Romans 1 and the search for God

I had an algebra teacher in high school who liked to encourage students to solve the problems on their own. Each time I’d ask her how to do an equation, she’d say, “Richard, the answer is in your notes.”

I have to imagine many will face God someday in the Great White Throne Judgment. Some might have been atheists, others agnostics and others apatheists (those who are indifferent towards the idea of God). Perhaps the conversation will go like this:

God: Why did you choose to reject Me and My Son?

Person: Lord, I didn’t know you existed!

God: What more evidence could you have possibly needed? Romans 1:18-25, tells you there’s more than enough evidence to prove My Existence. But you chose to ignore it.

Romans 1 gets a lot of attention as the chapter in the Bible that talks about God’s condemnation of homosexuality, and while I believe it does, I think people don’t realize the chapter specifically talks also about how God gives us the evidence we need to prove He exists. Those who reject it are left to their own twisted, irrational ways of thinking.

If you’d like to know more about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please drop me a line at richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

Vanity and Romans 1

 

When I think of vanity, I think of the ending to the 1997 thriller The Devil’s Advocate. Keanu Reeves played a lawyer who never loses, works for a New York City law firm and learns that the head of the law firm is not only his father, but he’s also the devil (played brilliantly by Al Pacino). At the end of the movie, Pacino’s character says this: “Vanity. Definitely my favorite sin.”

I’m convinced more and more that vanity will keep many people out of heaven. How many people will tell God at the Great White Throne Judgment that there was no evidence of His existence or of His Son being the Messiah, only for God to tell them, “How can you possibly say that? I gave you more than enough evidence. There is so much evidence of My existence and of My Son’s Divinity, a child could understand it.”

Romans 1:18-25 tells us of all the evidence that God gives us, and that man in his stubbornness, or in his vanity, willingly rejects it and goes his own way.

For some, the vanity stems from not wanting to admit they sin. For others, it’s from a belief that man, through enough evolution, can reach a godlike state. For others, humbling themselves before God is far too humiliating to do.

If you have vanity in your life that keeps you from seeking God, please do anything you can to get rid of it and get right with God.

Richard Zowie has several blogs. To comment on this blog posting, post a response below or, for a private response, go to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

Keeping the faith by following the ‘wedge principle’

When I attended Pensacola Christian College, I remember something taught in social ethics class: ”wedge principle”. Scripture tells us in Ephesians 4:27 to “Neither give place to the devil.”

A floorleader my junior year explained it this way: he chased his sister into a room when they were younger and she refused to come out. He coaxed her to open the door just a crack since he wanted to talk to her. She did. He then used his foot to wedge open the door and from there, overpower her and open it the rest of the way.

If you give the devil an inch, he’ll gladly take a mile–and that’s just for starters.

Looking back, it disturbes me the number of students who would roll their eyes at the discussion of the wedge principle and think of how we had to hear the same or similar sermon from last year. Such thinking makes me wonder if complacency prevents the average Christian from being truly aware of just how hard or skillfully the devil works to try to ruin their lives and ministries.

It’s something to think about in daily living. I thought recently of a Christian I knew of years ago who seemed so on fire for the Lord. He has since divorced and now sees nothing wrong with some activities many Christians would find deplorable. A person who knows him told me it started with a sin problem that just escalated and grew out of control.

Richard Zowie has several blogs. Post comments here or go to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

John Shore’s incontrovertible take on modern Christianity

I agree with this statement 1,000%. It’s a call for ultra-conservative Christians to try thinking outside the box and warning other Christians about the dangers of being too condescending on Christians with stricter standards:

“Too many conservative Christians’ lives are too limited; too many liberal Christians too readily dismiss fundamentalism.”

One has to wonder if a happy balance can be achieved. In conservative Christianity, my observation has been that preferences often get mistaken for convictions through a misinterpretation or misapplication of scripture. Among liberal Christians, while they understand the preferences-conviction confusion better, I think they are too quick to scoff at any beliefs the conservatives have. Maybe it’s because they confuse some convictions with personal preferences. They might be surprised at the conservatives are more correct on what scripture teaches than what they, the liberal, might imagine.

