Think Wink.

1 John 4:8, 16 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love...we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”  Here we learn one of the many deep facits of God’s character.  It is important to know that God is a loving God.  He loves all that are his own.  His love is pure and undefiled.  It is a love that is righteous and just.  Does this love extends to all of the world equally?  I say know.  Turn to Ephesians 5:25,

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Many people do not fully take the time to read this verse in its entirety and read its full implications.  Here the text is in the part of Ephesians that speaks of how a husband and wife should interact with each other inside a Christian marriage.  Following this passage Paul speaks of how children should interact inside a family with their parents.

Now examine the command here, “Husbands, love your wifes.”  It is a command to agape your bride.  Now in what way are husbands to love their wives?  In the same way that Christ loves.  Paul says, “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  Note what it says carefully.  Christ loved the church so much that he gave himself for her.  The Greek word that Paul uses for “gave” is used in Ephesians 5:2, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  Paul is meaning this giving up as the sacrifice made on the cross.  He loved his bride, his church, so much that he went to the cross for them.

Notice what Paul didn’t say in this text, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the world and gave himself up for it.”  Paul said in stead “church” and “her.”  God loves the church in a way that he was moved to sacrifice the Son for her.  God does not love the world in the same way.  All husbands who read this, will you tell me that you would sacrifice for some woman you have randomly met on the street or even the closest girl to you in the same way that you would for your wife?  I would hope not.  Would she be that special to your heart?  Observing my dad, he will not let myself or anyone else speak negatively of his wife.  Not even his own children nor anyone else in or out of his family.  He does not tolerate it.  Why?  Because she is his wife!  This is the love that Paul speaks of here in this text between a husband and wife and between Christ and the church.

I plead with my brothers and sisters to not put limits on God’s love so that it has to only be an egalitarian love for the whole world and that he cannot love the church in one way and everyone else in another way.  Yes Jesus loves the world.  It is his creation.  If he did not love it, why go through all of the effort to renew it in Revelation 21-22?  But that renewal is for the bride to dwell with her Husband.  I plead that you will pray for that love that God has for his bride to fall upon you if you have never experienced that special love.

Justice and equality.

Mercy and Equality

Edwards, Mercy, Fairness, and Predestination

Last night I had a revelation. I love Greek. I have been officially learning Greek for the last three weeks. I have studied independently and haven’t countered what is in my text books so I wasn’t too far off. Last night I was reading in my Greek New Testament and realized that in only three weeks I can now translate Galatians 1:1-3. That is exciting to me. I have enough vocabulary and a basic knowledge of the articles and 2nd declension to know almost precisely what the Greek is saying.

I find myself wishing that I hadn’t taken Spanish at SBU. I seems to be becoming more and more of a waste of credit hours. Don’t get me wrong, I know there are benefits to knowing Spanish in today’s world. However, I am going to need a knowledge of the Greek if I am going to effectively preach my flock the word of God. It is like my Greek professor said, with a regular telescope, a person can see some beautiful stars. But those stars are hazy and blurred. With the Hubble Telescope, all of those stars come in clear because the atmosphere no longer hazes the image. The lens of the telescope has a clear shot at the stars. The same applies to Greek. I can study and know the word of God, but it will be hazy and almost incomplete of intimate details. Knowing the Greek language makes the text come alive and brings me into a more intimate knowledge of the word.

I wish that all would learn Greek, and even Hebrew for the Old testament, so that they can draw closer to God and share in my excitement in reading the exact meaning of what the biblical writers wrote. It is so exciting.

Pre-Pre-load Psalm

Thoughts in Light of 9/11

Pure Enjoyment

For a whole month I spent about four hours every day prayerfully reading through the Scriptures trying to defeat Calvinism. I started on March 26, 2005. I concluded my search on April 26, 2005. I considered many texts from the New Testament and the Old Testament. I considered topics outside the scope of soteriology into prayer and evangelism. I came to head knowledge of Calvinism being right. I felt very rebuked in this study because I was taking my mentors’ words over the Scripture. I avoided certain parts of the Bible because of my non-Calvinist stance.

