P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

FOOLING WITH THE STRIKE ZONE

Frequent fliers were UP IN ARMS. Do you know why?

In early 1995 most of the major carriers CHANGED the rules. It used to be that it took 20,000 miles to earn a free domestic ticket. Well, in January of 1995 that figure arbitrarily went up to 25,000 for just about everybody. It didn't matter how many you had previously saved up; it didn't matter what your travel plans were; it didn't matter what the brochure had promised when you first signed on as a medallion member or whatever. Effective on such-and-such a date, it was going to be 25, not 20. If you didn't like it you could just walk to where you were going.

Changing the rules is a very difficult thing to accept. Back in the 1970s, Oakland A's baseball owner Charles Finley was described as an "innovator." (Some adjectives weren't quite so charitable.) He wanted to try orange baseballs instead of white. He wanted aluminum bats. He even wanted to change some of the rules of the game in order to make things more interesting.

Well, people listened politely; after all, the A's had won three world titles in a row. But all sorts of turmoil broke loose when Finley suggested changing it to three balls for a walk and only TWO strikes for a strikeout.

A strikeout with only two strikes! That was heresy. The game had never been played that way. Plus think of all the changes that would have to be made. Announcers would describe a hitter as being "in a hole 0-and-1." Two balls and one strike would be a full count. Worst of all, the words to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" would have to be changed to "For it's one - TWO strikes you're out at the old ballgame."

We've been saying this week that baseball players and frequent fliers and, really, ALL of us are hungry for something in life that's unchanging. We're searching for constancy, for consistency. The late baseball umpire Ron Luciano, author of the book The Umpire Strikes Back, describes how after calling 10,000 ball-and-strike calls behind the plate, most umpires really DO know what they're doing. In fact, as he described it, if that ball came in at 90 miles an hour and passed through that predetermined strike-zone "window," his right arm would indicate a strike even without him having to think about it. A strike is a strike is a strike, and year after year, players for both teams could step up to the plate and know that the same kinds of pitches would be called strikes no matter what inning it was or who was playing or what city they were in or how hot it was outside or how tight the pennant race was. And that was GOOD for the game of baseball.

As we've been studying together in our Bibles this week, our GOD is an unchanging God. He's always the same; in the Old and New Testaments and here in 2004, God is God.

His plan of salvation is exactly what it's always been. John 3:16 has always been the full and complete description of the heavenly blueprint for being saved.

Now we ask today: is the same true of God's rules? Of His law? Is it eternal — like four balls and three strikes — or is it subject to amendment? I like the word "immutable" in describing our unchanging God; does that same word apply to His Law? To the Magna Carta of His government?

I've visited with people who actually get kind of nervous about things like a balanced-budget amendment or even a flag-burning amendment. Not that they don't believe in those causes. But somehow the Constitution of the United States is such a marvelous document, so eternal and strong and protective of our freedoms, that it almost seems risky to change it, to touch it in any way. Unless something is really major-major-major, these people say, it's better to leave it alone. Especially with something relatively isolated like flag-burning incidents, they suggest, it's like using a sledge hammer to kill a flea. We CAN amend the Constitution, but it makes many people uneasy when we DO.

Apparently Jesus knew how human nature is to tinker with the rules, because in Matthew chapter five we find some of His clearest words on this very subject. Listen to verses 17 and 18:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." And then verse 18. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

You know, a theologian once proposed that the word "fulfill" there in verse 17 means "to do away with." That Jesus "fulfilling" the law meant He had done away with it, that He'd "nailed the Ten Commandments to the cross." We didn't have to pay attention to the Commandments anymore, this Bible scholar suggested, because Jesus had "(quote) fulfilled" them.

Well, another good Bible student, fortunately, was ready with a heaven-sent answer. "You say that `fulfill' means to do away with?" he asked. "Then this is how Matthew 5:17 should read, according to you: `Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to "do away with."'" Very obviously, that's a nonsense statement, and the theologian had nothing to say in reply.