I spent several years in independent, fundamental Baptist churches and while I now consider myself a mixture of Baptist and non-denominational/IFCA, I do believe that “fundamentalists” are absolutely right on salvation: grace alone through faith alone; God offers it to all, and it’s up to us to accept or reject God’s free gift.

One thing I do think is a misunderstood part of fundamentalism is “legalism”. Some believe legalism is following a strict set of “Biblical” principles (no pants for women, no long hair for men, no TV, no alcohol or tobacco) as a way of earning one’s salvation.

The real definition is to follow a strict set of Biblical principles as a way of becoming closer to God and becoming more, well, pure in your thinking and actions. The problem is, the principles are very much subject to interpretation. Some are preferences that evolved into convictions.

Richard Zowie runs several blogs besides this one. Send comments to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

Does God care who wins sporting events?

When Kurt Warner won a Super Bowl as St. Louis Rams quarterback, he enthusiastically yelled “THANK YOU, JESUS!!!” when receiving the Lombardi trophy.

Football players of various teams often will kneel in the end zone and pray after scoring a touchdown.

Baseball players will point to heaven after hitting a home run or after striking out a crucial hitter.

Other athletes, after winning a game, will credit God with the win.

Some wonder if it’s right to give credit to God for a win while others have been criticized for attributing a loss to “God’s will”.

I believe God gives professional athletes to excel, and if they do, it’s an opportunity to glorify Him and spread the good news.

However, don’t expect to find God in heaven with a March Madness bracket or discussing with Michael or Gabriel which teams should be allowed to win. Or trying to figure out which team the devil likes and letting them lose. After all, haven’t the Duke Blue Devils won national championships? Haven’t the New Jersey Devils won Stanley Cups? Yes, the Los Angeles Angels won the World Series a few years ago, but how come the New Orleans Saints haven’t won a Super Bowl.

I see God working to do two things in the world: evangelize and edify. If certain teams winning championships can do that, great. But I don’t think He looks at a team and decides, because He’s a fan, that He wants it to win.

Richard Zowie runs several blogs besides this one. Send comments to richardstwoshekels@gmail.com.

Goodbye, My Two Shekels, hello, Richard’s Two Shekels

Meet Richard’s Two Shekels.

Someone registered the domain name My Two Shekels. And since I prefer .com names, I decided to change the name of this blog to something unique.

Of course, “My Two Shekels” is a Christian pun of the famous saying “My Two Cents”, when a person wishes to give their opinion.

Granted, a shekel isn’t technically a cent: it’s the Israeli equivalent of a dollar. The Israeli equivalent of a cent is an agora: 100 agorot (agora in the plural form) equals 1 new shekel. After discussing it with my wife, I felt that Richard’s Two Shekels had a far better ring to it than My Two Agorot.

Enjoy, and be encouraged and blessed.

Today's Verse of Encouragement: Romans 8:18

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Wonderful words to live by–especially if you’re a Christian having a tough day.

R.I.P., Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze, 1952-2009

You will be missed, and your family will be in our prayers.

Getting back to basics: reading the Bible

I struggle mightily with procrastination, and someday (if I haven’t already) I plan to post an old column about how procrastination is the eighth deadly sin.

A week ago, I got back into reading the Bible on a daily basis. It was very refreshing and made me realize how much I’d missed by not doing so before. When it comes to God’s Word, my minimal goal is to encounter one of the writers of the 39 Old Testament books and 27 Old Testament books and be able to converse with them about their work. How embarrassing would it be to encounter Nahum* the Minor Prophet and say, “I know your book’s in the Old Testament and it’s near Jonah, right?”

I’ve heard two songs about the Bible, children’s songs that contain incontrovertible facts about scripture. One says if we read God’s word and pray daily we’ll grow, and the other says if we neglect His Word and forget to pray we’ll shrink. Been there, done that. Another says simply this: “The Bible will keep you from sin, and sin will keep you from the Bible.”

I visualize reading the Bible, jotting notes and summaries of what’s been read, studying the Word and praying as food for the soul. Just as we shouldn’t quit breathing or eating food, we most certainly should not quit reading the Bible.

