One very interesting aspect of Christianity not talked as much about in the mainstream as one might expect is the idea of the Millennial Kingdom. Revelation 20:1-6 speaks of a 1,000 year reign of Christ. What does this millennial reign refer to? There are three main perspectives.
Amillennialism: The alpha privative ("a-") affixed to the word implies that there is no millennium. However, as many amillennialist will tell you, this is an inaccurate assessment of the worldview. Amillennialists do not deny the reality of a millennium, they just don't think it's a literal millennium. They think it's a figurative millennium that just means "a really long time." They believe we, as denizens of the Church Age, are currently living in the "millennium", and that when it ends, Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead.
Postmillennialism: Postmillennialists tend to believe in a literal 1,000 year reign (though this also varies). Postmillennialists believe that the millennium has not occurred yet. They believe that the millennium will consist of an earthly utopia in which there is a mass conversion of most of the majority of humankind. After this, Jesus returns.
Premillennialism: Most premillennialists also believe in a literal 1,000 year reign. However, they believe that Jesus will literally reign on the Earth for a thousand years. As in, Jesus will literally be king of the Earth for a thousand years. I find this possibility fascinating and tantalizing.
Whatever your perspective on the millennium, all Christians believe that Jesus is coming back; not to atone for sin this time, however, but to punish it. His death while on Earth was to atone for the sins of the many as a substitution so that those who believe He did this for them would not have to face His wrath during His Second Coming, when the Lamb of God will, for unbelievers, be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The transcendental argument/presuppositionalism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__dzsStVkOA
I gave a presentation, now on youtube, on presuppositional apologetics. Enjoy!
I gave a presentation, now on youtube, on presuppositional apologetics. Enjoy!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Trinity
The "Trinity" refers to the fact that God is a Triune God. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. They are three Persons, but they constitute one God. Each is a separate person, not a different way of God manifesting Himself, but a separate entity. All three persons are God, and are equal to one another in dignity, and worthy of worship. The Father gives commands to the Son and the Holy Spirit, and they obey Him perfectly, since they have identical wills, but the Father is not higher in Essence, but has the same divine essence as the Son and the Holy Spirit. A lot of people think that the Trinity, the idea of a Triune God, is nothing but a bunch of quasi-pagan confusion. However, I have become convinced that it is clearly taught in the Scripture.
"22The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,[a] and crossed the ford of the(A) Jabbok. 23He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24And Jacob was left alone. And(B) a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then he said, "Let me go, for the day has broken." But Jacob said,(C) "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." 28Then he said,(D) "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,[b] for(E) you have striven with God and(F) with men, and have prevailed." 29Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said,(G) "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,[c] saying, "For(H) I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.""-Gen. 32:22-30.
"13When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,(A) a man was standing before him(B) with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?" 14And he said, "No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come." And Joshua(C) fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, "What does my lord say to his servant?" 15And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua,(D) "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so."-Joshua 5:13-15
"14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."[a] And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel,(A) 'I AM has sent me to you.'"-Exodus 3:14.
"11Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash(L) the Abiezrite, while his son(M) Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12And(N) the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him,(O) "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." 13And Gideon said to him, "Please, sir,[a] if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are(P) all his wonderful deeds(Q) that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian." 14And the LORD[b] turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian;(R) do not I send you?" 15And he said to him,(S) "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold,(T) my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house." 16And the LORD said to him,(U) "But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." 17And he said to him,(V) "If now I have found favor in your eyes, then(W) show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18Please(X) do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you." And he said, "I will stay till you return."
19So Gideon went into his house(Y) and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah[c] of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20And the angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them(Z) on this rock, and(AA) pour the broth over them." And he did so. 21Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes.(AB) And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said,(AC) "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." 23But the LORD said to him,(AD) "Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.""-Judges 6:11-23
"15Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain you and(O) prepare a young goat for you." 16And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.) 17And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD,(P) "What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?" 18And the angel of the LORD said to him,(Q) "Why do you ask my name, seeing(R) it is wonderful?" 19So(S) Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works[a] wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. 20And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching,(T) and they fell on their faces to the ground.
21The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife.(U) Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. 22And Manoah said to his wife,(V) "We shall surely die, for we have seen God." 23But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.""-Judges 13:15-23.
The above verses clearly refer to Jesus. A "man" in Genesis 32 is referred to as "God" by Jacob.
"In the beginning was(B) the Word, and(C) the Word was with God, and(D) the Word was God."-John 1:1
" 14And(A) the Word(B) became flesh and(C) dwelt among us,(D) and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of(E) grace and(F) truth."-John 1:14.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He became flesh. Jesus is 100% man and 100% human.
"In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety."-Heb. 5:7.
Jesus had a human nature capable of being tempted, yet was capable of resisting temptation perfectly. This is what made His sacrifice acceptable to God the Father, and was offered up as a propitation, a sacrifice, for the sins of believers so that His perfect righteousness could be credited to them provided they believe He did this for them.
"And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.""-Rev. 14:13.
The Holy Spirit is also a person. ^ He speaks, has feelings:
" Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."-Eph. 4:30.
He can be grieved.
"22The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,[a] and crossed the ford of the(A) Jabbok. 23He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24And Jacob was left alone. And(B) a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then he said, "Let me go, for the day has broken." But Jacob said,(C) "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." 28Then he said,(D) "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,[b] for(E) you have striven with God and(F) with men, and have prevailed." 29Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said,(G) "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,[c] saying, "For(H) I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.""-Gen. 32:22-30.
"13When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,(A) a man was standing before him(B) with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?" 14And he said, "No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come." And Joshua(C) fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, "What does my lord say to his servant?" 15And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua,(D) "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so."-Joshua 5:13-15
"14God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."[a] And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel,(A) 'I AM has sent me to you.'"-Exodus 3:14.
"11Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash(L) the Abiezrite, while his son(M) Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12And(N) the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him,(O) "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor." 13And Gideon said to him, "Please, sir,[a] if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are(P) all his wonderful deeds(Q) that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian." 14And the LORD[b] turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian;(R) do not I send you?" 15And he said to him,(S) "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold,(T) my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house." 16And the LORD said to him,(U) "But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man." 17And he said to him,(V) "If now I have found favor in your eyes, then(W) show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18Please(X) do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you." And he said, "I will stay till you return."
19So Gideon went into his house(Y) and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah[c] of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20And the angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them(Z) on this rock, and(AA) pour the broth over them." And he did so. 21Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes.(AB) And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. 22Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said,(AC) "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." 23But the LORD said to him,(AD) "Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.""-Judges 6:11-23
"15Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain you and(O) prepare a young goat for you." 16And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "If you detain me, I will not eat of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.) 17And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD,(P) "What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?" 18And the angel of the LORD said to him,(Q) "Why do you ask my name, seeing(R) it is wonderful?" 19So(S) Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works[a] wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching. 20And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching,(T) and they fell on their faces to the ground.
21The angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife.(U) Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. 22And Manoah said to his wife,(V) "We shall surely die, for we have seen God." 23But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.""-Judges 13:15-23.
The above verses clearly refer to Jesus. A "man" in Genesis 32 is referred to as "God" by Jacob.