About April 9th, I bought a brand new, red Chevy Cobalt (2005). I was so excited. I missed the manual Saturn I had but I had new car smell. I turned twenty-one during that time and got myself a sugar high. El Salvador came and played at SBU. May 14th, 2005 was the week of finals and the week that Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was to be released. I stayed home because I was very tired that Sunday night from working outside pushing carts at Sam’s Club. I got up and left about 10:00 am. I stopped and got some gasoline for the car. About ten miles down the road, 10:15 am, my phone rings and I look to see who is calling. The next thing I knew was that I was on the shoulder of the passing lane about to go around a corner and the shoulder was a big drop. Freaked out I tried to swerve back onto the road but lost control and spun around into the other lane and off the side of the road, rolling over, and landing on the wheels in a deep pit. I had been passing a semi and luckily he saw me and braked so he didn’t plow into my car and kill me. I had a bump on my forehead and I was missing my cell phone to call anyone.

Now this is horrific no doubt but what does this have to with my journey. Calvinism has a strong emphasis upon God ordaining things to happen. Well, let me see…that Friday I paid my insurance and the agent and I talked about how well the Cobalt had done in crash testing. My mother was supposed to go into he salon and do some work. She was going to follow me into town because I have to drive through Jefferson City to go to Bolivar and that’s where her salon was located. But my aunt was to come and see the house we had just built the summer before. So instead of going to her salon, a phone number I didn’t know and would not have been able to call as it was in my cell and it was unaccounted for, she stayed home to clean more. I was followed by a Southern Boone County emergency worker who stopped and checked on me, so did the trucker too. He let me use his phone to call home. My dad at the very moment I crashed remembered that he needed to go out to his truck and charge his phone. If that had not happened, mom would not have been able to get a hold of him because she didn’t have his office number and I couldn’t think to get his card out of my wallet.

You might call that providence and be right. However, I could see God behind this crash and I did something I had never done in my life up to that point. I rejoiced! I praised God that he saved my life and that I could still breath and see my little sister! Up until I really studied Calvinism, I was a non-Calvinist who was very works oriented. I thought that I could lose my salvation and that I could upset God and do something to revoke it. But when I had studied these doctrines I knew that God was not upset with me.

This wasn’t an act of Satan but an act of God to really see if I believed what I thought. He did this to link my heart and my mind. I was certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is sovereign to cause that crash to drive me to him. I did not need to question him. Everything in Scripture came to a new life that I had never seen before!

That next October I was given ten questions for a Calvinist to answer. I took them on to see if I really believed them. But as I studied to answer the questions, I became even more certain of its doctrinal truthfulness. Since the decision to become a Calvinist, my relationship with God has become strengthened. My studies are deeper and fuller because I don’t shy from any text. Nothing is off limits too me, yes even the genealogies. My prayers are more personal and more captivating. I can see God’s goodness in any circumstance. God is bigger than I had originally thought. He is more majestic than I had ever been led to believe by anyone, even my mentors.

Father, I thank you for you soveriegnty and for your glory. Father I thank you that you saved me from my sin that had earned nothing from you but hatred and condemnation. God I thank you that you revealed youself to me in the Scriptures and that in the Bible you have given me all I will and can possibly ever need to know! Thank you, Father, for Jesus Christ. Apart from I am nothing. God I thank you that you have set your love upon me from eternity past and sought me out as a husband does his bride, a father his child. I thank you that you sacrificed Jesus for my sin that I may know you. I thank you that you raised him from the dead and gave me the hope of eternal life. Your glory is all that I live for. I live to share it with others for your glory is the cross and the empty tomb, Father. I pray that you will use me to save souls this day. I go out in the confidence of your soveriegnty and purpose to take the gospel message to the world and see the results you would have to bring. I love Yahweh, Jehovah. I love Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ. I love you Holy Spirit who has sealed me and gifted me with the gift to preach the word. Bless all who would read this site and these posts to know you more fully. It is in the holy and sacred name of Jesus I pray. Amen!

