Thursday, May 7, 2015

March 14, 2008

I believe the prosperity gospel has allowed people to substitute sharing in peoples' burdens by telling them to get "faith" so their burdens will go away.  We no longer know how to be involved in peoples' lives and hurt with them because we are so busy expecting God to perform some type of intervention.

I don't get it when people say Jesus or God called me to ____ whatever.  Are they trying to prove they have a special audience with God?  It must be nice to have God speak to them so "they" know exactly what to do to make God happy in their lives.  I think people on the whole absorb these things with only the left side of their brain.  They do not question if God truly speaks today because inside they are either hearing or hoping to hear God's voice also.

Monday, March 4, 2013

February 2, 2008

I have figured out a way to explain the humanity and the deity of Christ.  As far as the "man" goes, the flesh that embodied Jesus Christ was not in eternity.  His "flesh" side consisted of the skin cells, hair, and other parts of his body formed in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit.  The body of Christ was created.  

I don't believe this is heresy.  Jesus Christ was truly God and truly man.  However, he did not have the same nature of man because a man was not the father of the child in Mary's womb.  If we say the physical body of Christ was eternal, then flesh would be considered before time was created by God.  This is inconsistent with the story of creation.  Everything that exists on this earth had a starting point and God pre-existed before it.  Therefore, the body structure of Jesus Christ was created by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul refers to Christ as the second Adam in the sense that his act brought forgiveness to many.  We have a man who is not participating in the original sin.  In my mind, he's just like Adam before the fall.  He only knows good and only desires to serve God to the fullest.  When God created the first Adam, he was perfect because a perfect God can only create perfect beings.  The body and man-nature of Jesus Christ was perfect because he was created by God.  However, Jesus Christ was not only a mere man, but he possessed the very nature of God right side by side with a man nature, and although the man nature had not sin, it was nonetheless still truly man.   

God created himself  a body that did not exist prior to creation, in the form of Jesus Christ.  That body had a man nature and was without sin because it was created by a perfect God.  God in his essence came down and dwelt among us in a sinless body.  We say that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  In the sense of eternity, we're talking about the essence of Christ.

A man had to pay the price for the act of rebellion against God at the garden.  That man was the man nature created by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary.  He was perfect and without sin and obedient to God as Adam was obedient to God before the fall.  

The man Christ was the perfect sacrifice on the cross because he was without sin.  He died and was raised from the grave by God in the same body as he was when on this earth.  His body was transformed beyond the potential of sin and glorified in heaven when presented before the Father.  We know he came back after being presented before the Father and was recognized as he had been on this earth before he died.  He did tell Mary not to touch him before his glorification.  But there is no explanation scripture to tell us precisely why he could not be touched by a human before he was glorified.  Paul does tell us later of the promise of a glorified body.  

This is why we have to hope in him and the testimony to which he testifies.  He has gone before us as a man and has been approved by God through the resurrection.  Our hope is in the acceptance that God has shown to him.  He is the first born of many, spiritually, in a glorified body.  I cannot see anything wrong with distinguishing the ethical body that got used to incarnate himself on this earth from the very essence of God who dwelt in that body.  

Monday, February 11, 2013

January 28, 2008

Is God sovereign or deterministic?  I do not believe a sovereign God has to be deterministic.  A God who upholds and sustains his creation does not have to be a controlling God.  I think there is a distinction between God's will and what he decrees.

God decreed or spoke the earth and the laws governing it into existence.  But to speak the laws of nature into existence and then control each event on the earth as a deterministic God would do is to wonder why God even created the laws of nature.

God gave man free will and because God issued that for man, that decree is perfect.  You cannot have man being controlled by a deterministic God if that same God has issued a command/privilege/granted man free will. 

The argument is God is perfect in all he does, and if he decides man to be free, that gift of freedom is perfect.

Preachers have said if God wants all men to be saved, all men would be saved.  This is an argument of either/or.  In this argument, there is no granting of a third option.  I believe the third option is that God does not have to apologize for man's self-determined nature.  Those who teach limited atonement are basing their argument on an either/or God.  God has to be either sovereign/deterministic and man must be subject to a deterministic God.

A deterministic God controls every minute detail.  How do you love a God freely if your desire to love is chosen by him to love him?  If God chooses us to salvation by an act other than our free will or self-deterministic nature, then we have not freely chosen, therefore we are not free.




January 23, 2008

A lot of people like the scripture of Paul that says, "I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me."  But they often leave out the last part of the verse.  Paul says further that "I have learned to live without and I have learned to live with plenty."  He is referring to material things.  Paul makes the statement that he can be content in any situation because of Christ and the reality of what He's done which strengthens him.


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

January 8, 2008

The Bible makes it very clear that sin and its effects (sickness and disease) will reign on this earth until Christ returns.  Even Christ did not eradicate sin completely from the earth when he was here.  When people profess that God will heal them because they have enough faith, they contribute to a false security in the ability of man.  Man will not conquer sin and its effects.

Christians should beware of any organization which professes a utopia in this world and that includes the word of faith movement.

The other thing this belief system attributes to is a lack of volunteerism.  People are less likely to get involved when they believe the answer can be sending in money or just professing something to be.  This brings an attitude of laziness when one believes that all the power to accomplish the goal is within yourself in the way you think.  Why help a brother in need financially when you can just tell him to believe for the finances he needs?  This lets you off the hook from giving of your own money when you tell him to believe for money from God.


November 30, 2007

The very fact you know everything has a plan begs the question 'how do you know nothing is of chance.'  A lot of Christians accept or express this philosophy when it comes to God.  They use Jeremiah's scripture "God's ways are not your ways" to make God and humanity a mystery.  God is actually telling Israel about His specific future plans for them as they were being carried away to Babylonian captivity.  God was encouraging them after they broke His covenant and letting them know He would provide for their inability to keep His covenant.

Monday, December 10, 2012

November 19, 2007

The difference between a theist and atheist is, the latter ascribes awe to the universe's effects,  while the former ascribes awe to the personality behind the effects.