"In the beginning was(B) the Word, and(C) the Word was with God, and(D) the Word was God."-John 1:1
" 14And(A) the Word(B) became flesh and(C) dwelt among us,(D) and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of(E) grace and(F) truth."-John 1:14.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He became flesh. Jesus is 100% man and 100% human.
"In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety."-Heb. 5:7.
Jesus had a human nature capable of being tempted, yet was capable of resisting temptation perfectly. This is what made His sacrifice acceptable to God the Father, and was offered up as a propitation, a sacrifice, for the sins of believers so that His perfect righteousness could be credited to them provided they believe He did this for them.
"And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.""-Rev. 14:13.
The Holy Spirit is also a person. ^ He speaks, has feelings:
" Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."-Eph. 4:30.
He can be grieved.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Gospel and predestination.
For today's post, I am simply going to give the Gospel. There are a lot of misguided ideas on what constitutes Christianity. Some people, either out of ignorance, or willful rejection of what the Bible teaches (and a related to desire to create their own god), think that Christianity is about "being a good person." However, the Bible teaches that:
"10as it is written:
(A) "None is righteous, no, not one;
11no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one."-Rom. 3:10-12.
This is why a payment for sins is necessary. Nothing good we can do can get us out of the mess we're in, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"(Rom. 3:23). To have sinned at all is to have incurred legal condemnation from God:
"6The LORD passed before him and proclaimed,(A) "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and(B) gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast(C) love and faithfulness, 7(D) keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a](E) forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but(F) who will by no means clear the guilty,(G) visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation."-Ex. 34:6-7.
His standards are perfect, as He is perfect:
"13You who are(A) of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong..."-Hab. 1:13
So we are subject to eternal condemntion, having incurred legal debt. This arises from Adam's initial disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit:
"12Therefore, just as(A) sin came into the world through one man, and(B) death through sin, and(C) so death spread to all men because(D) all sinned— 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but(E) sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not(F) like the transgression of Adam,(G) who was a type of(H) the one who was to come.
15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for(I) many. 16And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For(J) the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought(K) justification. 17For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness(L) reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18Therefore, as one trespass[a] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness[b] leads to justification and life for(M) all men. 19For as by the one man’s(N) disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s(O) obedience the many will be made righteous. 20Now(P) the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased,(Q) grace abounded all the more, 21so that,(R) as sin reigned in death,(S) grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."-Rom. 5:12-21.
We have incurred, not only Adam's sinful nature, but the guilt of his trespass. This seems unfair to us. We think, "why should I get be blamed for what Adam did?" It does admittedly run counter to our natural thinking. But Paul's point, if we read verses 12-21, is that, just as we are counted guilty for a crime we didn't commit individually (through Adam), so the elect are counted righteous for an act of righteousness we didn't commit.
Having legally incurred the sinful nature and legal debt of Adam, we are granted new spiritual life (still battling the old nature) and legal justification (being made legally right with God and being adopted into His family) through Christ's death and resurrection. Nothing good we can do can save us, sine we're already guilty, which is why Christ lived a perfect life, thus making His sacrifice acceptable to God, only to die punished as though a sinner, so that sinners like us who actually deserve that kind of punishment could have Christ's perfect righteousness credited to us provided we believe He did this for us.
Something I haven't talked about on here, but would like to, is unconditional election. This is probably the most difficult part of the entire Gospel. Unconditional election is more commonly known as "predestination." This is the belief that God, in eternity past, has decided who will be saved, and passes over others, leaving them in their sins. Most professing Christians do not believe in unconditional election, even though it is clearly taught in the Bible. Most want to impose their humanist philosophy onto Scriptures to make it say what they want. This is an innate impulse in man, because, like the notion that we are blamed for Adam's sin, this notion runs counter to our way of thinking.
"29For those whom he(A) foreknew he also(B) predestined(C) to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be(D) the firstborn among many brothers."-Rom. 8:29
Most professing Christians interpret this passage as saying that God predestined those whom He knew would choose Him. This is how they understand "foreknew." However, that's not what the word means. "Foreknow" means "to know beforehand." So what does it mean for God to "know" someone?
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born(B) I consecrated you;I appointed you a prophet(C) to the nations."-Jer. 1:5
Virtually any commentator, regardless of whether they are not they believe in predestination, interpret "know" here as meaning "choose" or "select." For God to "know" someone implies the initiation of an intimate relationship with someone which involves setting someone apart. Paul addresses the question of unconditional election at greater length in his famous Romans 9 theodicy:
1(A) I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For(B) I could wish that I myself were(C) accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,[a] my kinsmen(D) according to the flesh. 4They are(E) Israelites, and to them belong(F) the adoption,(G) the glory,(H) the covenants,(I) the giving of the law,(J) the worship, and(K) the promises. 5To them belong(L) the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ(M) who is God over all,(N) blessed forever. Amen.
6But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7and not all are children of Abraham(O) because they are his offspring, but(P) "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." 8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but(Q) the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9For this is what the promise said:(R) "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son." 10And not only so, but(S) also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of(T) him who calls— 12she was told,(U) "The older will serve the younger." 13As it is written,(V) "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
14What shall we say then?(W) Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15For he says to Moses,(X) "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16So then it depends not on human will or exertion,[b] but on God, who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh,(Y) "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For(Z) who can resist his will?" 20But who are you, O man,(AA) to answer back to God?(AB) Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" 21(AC) Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump(AD) one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience(AE) vessels of wrath(AF) prepared for destruction, 23in order to make known(AG) the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he(AH) has prepared beforehand for glory— 24even us whom he(AI) has called,(AJ) not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?"-Rom. 9:1-24.
Paul spends the first 13 verses addressing the issue of why ethnic Israel was not saved. Has God reneged on His promises? No! God has not given up on Israel, and, as Paul explains in Rom. 11, He has set aside a remnant of believing Jews. Paul's point is ultimately, that God will save whomever He wills. He has mercy on whom He has mercy. We are we to talk back? Can we argue with God?
"all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and(B) he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
(C) and none can stay his hand
or(D) say to him, "What have you done?"-Daniel 4:35
"1The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he(A) turns it wherever he will."-Proverbs 21:1.
"3(A) Blessed be(B) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing(C) in the heavenly places, 4(D) even as he(E) chose us in him(F) before the foundation of the world, that we should be(G) holy and blameless before him. In love 5(H) he predestined us[a] for(I) adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,(J) according to the purpose of his will, 6(K) to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in(L) the Beloved. 7(M) In him we have(N) redemption(O) through his blood,(P) the forgiveness of our trespasses,(Q) according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9(R) making known[b] to us the mystery of his will,(S) according to his purpose, which he(T) set forth in Christ 10as a plan for(U) the fullness of time,(V) to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11In him we have obtained(W) an inheritance,(X) having been predestined(Y) according to the purpose of him who works all things according to(Z) the counsel of his will"-Eph. 1:3-11.
Here's another very controversial passage. Look at what it says! We are "predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will"-Eph. 1:11.
""Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
(Q) Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?'
or 'Your work has no handles'?
10Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?'
or to a woman, 'With what are you in labor?'"
11Thus says(R) the LORD,
the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
(S) "Ask me of things to come;
will you command me(T) concerning my children and(U) the work of my hands?[b]
12(V) I made the earth
and created man on it;
it was my hands(W) that stretched out the heavens,
and(X) I commanded all their host.
13(Y) I have stirred him up in righteousness,
(Z) and I will make all his ways level;
(AA) he shall build my city
(AB) and set my exiles free,
not for price or reward,"
says the LORD of hosts."-Isaiah 45:9-13.
God tells us through Isaiah that He is going to use Cyrus to accomplish His purposes, and that we have no place to object. He divinely controls Cyrus' actions for His purpose. Indeed, in the very next chapter of Isaiah, we're told,
"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it."-Isaiah 46:10-11.
Notice that God's plan is portrayed here, not as predictive, but decretive. What He says is His decree. That is, God does not say what's going to happen because He knows it's going to happen - Rather, stuff happens because He speaks it into His existence.
The Bible says to "make your calling and election sure"-2 Pet. 1:10. Make sure you're one of the elect! We do this by calling on Jesus and obeying Him. God tells us to do these things. Does this mean we can do these things on our own? Of course not!
Jesus tells us, "Come to me..."(Matt. 11:28), but He also tells us that "No one can come to Me unless My Father who sent Me draws him..."(John 6:44). He tells us to "repent, [or] you will all likewise perish"(Luke 13:3). But we're told later on that repentance is a gift from God (2 Tim. 2:25). We're told that whoever believes will be saved (John 3:16), but we're also told that it is GRANTED to us to believe in Him (Phil. 1:29). We are told to seek God (Deut. 4:29), but we're told that "No one seeks for God"(Rom. 3:10-12).
You approach the Kingdom of God and observe a signpost that says "whosoever will"(Rev. 22:17), may freely partake in salvation. Those who enter the door, look behind them and see another signpost that says "chosen before the foundation of the world"-Eph. 1:4.
If you are chosen, don't think there was something special in you that prompted God to choose you. Quite the contrary! God does not reveal to us why He chose whom He did, but one thing is certain: none deserve salvation and all deserve damnation:
"Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded."-Rom. 3:27.
Amen!
"10as it is written:
(A) "None is righteous, no, not one;
11no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one."-Rom. 3:10-12.
This is why a payment for sins is necessary. Nothing good we can do can get us out of the mess we're in, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"(Rom. 3:23). To have sinned at all is to have incurred legal condemnation from God:
"6The LORD passed before him and proclaimed,(A) "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and(B) gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast(C) love and faithfulness, 7(D) keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a](E) forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but(F) who will by no means clear the guilty,(G) visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation."-Ex. 34:6-7.
His standards are perfect, as He is perfect:
"13You who are(A) of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong..."-Hab. 1:13
So we are subject to eternal condemntion, having incurred legal debt. This arises from Adam's initial disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit:
"12Therefore, just as(A) sin came into the world through one man, and(B) death through sin, and(C) so death spread to all men because(D) all sinned— 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but(E) sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not(F) like the transgression of Adam,(G) who was a type of(H) the one who was to come.
15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for(I) many. 16And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For(J) the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought(K) justification. 17For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness(L) reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18Therefore, as one trespass[a] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness[b] leads to justification and life for(M) all men. 19For as by the one man’s(N) disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s(O) obedience the many will be made righteous. 20Now(P) the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased,(Q) grace abounded all the more, 21so that,(R) as sin reigned in death,(S) grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."-Rom. 5:12-21.
We have incurred, not only Adam's sinful nature, but the guilt of his trespass. This seems unfair to us. We think, "why should I get be blamed for what Adam did?" It does admittedly run counter to our natural thinking. But Paul's point, if we read verses 12-21, is that, just as we are counted guilty for a crime we didn't commit individually (through Adam), so the elect are counted righteous for an act of righteousness we didn't commit.
Having legally incurred the sinful nature and legal debt of Adam, we are granted new spiritual life (still battling the old nature) and legal justification (being made legally right with God and being adopted into His family) through Christ's death and resurrection. Nothing good we can do can save us, sine we're already guilty, which is why Christ lived a perfect life, thus making His sacrifice acceptable to God, only to die punished as though a sinner, so that sinners like us who actually deserve that kind of punishment could have Christ's perfect righteousness credited to us provided we believe He did this for us.
Something I haven't talked about on here, but would like to, is unconditional election. This is probably the most difficult part of the entire Gospel. Unconditional election is more commonly known as "predestination." This is the belief that God, in eternity past, has decided who will be saved, and passes over others, leaving them in their sins. Most professing Christians do not believe in unconditional election, even though it is clearly taught in the Bible. Most want to impose their humanist philosophy onto Scriptures to make it say what they want. This is an innate impulse in man, because, like the notion that we are blamed for Adam's sin, this notion runs counter to our way of thinking.
"29For those whom he(A) foreknew he also(B) predestined(C) to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be(D) the firstborn among many brothers."-Rom. 8:29
Most professing Christians interpret this passage as saying that God predestined those whom He knew would choose Him. This is how they understand "foreknew." However, that's not what the word means. "Foreknow" means "to know beforehand." So what does it mean for God to "know" someone?
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born(B) I consecrated you;I appointed you a prophet(C) to the nations."-Jer. 1:5
Virtually any commentator, regardless of whether they are not they believe in predestination, interpret "know" here as meaning "choose" or "select." For God to "know" someone implies the initiation of an intimate relationship with someone which involves setting someone apart. Paul addresses the question of unconditional election at greater length in his famous Romans 9 theodicy:
1(A) I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For(B) I could wish that I myself were(C) accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,[a] my kinsmen(D) according to the flesh. 4They are(E) Israelites, and to them belong(F) the adoption,(G) the glory,(H) the covenants,(I) the giving of the law,(J) the worship, and(K) the promises. 5To them belong(L) the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ(M) who is God over all,(N) blessed forever. Amen.
6But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7and not all are children of Abraham(O) because they are his offspring, but(P) "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." 8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but(Q) the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9For this is what the promise said:(R) "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son." 10And not only so, but(S) also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of(T) him who calls— 12she was told,(U) "The older will serve the younger." 13As it is written,(V) "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
14What shall we say then?(W) Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15For he says to Moses,(X) "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16So then it depends not on human will or exertion,[b] but on God, who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh,(Y) "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For(Z) who can resist his will?" 20But who are you, O man,(AA) to answer back to God?(AB) Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" 21(AC) Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump(AD) one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience(AE) vessels of wrath(AF) prepared for destruction, 23in order to make known(AG) the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he(AH) has prepared beforehand for glory— 24even us whom he(AI) has called,(AJ) not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?"-Rom. 9:1-24.
Paul spends the first 13 verses addressing the issue of why ethnic Israel was not saved. Has God reneged on His promises? No! God has not given up on Israel, and, as Paul explains in Rom. 11, He has set aside a remnant of believing Jews. Paul's point is ultimately, that God will save whomever He wills. He has mercy on whom He has mercy. We are we to talk back? Can we argue with God?