Some Interesting Bits

Why I am a Calvinist

Pure Enjoyment

I have just taken a few more moments to reflect upon the atrocity of 9/11.  I heard a text that really makes me think back upon what happened and what to think in light of it.  The text is Luke 13:1-8,

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.  Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Many people ask where was God when 9/11 occured?  Why did this happened?  Why didn’t God stop it from happening?  Those are tough questions to ponder and quite frankly, I don’t know.  But upon reading this text, something struck me.  We are appalled when innocent people die.  In something that atrocious, we are disgusted and upset.  I’ll never forget the look of my high school business teacher and super intendent when I saw for the first time the TV that morning.  My class could barely take the quiz we had planned that day.  I asked those very same questions.

But are we focusing upon the right thing?  Are we supposed to become awestruck by the death of the innocent?  I don’t know if that is the reason why these things happen.  Look at the text above.  There are two tragic events that occurred in Jewish history.  Pilate was cruel to the Jewish people.  He was noted for his multiple attacks upon the Jewish people.  It was so bad that he was warned by the emperor under pain of death to stop.  The people want to know from Jesus what he thought about those tragic events.  Jesus answer was, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  He said yes they are dead, but unless you repent, you will too!  In other words, your alive!  Be thankful that your not and turn to God in repentance.  Turn to God in grace and live!

He even goes one step farther in v. 4-5, “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  We are all sinners.  We should have all been in the tower of Siloam.  We should have all been in the World Trade Center that day.  We should have all perished with those who died.  Not only so, we should have received a thousand times worse!  But we didn’t!  God was gracious to us who did not die!  We lived!  Why?  Not because we were better but so that we might repent!

Our focus now needs to be on the fact that we are alive and not dwell upon the dead.  This does not mean that we cannot morn our dead.  That needs to happen.  They were mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, and cousins.  They were loved deeply and should be missed deeply.  But you are alive that you might repent and trust in God this day.  This thought wieghs heavily upon me as I think over the last five years and what has happened to the world.

Where was God?  He was in control the whole time.  Could he have stopped it?  Yes, but he had a reason for it.  Is he less loving?  No he isn’t.  You and I are still alive to repent and turn to him before we suffer our just punishment.  Turn and trust him now.

Ben Witherington and Denominational Humor

More From John Owen

V-Tech Massacre

Well, about March of 2005, I decided to put all of my questions about Calvinism to rest and to prove that it was false.  How was I going to do this?  I was going to study the “prooftexts” (ie Romans 9:1-23; Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:4-6, 11-12) and show how they don’t teach Calvinism.  I was raised not to believe it and so I set out to show why I was right.  So I went to Wal-Mart and bought myself a composition notebook, which I still have to this day, grabbed my NRSV, NASB, and NIV Bibles and my Strong’s Concordance to look into the Greek language.  I even went to Study Light.org to get help with verb tenses.

So I dedicated the next month to just studying my Bible and to see what the text says.  I started with the prayer, “Lord, teach me the truth of these passages that I may know you more fully and worship you deeper than I ever had.”  So from March 26 through April 26, I spent four hours of every day studying these passages.  I was not preaching every Sunday so I could take this time to write down my thoughts.  Every night I prayed the same prayer.  I turned off all radio sermons, for I love to listen to Bott Radio because of all of the preachers, for that whole month to make sure that it was just God and myself and his word.  I stopped reading any book that wasn’t required.  I just studied my Bible for hours.  I tried to through in the curve ball of why pray.  I threw inthe knuckle ball of why witness.  I thought up of every question that I could to refute the doctrines.  I even studied texts that were to refute Calvinism, such as Ezekiel 33:18 and John 3:16.  All so I could vindicate my beliefs.  This was dangerous to do because I was in risk of reading my own non-calvinistic assumptions into the texts.  I knew that and that’s why I prayed.  I believe that God guarded my heart against those assumptions.