*In a Bible drill at Alvin, Texas’ Kings Row Baptist Church in 1982 or so, the passage we had to look up was in Nahum. One kid asked the teacher where Nahum was, and the teacher deliciously replied: “It’s between Genesis and Revelation.”

Are you different? God can still use you

I’m different from most people. I don’t concern myself too much with the latest styles. Most of today’s popular sitcoms, such as Seinfeld, bore me to tears. I find humor mostly through older shows and in movies that are so terribly made that they become hilarious. Whenever I write fiction, I often find myself trying to write unpredictable endings.

But what makes me more noticeably different from most people (besides my bulbous nose, Coke bottle glasses and short stature) is that I’m left-handed. Eating at a restaurant often means eating at the end of a table on the left side to avoid bumping elbows with a right-hander. I also write, throw, bat, golf, shoot and do virtually everything southpaw. I can use scissors right-handed, but only because lefty scissors aren’t common.

Growing up in the latter part of the 20th century meant not having to suffer as left-handers in the past have. Some, such as left-handed baseball great Babe Ruth, were forced at an early age to write with their right hand. I also read a sickening tale of an early 20th century minor leaguer named John King in the book Peanuts and Crackerjack: A Treasury of Baseball Legends and Lore by David Cataneo. In the book, it describes King as a ballplayer who hated left-handed people and thought of them as deceptive albatrosses. King’s only son began showing signs of left-handedness at an early age as he consistently reached for objects with his left hand. King solved this “problem” by restraining his son’s left arm in a tobacco pouch until the boy showed telltale signs of conversion to right-handedness.

Left-handed people in history have always stood out as different, and not always in good ways. They’ve been considered different, deceptive, unlucky and evil.

The Bible does specifically mention one left-handed person in the book of Judges. The third chapter tells the story of Ehud, a Benjamite.

In this book Israel, went through the endless cycle: doing evil and forsaking the Lord, being persecuted and oppressed by ungodly nations, crying to the Lord for help, receiving the help in the form of a deliverer who would rescue the Israelites and then often serve as judge. Finally, the Israelites would grow complacent and return back to the first stage of this cycle. During Ehud’s time, the oppressor was King Eglon of Moab.

God called upon Ehud to be Israel’s next judge, and it must’ve been unusual to some to see God use a man who did everything backwards—use a slingshot, wield a sword, throw, etc. But God had a special plan for the southpaw, one that involved ending the Moabite rule over the Israelites.

Ehud went to visit King Eglon under the pretense of giving a gift of tribute. Before he went, Judges 3:16 tells us that Ehud took a two-edged dagger measuring a cubit and fastened it to his waist under his garment. His private intentions were to kill the king.

King Eglon, knowing that assassination was always a lingering possibility, had his bodyguards search anyone coming to meet with him. Whenever someone did come, the guards checked under the person’s garment on their left side to see if they had any weapons hidden there. The world generally is more than 90 percent right-handed, so most people would reach to their left side and use their right hand to draw their weapon.

Except Ehud. When they checked his left side, they found nothing because Ehud had fastened his weapon to his RIGHT side.

After this, Ehud asked for a private audience with King Eglon, and once everyone left, Ehud drew his sword and stabbed the king, killing him. Ehud discreetly escaped from King Eglon’s place and later led the Israelite charge to defeat the Moabites and reestablish independent rule.

Not bad for a left-handed man. I must say that as a southpaw whose left-handed family members include an older sister, an uncle, a cousin and (by marriage) an aunt, I’m very proud of Ehud. This Benjamite proves that no matter how different you are, whether you’re left-handed, possess an exotic personality or have some type of disability that limits what you can do, God can still use you. We’re all formed in God’s image, and if He made you different, there is a reason. God doesn’t make mistakes, and He has a special plan for those who are different.

Are Biblical exegeses evil?

Bible majors at Pensacola Christian College, my alma mater, had to do an exegesis sometime during their course of study. I suspect this is standard operating procedure for other Bible/Christian colleges in their ministerial programs.

But is it the right thing to do?

Someone mentioned recently the late Dr. Jack Hyles, longtime pastor of Hammond, Ind.’s First Baptist Church, was against doing exegesis and felt instead that more focus should be put on preaching.

