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.

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.

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.  

October 18, 2007

I am a metaphor by my representation of the God who created me.  A metaphor is not exactly the same as what it represents.  I have the ability to love and so does my God.  I have the ability to show and desire justice for the poor.  My God desires justice for the poor.  However, I am not able to perfectly love as my God can.  Justice in our society is not based on a perfect absolute.  Our love for people closest to us is based on conditions no matter how deep our love.  So being a metaphor means I represent a reality other than what I am.  Yes, I exist, but I only exist as a representative of the God who is perfect in ways I only reflect metaphorically.

October 16, 2007

Last night PBS and Nova had a show on the incredible body.  The subject was the heart and the transplanting of hearts, which is called harvesting, and all that pertains to why people have heart transplants.

They showed a medical team, called the harvest team because they get the donated organ and bring it to the receiver.  I found it fascinating all the expense and undertakings spent on harvesting a heart from a car accident victim on the other side of the country.  

The team work was incredible, how just as the heart arrived to the receiver, the patient was ready to be implanted with the heart.  When they put the heart in, it had to be jump-started with an electronic shock because once the heart stopped, it can't beat on its own.  The heart, once cut from the donor, will not be any good after 4 hours.  It is put on ice and transported across the country and placed in the transplantee with just enough time to spare.

How interesting it was to watch all this fuss over an organ which cannot live outside the human body, and yet a fetus can live outside the body.  The fetus is called an "organ" and yet is not attributed with life.  A heart is an organ and it gets special treatment for its capacity to sustain life.  A fetus is life into itself living, and is not granted the special treatment of a heart.  Maybe we should start having harvesting life from the womb on donor cards.  We go to great lengths to harvest organs for those who are dying, and yet we cannot see the value in life becoming.