But God would not have it that way.  He answered all of my questions from the text.  Prayer isn’t so much about changing God as it is me.  God answers prayer not because I convinced him to but because he promised.  I witness because I don’t know who God has chosen.  I witness because Christ told me.  Romans 9 teaches unconditional election.  Romans 8 only works if the chain is secure with the full force of meaning for each word, not numbing them down to just a plan.  I came away with these convictions.

 Romans 9 and Ephesians 1 were pretty cut and dry.  But Romans 8 I almost got away with.  The link between calling and justification threw me.  If justification is by faith in Romans 5:1 and 10:10, then why is it here that those who get called are being justified.  I thought that God called all to repentance.  John Piper calls the calling in Rom. 8:29 “the watershed” of the whole theology in those three verses.  In my concordance I saw 1 Corinthians 1:23-24.  There the word was preached and the Jews and Greeks did not believe.  But in v. 24, the Jews and Greeks who were called believed.  I saw for the first time two different calls in Scripture.  That the “drawing” in John 6:44 and the “granting” in 6:65 might mean more than just wooing.  After all, the word for draw in John 6:44 is used by James 2:6 to “drag” people to court.  My eyes were opened by all of this new revelation.  I finally saw Acts 13:48 for what it really said, those appointed to eternal life were the ones who believed.  I finally was able to stop avoiding all of these verses because they taught Calvinistic doctrine and embraced them.

I didn’t refute anything.  I was rebuked.  I avoided parts of the Bible because they taught something in my 21st century world that I didn’t believe.  I was taught something that my word pictures didn’t agree with.  I was not reading all of God’s words but only that which I selected.  My love for the Bible has increased since then.  I prayed to God thanking him for the revelation he had given me.

But I didn’t know just what to do with it.  I didn’t know how to proceed.  I was greatful for the insight, but I will admit, I was scared by this.  What should I do?  That’s when I had a car wreck and I was given ten questions to answer.  But more on that tomorrow.

Some Interesting Bits

Why I am a Calvinist

Pure Enjoyment

The most recognized verses in all of the Bible is the famous words of Jesus in John 3:16. In it John quotes Jesus as saying,  

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Many people today want to use this verse to prove something it does not speak to. They take the words “whoever believes” and says that means people have free will to chose God or to reject him. It means that Christ’s death atones for the whole world because it says “For God so loved the world.” On the flip side the reaction is “the world” can’t mean the world and it has to mean the world of the elect. Or it has to mean this or that. In my doctrine class on Monday, the professor did just that. He said that it has to mean Calvinism is wrong.

I want to call attention to both sides some very important issues. First, the world that God “so loved” is a world full of sinners that God has condemned. He put a curse upon that planet and the fact that Jesus could say love in the same sentence should take us aback. The word “For” at the beginning of the verse connects the statement back to 3:14-15 where Jesus references Numbers 21 and Moses lifting up the snake. There the Israelites had incurred upon themselves the wrath of God through poisonous snakes. The fact that God was faithful to those people when he didn’t have to be should astound us. God sending Jesus for any person because of his love should be the focus, not is it the world of the elect or the whole world.

The text does say “whoever believes” and it should mean that. If anyone believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ, he will be saved. Anyone who tries to tinker with that must be out of ther exegeting minds! Now note what this text does not say. It does not say “whoever believes because of free will” or “whoever believes because of God’s effectual call of sovereign grace.” It doesn’t say that. In fact this verse does not tell us how the person believes. It is only saying that if the person believes they will receive salvation and justification.

Christians should unite around this one verse. This is not a proof for any doctrine other than the sufficiency of the love, grace, and mercy of God to save all who come to him in faith. It should be the reason why all witness because of one comes, that person is saved. We need not try to turn this text on its head with a meaning that simply isn’t there. It absolutely drives me nuts when, as a calvinist, people try to take this text away from me because of my views of predestination and unconditional election and effectual call. I still believe that if you come to Jesus in faith, you will be saved. The disagreement is in the how the believing occurs.