"all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and(B) he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
(C) and none can stay his hand
or(D) say to him, "What have you done?"-Daniel 4:35
"1The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he(A) turns it wherever he will."-Proverbs 21:1.
"3(A) Blessed be(B) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing(C) in the heavenly places, 4(D) even as he(E) chose us in him(F) before the foundation of the world, that we should be(G) holy and blameless before him. In love 5(H) he predestined us[a] for(I) adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,(J) according to the purpose of his will, 6(K) to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in(L) the Beloved. 7(M) In him we have(N) redemption(O) through his blood,(P) the forgiveness of our trespasses,(Q) according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9(R) making known[b] to us the mystery of his will,(S) according to his purpose, which he(T) set forth in Christ 10as a plan for(U) the fullness of time,(V) to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11In him we have obtained(W) an inheritance,(X) having been predestined(Y) according to the purpose of him who works all things according to(Z) the counsel of his will"-Eph. 1:3-11.
Here's another very controversial passage. Look at what it says! We are "predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will"-Eph. 1:11.
""Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
(Q) Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?'
or 'Your work has no handles'?
10Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting?'
or to a woman, 'With what are you in labor?'"
11Thus says(R) the LORD,
the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
(S) "Ask me of things to come;
will you command me(T) concerning my children and(U) the work of my hands?[b]
12(V) I made the earth
and created man on it;
it was my hands(W) that stretched out the heavens,
and(X) I commanded all their host.
13(Y) I have stirred him up in righteousness,
(Z) and I will make all his ways level;
(AA) he shall build my city
(AB) and set my exiles free,
not for price or reward,"
says the LORD of hosts."-Isaiah 45:9-13.
God tells us through Isaiah that He is going to use Cyrus to accomplish His purposes, and that we have no place to object. He divinely controls Cyrus' actions for His purpose. Indeed, in the very next chapter of Isaiah, we're told,
"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all My purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it."-Isaiah 46:10-11.
Notice that God's plan is portrayed here, not as predictive, but decretive. What He says is His decree. That is, God does not say what's going to happen because He knows it's going to happen - Rather, stuff happens because He speaks it into His existence.
The Bible says to "make your calling and election sure"-2 Pet. 1:10. Make sure you're one of the elect! We do this by calling on Jesus and obeying Him. God tells us to do these things. Does this mean we can do these things on our own? Of course not!
Jesus tells us, "Come to me..."(Matt. 11:28), but He also tells us that "No one can come to Me unless My Father who sent Me draws him..."(John 6:44). He tells us to "repent, [or] you will all likewise perish"(Luke 13:3). But we're told later on that repentance is a gift from God (2 Tim. 2:25). We're told that whoever believes will be saved (John 3:16), but we're also told that it is GRANTED to us to believe in Him (Phil. 1:29). We are told to seek God (Deut. 4:29), but we're told that "No one seeks for God"(Rom. 3:10-12).
You approach the Kingdom of God and observe a signpost that says "whosoever will"(Rev. 22:17), may freely partake in salvation. Those who enter the door, look behind them and see another signpost that says "chosen before the foundation of the world"-Eph. 1:4.
If you are chosen, don't think there was something special in you that prompted God to choose you. Quite the contrary! God does not reveal to us why He chose whom He did, but one thing is certain: none deserve salvation and all deserve damnation:
"Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded."-Rom. 3:27.
Amen!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A Common Misconception.
A stereotype concerning conservative, evangelical Christianity is that it must be intolerant, angry and full of hatred. While this is often the case, with folks like Brother Micah (whose theology is as warped as his attitude) and the Westboro Baptist Church (whence comes the horrid "God Hates Fags" nonsense), a truly Biblical Christianity must be loving, kind, patient, and should cater to the worst of the worst in society.
"though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15The saying is(F) trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,of whom I am the foremost."-1 Timothy 1:13-15
Paul tells us that he considers himself the worst of all sinners. He had formerly persecuted the Christian Church, having Christians put to death. Peter is another example of one who publicly denied Christ after having made a public profession, which is very serious. The Markan account even records him invoking an oath and swearing he never knew Him (Mark 14:66-72). Yet this is all in accord with God's plan of displaying His surpassing grace in liberating captives to sin from their slavery, and putting to shame those who boast in themselves or rely on their own power or device.
"but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are"-1 Corinthians 1:27-28.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXEXqMzLX1Y
^John MacArthur does an excellent job here of dispelling the stereotype against Christians that we're bigoted and hateful. He points out that we're not judging the sins of others worse than our sin, and that Christ's blood is sufficient for the sins of whoever genuinely repents, by turning from their sin and trusting in Christ's death on the cross as an atonement for their sins.
" 10"Two men(A) went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee,(B) standing by himself, prayed[a](C) thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12(D) I fast twice a week;(E) I give tithes of all that I get.' 13But the tax collector,(F) standing far off,(G) would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but(H) beat his breast, saying, 'God,(I) be merciful to me, a sinner!' 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For(J) everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."-Luke 18:10-14
Replace the Pharisee with a sleazy, hypocritical politician, and the tax collector with a Harlem drug dealer, and you have more or less the sense this parable is supposed to convey.
"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on an other you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man - you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself - that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"-Romans 2:1-4
"...there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith."-Romans 3:23-25
"Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law."-Romans 3:27-28
No one has any room to boast. Sin is so infinitely heinous in the eyes of God, that to try and argue that one person is "better" than the other is like trying to vindicate the character of Hitler by pointing out that he didn't kill as many people as Stalin. All have sinned and all short of the glory of God - to have ever lied is to be a liar, to have ever looked at someone with lust is to be an adulterer, to have ever stolen is to be a thief, to ever have used God's name in vain is to be a blasphemer - without some kind of payment, we have to face God on Judgment Day as lying, thieving, adulterous blasphemers. This is why Christ died on the cross - because nothing good we can do can justify ourselves.
We are all Hitlers and Stalins, since God's standards are perfect because He is perfect and He demands retribution for every sin because He is just. The only person to perfectly fulfill the perfect requirements of God's perfect Law is Christ Jesus, whose death and sacrifice is acceptable because He lived a perfect life. He lived a perfect life and died punished as though a sinner, having identified as such for the sake of His sheep, so that guilty sinners who actually deserve that kind of punishment could have Christ's perfect righteousness credited to Him provided they believe He did this for them.
"though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15The saying is(F) trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,of whom I am the foremost."-1 Timothy 1:13-15
Paul tells us that he considers himself the worst of all sinners. He had formerly persecuted the Christian Church, having Christians put to death. Peter is another example of one who publicly denied Christ after having made a public profession, which is very serious. The Markan account even records him invoking an oath and swearing he never knew Him (Mark 14:66-72). Yet this is all in accord with God's plan of displaying His surpassing grace in liberating captives to sin from their slavery, and putting to shame those who boast in themselves or rely on their own power or device.
