richards to help battle the Sphinx, a powerful being who had the Ka Stone. The what? Yeah, I forgot about him, too. Galactus got in a hand-to-hand fight, which is the real reason people read super hero comics:

Galactus smacked him down, too, and broke his Ka Stone. There is just something cool about cosmic beings, isn't there? Eternity, The Living Tribunal, the In-betweener, Celestials. . .but Galactus is coolest of all. The Devourer of Worlds and master of the Silver Surfer. And Tyrant. And Morg. And Nova, Firelord, Air Walker, and Terrax the Tamer.
Yeah, good stuff.

Galactus withstood Darkseid's Omega Beams once. Took 'em full blast and didn't blink. Faded, maybe, but didn't flinch. Then Galactus blasted him:

This was a good one. I bought two. Galactus tried to eat Apokolips, but to his surprise he couldn't. Darkseid laughed in his face and told him it was a dead planet. Galactus should've stepped on him, but he just left. Even he couldn't believe Darkseid would let his people live like that!

I'm sure Galactus has ben beat by lots of people since I last read about him, much like how Spiderman gets killed in every What If? comic. Or beat up, or crucified (Kulan Gath, anyone?). But in my youth, Galactus was a treat to look forward to, an unbeatable force of nature that made any comic a whole lot better. I leave you with a cool image from my Pinterest page, by a guy I've never heard of. I'm too lazy to look him up, so you do it for me:

Cool, huh?

 

Why, God, Why?

Why does God allow good people to suffer? Well, why not? He is not our genie that we can pull out of a bottle any time we want. We answer to Him, not the other way around. But still, why? Why doesn't He step in and save abused children, or free slaves, or stop wars? Or for that matter, heal diseases, raise the dead, fix the economy, win me the lotto, make my bed, feed me?
Why doesn't He do what we tell Him to?

Because He's God, and we're not.
I know, that doesn't answer the question. I will try to answer it here, to the best of my layman's ability. I think it has to do with dominion and free will. Free will says we can do what we want, even if others suffer for it. You, me, the other guy, we can do whatever we want. Rape, murder, lies, theft, negligence, etc. Dominion has to do with our responsibility over the earth.
Let me explain.

God gave Adam, and therefore all mankind, dominion over the earth. We rule. We rule over the land, the sea, and the sky and everything in it. Thus, we are responsible for it. As a race, we are collectively held accountable for what goes on here. When Adam sinned, he passed that propensity on to us. We now sin too. So, as collective sinners, we reap what we sow collectively. The world is cursed because of our sin.

We left the Garden long ago. "The wages of sin is death", and that goes for babies, children, and adults, good or bad. We can't look at child slavery and hang that in God's closet as if He did it. The evil offender did. And God lets him sin just as much as He lets you sin. And we can't blame God for the disaster that kills innocent people. We are to blame.

"But, we didn't cause the earthquake!" No, but our collective sin did. So we pay the price as a group. One man's sin is another man's death.
Look, God does help people all the time. Ever escape death by a millisecond? Or somebody gave you money just when you needed it? A kidnapping got foiled? Yes, He is there. But some people get it bad, don't they? Why? I don't know. Trust the He knows what He's doing. He is indeed wiser than us.

My youngest daughter died almost fifteen years ago. I could have raged against God and blamed Him for not saving her. But I didn't. I couldn't. I trust Him. It's the way of the cursed world. Good did come out of the bad, which He promises to do for those who love Him.
I'd love it if some angels showed up and killed human traffickers. Or if a plague melted them where they stood. But God left it up to us to find them and put them away. To punish the men who do it and their customers. It's our world and it's our responsibility to govern it. In the end, we will all be judged and get what's coming to us!

Sin is that hated word that's attributed to Inquisitors and Bible-thumpers. But it is what makes the world go around. This story has to play itself out in God's time, for God's reasons. I don't understand it much, but I trust Him. I would like to believe that we will have a better world, like in Star Trek, but my Bible tells me different. Do you really think we can make a better world? It's only getting worse as the population rises. More people, more sin! And more suffering to go along with it.

God could feed starving people. But so can we. He gave some people the means to alleviate others suffering. Is it His duty to make everyone do what they're supposed to? I don't think so. Remember, we were given dominion here, and we are to exercise it wisely. Somebody go feed that kid!

So I urge you all, to trust God today and believe He is good, despite what you see. That, my friends, is called faith. And faith is what pleases God.