As much fun as I have in debating calvinism v. arminiansim, I feel there is too much at stake to let such a secondary issue divide the church. In that same class, one student was saying that there was an “underground calvinist” movement. Who cares if there is a disagreement on that issue. Are those calvinists teach correct, biblically based teachings? Do their people lead holy lives? Do their congregations witness for Christ by sending or going into the mission fields of the world? The same goes with the arminian teaches as well. Do we see their congregations growing in Christ?

Let us unite in our passion to spread that love found in John 3:16 to those who will believe it. It is not so much how that we should be debating, but if they are coming. If the church isn’t preaching, they aren’t hearing. If they aren’t hearing, they aren’t believing. If they aren’t believing, they aren’t calling. If they aren’t calling, they aren’t being saved! The gospel does not change if you are calvinist or arminian. Let us unite in our common goal: “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called (Eph. 4:1).

 Cross posted at Theology for the Masses.

Going Back to 1 John 2:2

James White on John 3:16-17

πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων

Yesterday in my doctrine class, we were finishing up a discussion on the Scripture.  We were discussing its necessity and sufficiency.  The prof. said that the gospel was needed for salvation.  The only place that we find the gospel is the Bible.  Thus the Bible is needed for salvation.  He then went into a biblical discussion, using texts, to show how this is to be true.  He came to Ephesians 2:8-10 and said that faith is a gift.  He qualified that by saying that the ability to chose to believe is a gift.  One student, bored with talking about the Bible itself, asked for the prof. to explain his position and verify it with more Scripture.  The prof. said he couldn’t.  This entered into a forty-five minute to an hour long discussion on Calvinism.  I believe there are three calvinists in my class, one being me.  We lost most of our lecture time because to illustrate the sufficiency of Scripture to give us contentment in what it says, he had an exercise that took the last half-hour of class time.  He divided the class up into two sections, going right down the middle.  On one side was free will, on the otherside was predestination/unconditional election.  I was on the predestination side, the other two calvinsits were on the free will side.  The exercise was simple, write on the board as many verses as our group could find defending our position.  When the smoke cleared, they had about seven or eight verses to defend their position, or rather to refute predestination and reprobation–many of their verses had little to do with man’s will to chose faith or not to.  We had almost half of the marker board covered with verses defending predestination for salvation or tasks.  However it is good to point out that in the cases of Paul and Jeremiah, the need to fulfill God’s task in them required their salvation.  When the class got back together, we looked at some of the verses.  Two particular passages caused the prof. struggled with in trying to interpret them in a non-calvinistic manner.

I say all of this by way of saying first, no one can say that the Bible does not affirm both sides of the coin.  Secondly, I began to reflect, especially in light of 9/11, of why I became a calvinist.  So tomorrow I am going to unveil my struggle with the doctrines of Grace.

For right now, let me say this.  Up until April of 2005, I was a non-calvinist.  I believed in maybe two of the points.  But my journey began when I began to actually read arguments for calvinism by authors who are calvinists, not non-calvinists.  My parents began going to a church which is calvinist.  I read their arguments as well.  I began to wonder, do their arguments really work?  Is this what the Bible teaches?  I didn’t know.  So this was my plan, I was going to study all of the calvinist texts and see if they are really reading them right.  My goal was actually to try and to defeat calvinism.  I wanted desperately to not be a calvinist.  More next time on my actual process of becoming one.

Some Interesting Bits

Pure Enjoyment

Oh Wow…What am I thinking?

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of 9/11.  This morning I preached the second sermon in Romans 9.  I am really trying to drive home a passion and understanding for God’s sovereignty over all of humanity.  It was reading this chapter that I began to look at the world in a whole new light.  I began to look at everything from a divine perspective.

It was through Romans 9 that hurricane Katrina makes sense and gives me hope.  It is through Romans 9 that I can still trust in God in the middle of 9/11.  In middle of the storm, it is my confidence in God’s sovereignty that I can know that I am where I am supposed to be and that this terror will work for good.  The God in Romans 9 says that he is glorious in all that he does and there is nothing that he can’t do.  He can take the womb of a woman older than ninety and cause it to give birth.  He does what he promises to do.  His sovereign power allows him to make any promise and accomplish it.