There are people who will be in heaven because Dr. Hyles’ ministry: while I disagree with aspects of Dr. Hyles’ ministry, I have no doubt he was still used by God. That being said, I must respectfully disagree with him.

Preaching is a great thing, but I think pastors do a great disservice to their congregation by not teaching also.

As a writer, I’ve done a series of columns on Ecclesiastes. It started off as a general overview but turned into a layperson’s exegesis as I wanted to really dig into what this Old Testament book about happiness and how to find it really said.

We were created in God’s image, and I think one thing God expects us to do is study. Especially when you consider that while some of us love the King James Bible (or New American Standard, New International Version or New Century Version), it may shock some of you to realize that English is not the Bible’s original language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew with a little Chaldean/Aramaic while the New Testament was written in Greek.

I can’t speak for everybody, but fewer things in life frustrate me more than reading a passage of scripture and being unable to understand what it says. Sometimes understanding it is as simple as understanding Bible customs at the time. Other times, it can be as simple as reading a commentary on the passage. And yet for others, pulling out a concordance and reading what the original Hebrew or Greek word was.

It’s especially important to do, especially when you consider translating can be a tricky business at times.

So, to summarize, not only are exegeses not evil, they can be essential to better understanding the Bible.

Whatever happened to Enoch, Methuselah’s dad?

Genesis 5:21-24 says this about Enoch’s life:

“And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methu’selah:

“and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methu’selah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

“and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

“and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”

It begs the question: what happened to Enoch?

The passage suggests God took Enoch up to heaven. Some say he returned as John the Baptist. Others say he’ll return as one of the two witnesses in Revelation (while others insist it’ll be Moses and Elijah). Enoch must’ve been a special person, if God allowed him to enter heaven without first enduring a physical death.

One friend named David Ricker, a former roommate of mine at Pensacola Christian College who now pastors Lighthouse Christian Church in Phillips, Maine, has a different take, one I’d never even thought of. It’s one I found fascinating.

Dave believes that Enoch’s ascent into heaven, followed some years later by the Flood, is a picture of the rapture. The earth in those days was filled with evil until God wiped it out with a flood and allowed Noah and his family to start over. And just as Enoch ascended into heaven because of his righteousness (which comes through Jesus Christ), Christians due to their righteousness will also “ascend” or be raptured into heaven.

“To the issue of Enoch and his being ‘taken’, I think that he was a godly man because he ‘walked with God,’” Dave said. “I think that it was a life change for him after he had his child, Methuselah. This actually makes an excellent type for a premillennial rapture. Let me explain. First, the whole earth is in constant moral decline. Jesus said that in the last days it would be like Noah’s Time. Second, Enoch, part of the line of godly men, after a ‘conversion’ and walking with God is ‘raptured’ out of the world before real trouble of worldwide judgment. Third, Noah, a picture of believing Jews are kept safe through this judgment to a beautiful remade world to start over in the millennium.”

Enoch is one of only two men recorded in the Old Testament to not have died. Elijah was the other one. Moses died but was buried somewhere where only God knows for sure.

One thing’s for certain, as far as the Great Tribulation goes: I’ll be very glad to miss it. I think mankind has yet to see God when He’s angry.

A greeting for my friend, Howard

In case he accesses this blog, here’s a Hebrew message for my friend Howard (who has studied Hebrew and says it’s a lot like sign language):

שלום, הורד! מא שלמחא?

אני רי׳צרד

From the ‘Just when you think you’ve heard it all’ file

I understand some atheists are now having “debaptizing” ceremonies now for those who wish to break from their religious faiths and become a disbeliever in God.

According to this report, one person “unbaptized” by someone “drying” them with a blow dryer that had “Reason” written on it.

It’s symbolic, of course, since the person no doubt has long since dried from their initial baptism. I know I have: I was first baptized in 1981 and then re-baptized about nine years later after I reaffirmed my salvation.

With all due respect (I have a friend from Christian college who’s now a professing atheist), I’m a little puzzled why atheists seem to think they have cornered the market on “reason”, “enlightenment” and “free thinking”. I’ve encountered a few atheists and agnostics in my time and have found, more often than not, anyone who believes in God or—even worse—intelligent design is an ignorant fool who can’t possibly understand the way the world really works.