Friend, it's good news that God's Law is as unchanging and secure as He is! You can step onto His playing field and know exactly what kind of obedience He's looking for from you; you can be assured of exactly what He's going to accomplish in your life. His Law describes His blueprint for you, for your happiness. What difficulty and confusion there would be if you couldn't know the rules.

Now please understand me. You and I are not SAVED BY KEEPING the Law of God. Paul spells that out most clearly in the New Testament, nowhere more eloquently than in Galatians chapter two:

"Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified."

That's very true, very compelling, isn't it? And yet, all through the Bible, the Old AND New Testaments, God's saved people are encouraged and directed and even COMMANDED to KEEP the commandments. For the purpose of protecting that relationship. In order to bring honor to God. To be a witness to the unsaved and to the watching universe. To demonstrate loyalty. And also simply because God says so.

King David, who knew a thing or two about forgiveness and grace, had this to say about the Law and the ordinances in Psalm 19:

"In keeping them there is great reward."

And who would know better than King David, who saw his life and his home and family and even his kingdom virtually destroyed because of his own commandment-breaking? Friend, no wonder we're encouraged to hold fast to the UNCHANGING Law of our God!

You know, being a prophecy-studying Bible ministry as the Voice of Prophecy has been for 75 years, you can understand our keen interest whenever scripture prophecies deal with the global threat of a tampering of that Law. And we find this very thing described in the book of Daniel chapter seven. Listen to verse 25, and this is the familiar King James Version making reference to the great antichrist power:

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High,

AND THINK TO CHANGE TIMES AND LAWS.

In the book of Revelation, chapter 12, verse 17, we find the devil himself, the dragon, uniting with this power to make war with God's people, and listen to this —

" . . . those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus."

Let me encourage you, my Christian friend, to be wide awake in these last days. I can read today, here in the 2004, official church statements from one worldwide religious group claiming that their spiritual authority on this earth derives from the fact that in past centuries they had CHANGED God's Law. They had set aside part of God's Ten Commandments, declaring them to be null and void. What God had declared to be unchanging, they had endeavored to change. And they did so with pride!

How do we react to that? Listen, we react by holding fast to BIBLE truth? Follow no man, follow no doctrine, follow no group or body of believers who endeavor to change what God has declared to be never-changing.

Don't you find it amazing how something can quietly evolve and change over the years and decades . . . and we hardly notice that a change has even taken place. Let me return to the world of baseball for just a moment and make my point.

Do you know what the baseball strike zone has always been defined to be? Of course you do. "Crossing the plate between the shoulders and the knees." Let me ask you baseball fans: is that what it is today in the major leagues?

An interesting article in a national sports magazine a few years back had a diagram really SHOWING where the ACTUAL strike zone window has gone in recent years. And those of you who watch games have noticed. Here in 2004 the strike zone basically stops right at about the waist or maybe just an inch or two above it. Anything higher is a ball. And down to maybe an inch or two BELOW the knees is a strike. What's more, the strike zone, for some reason, has kind of drifted OUT; now a pitch even a couple of inches outside is called a strike. The whole strike zone has shrunk in size and shifted out . . . and friend, no one really knows why.

Why doesn't anyone call it the way it was originally defined? sports fans ask. How did this huge shift take place? Nobody really knows, but the change is there to see.

Is it possible for us not to even notice when someone tries to change the Law of God? To substitute a new strike zone . . . and after some time goes by, everyone assumes that this is what it's always been? Friend, this is what the Book of Revelation is talking about. God has an enemy who will endeavor to do exactly that — to the UNCHANGING Law of God Himself! Hard to believe, but astute Bible students can see it happening.

Is it possible that maybe we've been a little TOO zealous about posting the Ten Commandments on public school walls, and not zealous ENOUGH about simply KEEPING those ten eternal, unchanging, rock-solid heavenly declarations in our hearts AND in our day-to-day lives? It's something to think about, isn't it?