"but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are"-1 Corinthians 1:27-28.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXEXqMzLX1Y
^John MacArthur does an excellent job here of dispelling the stereotype against Christians that we're bigoted and hateful. He points out that we're not judging the sins of others worse than our sin, and that Christ's blood is sufficient for the sins of whoever genuinely repents, by turning from their sin and trusting in Christ's death on the cross as an atonement for their sins.
" 10"Two men(A) went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee,(B) standing by himself, prayed[a](C) thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12(D) I fast twice a week;(E) I give tithes of all that I get.' 13But the tax collector,(F) standing far off,(G) would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but(H) beat his breast, saying, 'God,(I) be merciful to me, a sinner!' 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For(J) everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."-Luke 18:10-14
Replace the Pharisee with a sleazy, hypocritical politician, and the tax collector with a Harlem drug dealer, and you have more or less the sense this parable is supposed to convey.
"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on an other you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man - you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself - that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"-Romans 2:1-4
"...there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith."-Romans 3:23-25
"Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law."-Romans 3:27-28
No one has any room to boast. Sin is so infinitely heinous in the eyes of God, that to try and argue that one person is "better" than the other is like trying to vindicate the character of Hitler by pointing out that he didn't kill as many people as Stalin. All have sinned and all short of the glory of God - to have ever lied is to be a liar, to have ever looked at someone with lust is to be an adulterer, to have ever stolen is to be a thief, to ever have used God's name in vain is to be a blasphemer - without some kind of payment, we have to face God on Judgment Day as lying, thieving, adulterous blasphemers. This is why Christ died on the cross - because nothing good we can do can justify ourselves.
We are all Hitlers and Stalins, since God's standards are perfect because He is perfect and He demands retribution for every sin because He is just. The only person to perfectly fulfill the perfect requirements of God's perfect Law is Christ Jesus, whose death and sacrifice is acceptable because He lived a perfect life. He lived a perfect life and died punished as though a sinner, having identified as such for the sake of His sheep, so that guilty sinners who actually deserve that kind of punishment could have Christ's perfect righteousness credited to Him provided they believe He did this for them.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Holiness and the professing Christian.
Something I've noticed that is often considered trivial, though is actually very important, is holiness. To be holy is to set apart.
"Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, 'You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy."-Leviticus 19:2
"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."-1 Peter 1:15-16.
On the one hand, it is true that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works (that is, not by what we do):
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."-Ephesians 2:8-9.
However, the Bible is clear that true, saving faith must be accompanied by works, both in loving conduct toward one's fellow man, charity, and putting sin to death:
"16But I say,AD)">(AD) walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratifyAE)">(AE) the desires of the flesh. 17ForAF)">(AF) the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other,AG)">(AG) to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you areAH)">(AH) led by the Spirit,AI)">(AI) you are not under the law. 19NowAJ)">(AJ) the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,AK)">(AK) divisions, 21envy,d]">[d] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, thatAL)">(AL) those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."-Galatians 5:16-21.
"...if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit youW)">(W) put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."-Romans 8:13
"Strive for peace with everyone, and for theX)">(X) holinessY)">(Y) without which no one will see the Lord"-Hebrews 12:14.
""Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easya]">[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14For the gate is narrow andB)">(B) the way is hard that leads to life, andC)">(C) those who find it are few."-Matthew 7:13-14.
"He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching andZ)">(Z) journeying toward Jerusalem. 23And someone said to him, "Lord,AA)">(AA) will those who are saved be few?" And he said to them, 24AB)">(AB) "StriveAC)">(AC) to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able."-Luke 13:22-23.
Other than the fact that humans are hopelessly depraved (without the Holy Spirit), why is it that so many professing Christians don't see transformation as a big deal? Some of it has to do with "cultural Christian", which itself comes from poor readings of texts.
"And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness"-Romans 4:5.
What's this passage saying? Is it saying that all we need to do is cognitively assent to correct Christian dogma and then we can sit around eating bon-bons and waiting for the endtimes? Of course not. Paul is just saying that we are SAVED by faith, and not by works. As chapters 6-8 of Romans clearly indicate, Paul is very concerned with faith being something transformative. If it's not, you're probably not saved. Paul's point in Romans 4:5 is similar to the point he makes in Romans 10:1-4:
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God fo rthem is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for god, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteuosness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to god's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law of righteousness to everyone who believes."-Romans 10:1-4.
Paul is talking about the Jews, who believed they could be justified by works. He is simply saying that the bedrock of our salvation is faith and not works; but he would heartily affirm that true saving faith must result in works.
"What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?"-Romans 6:15-17.
Living life in perpetual sin is evidence of not being saved. That doesn't mean we won't struggle with sin (see Romans 7:14-25), but we should not be continually in bondage to it anymore. We don't do it uncontrollably and compulsively. Christ died on the cross as a substitution for sinners so that His perfect righteousness could be credited to whoever believes He did this for them. This means we should be progressively conformed to His nature. For someone to know that they are saved by the grace of God, by Christ having died on the cross as a substitute, having born the wrath of God for your sins, should fill you with a desire to live spontaneously as Christ did. That this is considered trivial by so many professing Christians is unsurprising, since as Jesus Himself says, the way is narrow, and few find it.
"Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, 'You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy."-Leviticus 19:2
"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."-1 Peter 1:15-16.
On the one hand, it is true that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works (that is, not by what we do):
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."-Ephesians 2:8-9.
However, the Bible is clear that true, saving faith must be accompanied by works, both in loving conduct toward one's fellow man, charity, and putting sin to death:
"16But I say,AD)">(AD) walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratifyAE)">(AE) the desires of the flesh. 17ForAF)">(AF) the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other,AG)">(AG) to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you areAH)">(AH) led by the Spirit,AI)">(AI) you are not under the law. 19NowAJ)">(AJ) the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,AK)">(AK) divisions, 21envy,d]">[d] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, thatAL)">(AL) those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."-Galatians 5:16-21.
"...if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit youW)">(W) put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."-Romans 8:13
"Strive for peace with everyone, and for theX)">(X) holinessY)">(Y) without which no one will see the Lord"-Hebrews 12:14.
""Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easya]">[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14For the gate is narrow andB)">(B) the way is hard that leads to life, andC)">(C) those who find it are few."-Matthew 7:13-14.
"He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching andZ)">(Z) journeying toward Jerusalem. 23And someone said to him, "Lord,AA)">(AA) will those who are saved be few?" And he said to them, 24AB)">(AB) "StriveAC)">(AC) to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able."-Luke 13:22-23.
Other than the fact that humans are hopelessly depraved (without the Holy Spirit), why is it that so many professing Christians don't see transformation as a big deal? Some of it has to do with "cultural Christian", which itself comes from poor readings of texts.
"And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness"-Romans 4:5.
What's this passage saying? Is it saying that all we need to do is cognitively assent to correct Christian dogma and then we can sit around eating bon-bons and waiting for the endtimes? Of course not. Paul is just saying that we are SAVED by faith, and not by works. As chapters 6-8 of Romans clearly indicate, Paul is very concerned with faith being something transformative. If it's not, you're probably not saved. Paul's point in Romans 4:5 is similar to the point he makes in Romans 10:1-4:
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God fo rthem is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for god, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteuosness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to god's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law of righteousness to everyone who believes."-Romans 10:1-4.