Never mind that Dissent from Darwin shows a long list of well-educated scientists and professors who are skeptical of Darwin and evolution and feel far too few questions are being asked and explored—critically studying evolution inexplicably doesn’t belong in the classroom.

Never mind that books like Michael Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box explore the growing difficulties evolution is having in trying to be reconciled with science.

I wonder if that’s why American children lag behind in science.

I suppose anyone atheist who sees this post will insist on my reading Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great or Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Perhaps they should, in fairness, read ex-atheist Lee Stroebel’s Case for a Creator.

Handling a crisis…what does Jesus say?

We are reminded in Matthew 6:33 to do this:

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

As I face a crisis, I am reminded of what Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount…make your priority God and His Kingdom, and from there your needs will be met.

God bless.

Is there life on other planets? An answer from a Christian perspective

This is a question that seems to be mostly ignored within Christianity. When I was younger, I remember the evangelist David Benoit talking about whether or not there was extraterrestrial life out there. Benoit, whose messages specialized on rock music and the occult noted that books at the library that deal with E.T.’s¹ could be found in the occult section.

Open and shut. Cut and dry. Case dismissed.

Or is it?

I’ve always had a fascination with astronomy and used to spend hours drawing pictures of planets and how the sun would look like if viewed from Jupiter or from my favorite solar planet, Pluto. We now know that life as we know it does not exist in the solar system apart from Earth. Other planets are too hot or too cold or have atmospheres that won’t support life. Jupiter, for instance, isn’t even a terrestrial world but rather a gaseous one consisting of two oceans of liquid hydrogen. Venus is far too hot and has an unbreathable atmosphere. And, of course, past Mars it gets far too cold. Pluto, that perpetual winter wonderland, has estimated temperatures of 390 degrees below zero.

Others would ask two questions: what about other forms of life that might not be human or even organic? In science fiction novels, we read of intelligent crystals and shades of blue along with gaseous bags that float in Jupiter and Saturn’s atmosphere.

Many astronomers and potential exobiologists believe life could exist in the ocean that lies underneath the icy surface of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

For some Christians, the idea of intelligent life beyond our planet is blasphemous. It is unthinkable for God to have created other forms of life living on other planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy (about three billion light years away)² or in the other billions of galaxies that we now know, courtesy of the Hubble Telescope, are out there. After all, Jesus died once for all, as teaches the Bible.

If there are other planets out there, does this mean they had opportunities to choose or reject God and that Jesus went to their world, lived, died and resurrected?

Does life exist on other planets?

If you’d asked me 15 years ago, I would’ve answered absolutely not.³ Now, my response is I don’t know, but I think it’s possible.

Consider this: the Bible could very well stand for Basic Information Before Leaving Earth. If that’s the case, then the Word of God tells us all we need to know to live this life as Christians, to serve God and evangelize and edify as much of the world as possible before our time is up. Once we reach eternity, we’ll have lots of learning to do.

Who knows what God has to teach us?

All I know is I think there’s a whole universe of knowledge to be attained, and even after several millennia of recorded history, I think our knowledge of God, the world and the universe is still primitive at best.

 

¹ I use the term E.T. only to save on typing. Honestly, I didn’t really care for the movie. Too sappy, among other things.

² A light year is a unit of distance designed to simplify astronomical distances. Light travels about six trillion miles in a year. This means the Andromeda Galaxy’s about 18,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away from earth. Our closest celestial neighbor, Alpha Centauri, is about 4.3 light years from earth, or 25.8 trillion miles away.

³ It’s funny how bent out of shape people get when asked if they believe in UFO’s. The acronym stands for Unidentified Flying Object.

Funny Christians

Growing up as a Christian, I remember one popular thing to ask people was “What’s your life verse?” Mine changed a bit. I liked Isaiah 26:4, Psalm 27:14, and Habakkuk 2:2-3.

One visiting pastor during a revival said he didn’t have a life verse, but he did have a life book. He held up his King James Bible.

Once, I asked my brother-in-law Joe what his life verse was. Joe replied, “John 11:35.”