Paul is talking about the Jews, who believed they could be justified by works. He is simply saying that the bedrock of our salvation is faith and not works; but he would heartily affirm that true saving faith must result in works.
"What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?"-Romans 6:15-17.
Living life in perpetual sin is evidence of not being saved. That doesn't mean we won't struggle with sin (see Romans 7:14-25), but we should not be continually in bondage to it anymore. We don't do it uncontrollably and compulsively. Christ died on the cross as a substitution for sinners so that His perfect righteousness could be credited to whoever believes He did this for them. This means we should be progressively conformed to His nature. For someone to know that they are saved by the grace of God, by Christ having died on the cross as a substitute, having born the wrath of God for your sins, should fill you with a desire to live spontaneously as Christ did. That this is considered trivial by so many professing Christians is unsurprising, since as Jesus Himself says, the way is narrow, and few find it.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sin and Psyche.
http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=1447
Mental illness is increasing and, according to the World Health Organization, "will be the second biggest cause of death and disability by 2020."
"An estimated 20 percent of children have a mental illness that causes at least mild functional impairment, but only 5 percent receive any kind of mental health care (1,2,3). Antidepressant medications are among the psychotropic medications most commonly prescribed for children and adolescents, and their use is increasing dramatically (4). In 1993-1994, children below the age of 18 years were six times as likely as in 1985 to receive a prescription for an antidepressant; between 1990 and 1996, the total number of prescriptions of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for children and adolescents increased by 69 percent (5,6,7). Despite this dramatic increase in use, there is little understanding of what mental health conditions these agents are being used to treat. It is possible that their use is outpacing existing clinical evidence of their efficacy."
http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/53/11/1444
From the Christian perspective, mental illness is not caused by unresolved parent-issues or repressed desire, but by sin, and by suppressing the truth in unrighteousness:
"For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them..."-Romans 1:18-19
"...you always resist the Holy Spirit."-Acts 7:51
"...and when He [The Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."-John 16:8
"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.”-Jeremiah 2:13
“O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the LORD.”-Jeremiah 17:13
The reductionist approach to psychology, as the term implies, "reduces" one's illness to stemming from this or that source. A Freudian psychoanalyst will reduce it to sexual hangups or unresolved father-issues, an Adlerian'll reduce it to an inferiority complex, a behaviorist will reduce it to maladaptive habits, a cognitive psychologist will reduce it to intellectual distortions about the world, etc. It doesn't take a lotta philosophical gymnastics to consider that maybe mental illness can have a fundamentally theological origin. Even Carl Jung, a one-time colleague of Sigmund Freud, suggested that, rather than God being a projection of parental idealization, the reverse, on purely philosophcial grounds, could be true. Why couldn't idealization of parents be rooted in a Sensus Divinitatis, or indwelling sense of the divine, as theologian and Reformer John Calvin posited (and there are certainly passages that seem to read that way: Rom. 2:12-16)?
King David is notorious for his bouts of depression, and his notorious "frenemy" King Saul is also well-known for his mental instability. Both of their problems, Scripturally, are clearly related to sin.
"B)">(B) Have mercy on me,a]">[a] O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to yourC)">(C) abundant mercy
D)">(D) blot out my transgressions.
2E)">(E) Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
andF)">(F) cleanse me from my sin!
3G)">(G) For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4H)">(H) Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evilI)">(I) in your sight,
J)">(J) so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5Behold,K)">(K) I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6Behold, you delight in truth inL)">(L) the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7Purge meM)">(M) with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
N)">(N) wash me, and I shall beO)">(O) whiter than snow.
8Let me hear joy and gladness;
P)">(P) let the bonesQ)">(Q) that you have broken rejoice.
9R)">(R) Hide your face from my sins,
andS)">(S) blot out all my iniquities.
10T)">(T) Create in me aU)">(U) clean heart, O God,
andV)">(V) renew a rightb]">[b] spirit within me.
11W)">(W) Cast me not away from your presence,
and take notX)">(X) your Holy Spirit from me.
12Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners willY)">(Y) return to you.
14Deliver me fromZ)">(Z) bloodguiltiness, O God,
OAA)">(AA) God of my salvation,
andAB)">(AB) my tongue will sing aloud of yourAC)">(AC) righteousness.
15O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16AD)">(AD) For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17The sacrifices of God areAE)">(AE) a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18AF)">(AF) Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
AG)">(AG) build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19then will you delight inAH)">(AH) right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings andAI)">(AI) whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar."-Psalm 51
This is probably the most famous of the Penitential Psalms. David confesses his sins and asks God to restore to him the joy of God's salvation - and we see this even more explicitly in another Penitential Psalm, Psalm 32:
1A)">(A) Blessed is the one whoseB)">(B) transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2Blessed is the man against whom the LORDC)">(C) counts no iniquity,
and in whose spiritD)">(D) there is no deceit.
3For when I kept silent, myE)">(E) bones wasted away
through myF)">(F) groaning all day long.
4For day and night yourG)">(G) hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried upb]">[b] as by the heat of summer.
Selah
5IH)">(H) acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, "II)">(I) will confess my transgressions to the LORD,"
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Selah
6Therefore let everyone who isJ)">(J) godly
offer prayer to you at a time when youK)">(K) may be found;
surely in the rush ofL)">(L) great waters,
they shall not reach him.
7You are aM)">(M) hiding place for me;
you preserve me fromN)">(N) trouble;
you surround me withO)">(O) shouts of deliverance.
Selah
8I willP)">(P) instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I willQ)">(Q) counsel you with my eye upon you.
9R)">(R) Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed withS)">(S) bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.
10T)">(T) Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one whoU)">(U) trusts in the LORD.
11V)">(V) Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous,
andW)">(W) shout for joy, all youX)">(X) upright in heart!"-Psalm 32
A true Christian can tell you about a distinct and unmistakable melancholy that overcomes us when we sin - and the supremely light, airy, and indescribable joy that comes with successful walking with God. Sin, for both believers and unbelievers, causes an agonizing disconnect from God:
"Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or His ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear."-Isaiah 59:1-2
Not being disconnected from God causes immense joy:
"...God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."-Romans 5:5
"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God..."-Romans 8:16
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace..."-Galatians 5:22
"...whoever drinks of the water that I will give himL)">(L) will never be thirsty again.b]">[b] The water that I will give him will becomeM)">(M) in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."-John 4:14
"Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst"-John 6:35
From a Christian perspective, all this comes from man rebellion against God, which, in reality, is rebellion not only against God, but against his own nature. This rebellion has taken a peculiar form in our society. As Christopher Lasch writes in his famous The Culture of Narcissism:
“Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the “psychological man” of the twentieth century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind, under conditions that increasingly militate against it. Therapists, not priests or popular preachers of self-help or models of success like the captains of industry, become his principal allies in the struggle for composure; he turns to them in the hope of achieving this modern equivalent of salvation, “mental health.” Therapy has established itself as the successor both to rugged individualism and to religion; but this does not mean that the “triumph of the therapeutic” has become a new religion in its own right. Therapy constitutes an antireligion, not always to be sure because it adheres to rational explanation or scientific methods of healing, as its practitioners would have us believe, but because modern society “has no future” and therefore gives no thought to anything beyond its immediate needs. Even when therapists speak of the need for “meaning” and “love,” they define love and meaning simply as the fulfillment of the patients' emotional requirements. It hardly occurs to them - nor is there any reason why it should, given the nature of the therapeutic enterprise - to encourage the subject to subordinate his needs and interests to those of others, to someone or some cause or tradition outside himself. “Love” as self-sacrifice or self-abasement, “meaning” as submission to a higher - loyalty - these sublimations strike the therapeutic sensibility as intolerably oppressive, offensive to common sense and injurious to personal health and well-being. To liberate humanity from such outmoded ideas of love and duty has become the mission of the post-Freudian therapies and particularly of their converts and popularizers, for whom mental health means the overthrow of inhibitions and the immediate gratification of every impulse.”- page 13
Man submits himself to nothing when he should be submitting himself to God. The sociologist Durkheim described the sort of postmodern condition we exist in now as "anomie," a kind of cultural anarchism he associated less with liberation and more with despair (which, as we see in Christopher Lasch's "The Culture of Narcissism", is more or less on the mark). I find it somehow apropos that the Greek word used in the New Testament for lawlessness is "anomos", used in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 to describe the Antichrist - which Nietzsche, practically a patron saint of postmodern philosophy, described himself as.
“Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”-John 6:35
“I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.”-Ecclesiastes 2:1
"For I satisfy the weary ones and refresh everyone who languishes."-Jeremiah 31:25
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”-John 7:37
“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.”-Isaiah 55:2
Christ's sacrifice on the cross liberates us from the misery of sin and puts us into direct connection with God. It allows us to "know" God. The word used in the Bible for "know" in the Bible, when used in relation to God, typically signifies an intimate relationship. But we can't have this relationship with God as long as we're in bondage to sin:
"You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong..."-Habakkuk 1:13
The moment we call on Jesus and truly Christ in His sacrifice as all-sufficient for payment of our sins, a real, metaphysical pathway is opened up to God. We are then in a position to "know" God:
"...if anyone loves God, He is known by God."-1 Corinthians 8:3
"But now that you have come to know God, or rather be known by God..."-Galatians 4:9
"Those whom He foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son..."-Romans 8:29
"No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him"-1 John 3:6
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are made right with God the Father freely through His free gift - that free gift is Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Jesus lived a perfect life so that His sacrifice would be acceptable to God the Father. Nothing we can do can be acceptable to Him since we are already guilty of sin, and need an atonement to have that sin forgiven, thus opening up contact with Him once again. Christ lived a perfect sacrifice only to be punished as though a sinner so that sinners who actually deserve that punishment could have Christ's righteousness credited to them, provided He did this for them.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
To Mr. Dawkins.
Dear Richard Dawkins,
I would like to to apologize for not knowing you sooner so that I could warn you in advance against publishing your anti-religion work. Not simply I myself am "religious", but because your arguments are worse than merely unconvincing - they're uninteresting and unoriginal. I am sorry that you dwell on the bottom rung of the anti-theistic militants like Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris, whose arguments, while equally unconvincing, are at least more interesting.
Perhaps I could have prevented you from becoming the laughingstock of even many non- and anti-theistic thinkers who consider your (mis)understanding of basic theology comparable to that of a high schooler. If only we had been classmates, I could have rescued you from your Anglican upbringing and ushered you into a Presbyterian or Reformed Baptist Church! Ezekiel 3:18 certainly provides a sober warning as far as warning others goes:
""When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand."-Ezekiel 3:18
The reason I didn't was because of temporal and geographical inconvenience. Write something more interesting you miserable apostate!
Your friend,
Daniel
I would like to to apologize for not knowing you sooner so that I could warn you in advance against publishing your anti-religion work. Not simply I myself am "religious", but because your arguments are worse than merely unconvincing - they're uninteresting and unoriginal. I am sorry that you dwell on the bottom rung of the anti-theistic militants like Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris, whose arguments, while equally unconvincing, are at least more interesting.
Perhaps I could have prevented you from becoming the laughingstock of even many non- and anti-theistic thinkers who consider your (mis)understanding of basic theology comparable to that of a high schooler. If only we had been classmates, I could have rescued you from your Anglican upbringing and ushered you into a Presbyterian or Reformed Baptist Church! Ezekiel 3:18 certainly provides a sober warning as far as warning others goes:
""When I say to the wicked, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand."-Ezekiel 3:18
The reason I didn't was because of temporal and geographical inconvenience. Write something more interesting you miserable apostate!
Your friend,
Daniel
An example of the presuppositional apologetics of Cornelius Van Til and Howard Clark.
The debate surrounding religious pluralism hinges largely on the relation of our capacity to know, to reality itself, that is, to what is known. Religious pluralists typically believe something to the effect that all religions are correct, that they’re all paths to the same god, or perhaps that none of them are correct, and we all have the right to believe whatever we want. I’m addressing, more specifically, the idea that no one of any religion can justifiably dispute the truth claim(s) of another religion – and more broadly, I plan on relating this debate to the nature of knowledge claims itself. My mode of argumentation throughout this post is not original, but draws on the “presuppositional” style of argumentation pioneered by philosophers/Christian apologists Cornelius Van Til and Howard Clark.
It’s often argued that since there are many religions, it doesn’t make sense to claim that one is correct to the exclusion of the others, as though appealing to the reality of diversity proves anything except that diversity exists. This is not to deny that social norms and linguistic conventions affect our perspectives on reality. I can’t imagine anyone denying that. But to then conclude from this fact that all realities are legitimate (or that none of them are legitimate) is such a bold jump that does not logically follow, that I think this mentality is based more on an agnostic view of reality which sees the truth as impossible to determine, and so we might as well just get along if we can’t know for sure, right? The appeal to diversity, and the apparent impossibility of knowing for sure who is correct (the former often being caused by the latter), both link up to create a philosophy where anything goes, as though it’s ethically wrong or fundamentally in bad taste to dispute the truth claims of one system of belief and/or to assert the exclusive truth of another. Ultimately, I agree that the the task of figuring out on what kind of knowledge claims are reliable is a difficult one, but a point needs to be made emphasizing the necessity and inevitability of assuming some kind of foundational presupposition when it comes to making knowledge claims.
One might reply to the pluralist that the presence of diversity in scientific theories by no means entails that all theories have equal standing to the truth (though postmodernists will often claim this). A popular counter-objection to this response is that knowledge of spiritual things is by a fundamentally different means of knowing, that is, by intuition, revelation, or faith, rather than through sense experience, induction, experimentation, etc, and as such, unverifiable, leaving us in a state of irremediable agnosticism in which we totally despair of the truth. As a Christian, I do accept this distinction between different ways of knowing:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”-Hebrews 11:1
“…for we walk by faith, not by sight”-2 Corinthians 5:7
While I accept this distinction between different ways of knowing, I consider faith superior to reason and sense experience. Most people accept as self-evident that reason and science are fundamentally more reliable modes of knowing. I accept as self-evident that God’s revealed Word in the Bible is a fundamentally more reliable mode of knowing (and that, unless it precedes and conditions science and reason, the latter two are hopelessly corrupt and lead one into error when mobilized).
Ultimately, we all come to the table with our own assumptions about reality, and no ideology, worldview, religion, or philosophical system, is completely neutral, no matter how hard we try to make it neutral, or attempt to assume common ground with all parties in the debate. To say that scientific knowledge is reliable because it proceeds by way of the senses, induction, and experimentation, proceeds from the presupposition that these modes of knowing are more reliable than revelation, and that the autonomous human mind is a reliable means of acquiring knowledge without assistance from God or some means of divine revelation. I, as a Christian, also have my own presuppositions about the nature of reality, the nature of knowledge, and how the two are bound up with one another. Again, as a Christian, I accept as self-evident that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and the Bible claims for itself this authority.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”-Proverbs 3:5.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”-Psalm 111:10.
And the Bible is clear about the effects of sin on the intellect:
“For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…”-Romans 1:21-22
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.”-Romans 3:10-11
18For the word of the cross is(A) folly to(B) those who are perishing, but to us(C) who are being saved it is(D) the power of God. 19For it is written,
(E) "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
20(F) Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?(G) Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22For(H) Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ(I) crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ(J) the power of God and(K) the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
“3And even(A) if our gospel is veiled,(B) it is veiled only to(C) those who are perishing. 4In their case(D) the god of this world(E) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing(F) the light of(G) the gospel of the glory of Christ,(H) who is the image of God.”-2 Corinthians 4:3-4
So we see that depending on scientific knowledge and reason, on the one hand, has its own presuppositions about the nature of the knowing human subject (namely, that the autonomous human being is an entity who can reliably acquire undistorted knowledge about the world). This belief lies on an unproven assumption that is simply taken for granted. The Christian worldview holds to the assumptions that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, that faith in the God of the Bible is superior to reason and sense experience (and that the latter two are hopelessly corrupt and deceptive without being undergirded by the former).
While accepting on faith that the Bible is the Word of God because the Bible says the Word of God, is oftentimes dismissed as circular, I argue that simply accepting as self-evident that ANY ideology, or means of knowing, is, in a sense, circular, because it must accept as true something unproven, that is, by faith. To prove anything as true, we must assume the reliability of a certain methodology, presuppose the inspiration a certain religious text, etc., in order to mobilize it in defense of a belief, and we are left having to defend the means we used to defend the belief (For example, if I argue that sense experience is reliable, I have to resort to something else to prove that it’s reliable, perhaps its frequent success in predicting the behavior of the material world, and I would then have to prove by another means that what I used to prove the reliability of sense experience is itself reliable, and an infinite regress follows).
A brief comparison of Theravada Buddhism and Christianity will help illustrate the fundamentally antagonistic and mutually exclusive nature of claims about reality. I consider Buddhism an especially instructive example of this reality, because it tends to be viewed as relatively inclusivistic, when on closer inspection, both its explicit and implicit claims to inclusivism, are, in reality, pretty exclusivistic.
The Christian perspective rejects any kind of inclusivism, universalism or pluralism, but holds that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”-Acts 4:12. Buddhism holds that our “salvation” comes in the form of freeing ourselves from attachment to earthly desires and cravings, that any religion which adheres to the Four Seals of the Dharma qualify as Buddhist, and that salvation is basically the result of the completion of a reform program, by which the human is progressively perfected. Anyone who has ever studied Theravada Buddhism knows that it is a relatively unique religion, and that few religions satisfy its rather restrictive criteria for a religion which leads effectively to salvation.
The Buddha even ends up telling us that, though we ought to test for ourselves what we think works best, and agrees with our common sense, we eventually have to ultimately put our full faith and trust in the Buddha’s method of salvation. The Buddhist ends up saying something like, “you can be any religion you want, as long as it’s Buddhist.” I hope to make it clear that, for the Buddha to ask us to test a belief system with our common sense, is horribly problematic, especially in light of the Buddha’s very non-commonsensical denial of the existence of the self, of anything static or unchanging, and reincarnation (At least the Christian worldview admits that its beliefs are “foolishness” to those whom God has decided not to predestine to salvation (1 Cor. 1:18-25)).
Christianity rejects Buddhism as proceeding from a worldview which denies the existence of sin – sin being disobeying and rebelling against God, and that all sin against God incurs a legal debt which must be paid, which is only paid through Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God in the flesh, who bore God the Father’s wrath on the cross, thereby atoning for sins and placating the wrath of God toward those who believe. The Buddhist sees good deeds and tracing harmful habits to their origins as conducive to salvation, whereas the Christian denies that any “good” will suffice to placate God’s wrath, since God’s wrath is directed toward wrong committed against Him. For the Christian, the idea that we can save ourselves through reform or good deeds or psychological conditioning, would be comparable to Hitler living to stand trial and asking if he could wipe away his crimes through good deeds.
The Buddhist denies the existence of anything static or invariant, whereas the Christian sees God as static, invariant, eternal, personal, demanding obedience, and saving believers by grace (grace being God’s unmerited favor towards those who deserve His eternal wrath) through faith (faith being trust in God the Father, who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who is also God, to live a perfect life, thus making His sacrifice acceptable to God the Father, only so Christ could die on a cross, in order that sinners who actually deserve such punishment might have Christ’s perfect righteousness credited to them, provided they believe He did this for them).
The postmodernist also, who tries his best to be as inclusivistic as possible, ends up ruling out ANY belief which would claim for itself exclusive truth (and there are many). Such attempted exclusivism is pretty inclusivistic. Postmodernism is a difficult-to-define intellectual current associated with the idea that all truth is subjective (that is, that there is no truth), and that all truth claims are simply attempts of one locus of power to impose its beliefs on another, and that the sociocultural realm is nothing but this dynamic of competing power relations. I would agree with postmodernists that the competition for beliefs has a lot to do with one belief overpowering another, rather than disinterestedly presenting one truth claim against another, and that non-Christian belief systems are being marshaled not by someone disinterestedly presenting a belief system, but rather,
“…the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind…”-Ephesians 2:2-3.
And as for the Christian who presents the Gospel:
“…the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.”-1 Corinthians 4:20.
“”…I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”-Romans 1:16
It is indeed implied that belief is not a merely intellectual phenomenon, but rooted in both desire and power, which precede intellectual belief, and determine the contents of the intellect (it’s interesting to note that two of the most important postmodernist philosophers, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault, considered desire and power, respectively, the most fundamental determinants of the emergence of phenomena).
From a Christian perspective, what we believe, and the paths we walk (which are inseparable), in the end, are inseparably related to, and even determined by, whether our desire is for sin, or for God, whether we have the power of God, or are under the power of the devil; and our intellectual beliefs, regardless of what they are, always rely on certain unquestioned assumptions about reality, which reveal our unquestioned intellectual sympathies (themselves revealing, undergirded by, what power we’re under, and what we desire). Both of these truths are perhaps summed up most concisely by Jesus Himself, who tells us that:
“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters.”-Matthew 12:30.
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