So, I looked it up and saw it consisted of two words: “Jesus wept.”

Ho, ho, very funny, Joe. Ha ha, it is to laugh.

Michael W. Smith and umbrellas

When I typed on this blog Sunday night, I listened to Michael W. Smith’s wonderful song “Jesus is the Answer”.

Smith reminds me of this interesting story about my time at Pensacola Christian College.

PCC’s located in Pensacola, Florida, which receives lots of rain. If there are any prospective PCC students reading this blog posting, I’d strongly advise them to purchase a good umbrella.

Preferably, one that’s not too expensive. Umbrellas at PCC (at least when I was there from 1991-1995) tended to magically disappear. In my four years there, I lost two of them. Ironically enough, to try to keep my second umbrella from getting stolen, I wrote in bold black letters RICHARD ZOWIE’S UMBRELLA and STEAL THIS AND GET SHIPPED! (At PCC, getting “shipped” meant getting kicked out). That umbrella disappeared, and a friend a year behind me told me the year after I graduated it showed up again on campus.

My favorite form of umbrella art belonged to one student named James W. (anyone who graduated from PCC in 1995 probably knows whom I’m talking about). James listed Bible verses that talked of how stealing was prohibited and a sin, but then talked about how he would still forgive the person who committed such an atrocity just as Jesus forgave us. I liked it. James was a serious but very good guy, and he mentioned once wanting to use his engineering degree on the mission field.

One student took umbrella protection to a new level. A fan of Dr. Jack Hyles, “Andrew” filled his umbrella with Dr. Hyles quotes. One panel said, “Yes, I support Dr. Hyles” while another quoted Hyles calling out another minister and saying, “He ain’t no fundamentalist!”

Dr. Jack Hyles

Another panels showed Hyles’ fervent dislike for pants on women along with contemporary Christian music (which, I must confess, I wasn’t a fan of at the time). There was a quote where Hyles referred to Michael W. Smith as “Michael W. Smut”.

Pretty harsh.

I wasn’t too surprised to find out later that Andrew transferred from PCC to either Hyles-Anderson College or some college like it.

As for Smith, “Jesus is the Answer” is one song I’d love to have played at my funeral. I find it to be an encouraging song that also helps to evangelize.

Howard, my spiritual mentor

We all need them, especially in this crazy world where Satan works around the clock to destroy the testimony of every Christian and to take as many people with him as possible into eternal separation from God.

For me, one such mentor is Howard.

At college, I originally knew him as a food service supervisor. He seemed quiet and serious, and the way he walked around you could tell he was a very busy man. You know the type: 40 hours worth of things to do in the confines of a 24-hour day.

Summer 1992, I worked with him closely when we had to paint much of the Varsity Commons at Pensacola Christian College. Howard (then known as Mr. Howlett) had painted professionally, so he worked with me and a few other students.

And as we worked, we spoke. You name the subject and we talked about it. Sign language. The Bible. Ancient history. Martial arts. Serial killers. Funny but harmless anecdotes about food service supervisors. Stories from when he went to college. As someone who loves hanging around people with vast amounts of knowledge and experiences, conversing with Howard was like dying and going to heaven.

The funny thing is, Howard takes a humble approach to himself and even refers to me as “Dr. Zowie”. Maybe someday I’ll give him a good reason for calling me that.

Can demons repent?

Theology teaches us that God created Lucifer and all the other angels and that sometime later, Lucifer decided he wanted to be God. So, he recruited a third of the angels to join him. God prevailed and they were removed from heaven. Lucifer became Satan and his angels became demons.

How many demons does Satan have? Hard to say. If God created a billion angels, then there are more than 333 million who serve Satan. If God created a trillion, then 333 billion serve him.

Last night I had a dream about this and wonder: can demons repent?

Some say yes while others say no.

Personally, I think it’s more an issue that they don’t want to. They’ve been at it for at least 6,000 years and are probably convinced that they will indeed someday reign alongside Satan. Or, it’s possible they simply believe at this point that suffering in torment for all eternity is far more preferable to humbling themselves before God.

Is it possible that some have had second thoughts about joining Satan in his ill-fated rebellion?

It’s possible. Whether God would take them back is difficult to say.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?