Romans 9 does the ultimate thing for me: it gives me confidence that no matter what, God’s word can be trusted.  In light of all the sin, God will fulfill his word of promise and protection and salvation to me.  I know that even though God isn’t working evil, the evil cannot happen unless he dains it to happen.  Sennacherib thought his invasion of Judah declares his power, in all reality we saw God’s power displayed.  Because of that power and control and ability that trumps all wills and running of man, I rest in God and his love and salvation.

That message rang home with my congregation today.  They understood that in the midst of life’s storms, God’s word still stands firm because to those who God has spoken to, God will fulfill it.  We saw that Ishmael wasn’t the promised child, Isaac was.  Because Isaac was promised, and then when God came he was born, we can know that when God promises he accomplishes.  His word does not return void and empty.  The people of the church saw that in the middle of 9/11, God’s word to save them still stands.  In the middle of Katrina, God’s word still stands.  Why?  Because he is sovereign over all events.  As Isaiah put it, God creats both light and darkness, well-being and calamity.

Therefore I want to issue all who hear my voice, the sovereign power that purposed 9/11 and Katrina is promised to be used to your eternal good.  If God’s word does not fall then we can know for certain two things.  First, God ordains all things to happen and holds the world accountable for them happening.  Nothing happens unless God says so, it is clear from Job and in Isaiah 45:5-7; 46:9-11.  Secondly, God fulfills his promises.  Will you trust in him today?  Habakkuk said in his third chapter that though the land is barren and food is source and the Babylonians are invading, he trusts God.  Will you trust a God who took up flesh, died on the cross for you sins, resurrected from the dead, and now promises you resurrection power to sustain you in all the trials and tribulations God has ordained to come you way?  Don’t be King Hezekiah and think that you won’t bear trouble.  Get on your knees and rest in his sovereign power that can defeat any obstacle.

How Many, How Many?

Positional and Progressive Holiness

Thoughts in Light of 9/11

It is very obvious that I have been misunderstood. Many people who have read the previous post and my comments on Theology for the Masses. It seems to others who read my comments that I abhor philosophy and at the same time I use it all the time. I do not believe that in any way shape or form! Philosophy is important for by this we can know that we are rational creatures made in the image of a rational God. God is the author and source of philosophy and logic.

What I did say is that I don’t feel that we can argue doctrine extra-biblically. When we do that, we logicize God and he loses his majesty. The only way to know God is through his word. There are many ways to know about God in many ways. Philosophy, math, science, and other areas can lead us to a knowledge of God, but they do not lead us to God. They aren’t saving light, only Jesus is.

I was told that all my systems of belief are based in some way on philosophy. I agree totally. However, those philosophies were based upon exegetical studies of the Bible. They were not based upon philosophical speculation. I said that philosophy was subjective and was laughed at. That tells me a.) that the person laughing looked upon my comments as childish or not serious; b.) that the person did not try to understand exactly what I was saying. Philosophy is subjective because it is based upon our assumptions and presuppositions. God’s word is not subjective but is objective. It does not have any biases. I said that our philosophy must be conformed to our work of exegesis. Logic helps take our conclusions and formulate them, as the Reformers did. Philosophy does not tell us if our conclusions are right. Our exegesis tells us if our philosophy is correct. God’s word must be held as the highest standard of knowledge and must be the sole authority upon which we base our arguments, especially when it comes to theology and all it entails. We must put the Bible to the status as an idol but it must be our sole authority upon which we base all other knowledge.

If philosophy is not squaring with exegetical conclusions, test the philosophy in light of Scripture. Do not say that the exegesis is wrong and then go back and change that. When an objection to doctrine arises because it is not logical. Show us where it is illogical in the exegesis. Our exegesis should be logical. God’s word is logical. Do not say that your exegesis is wrong but not point out where it is wrong. That does not contribute to the discussion on the given doctrine.

I am in favor of using logic and all other areas of knowledge. But only if it is used in submission and constrained by the living and breathing word of God upon which God has revealed himself to man for salvation and walk of life. It is really upsetting that everybody seems to be misreading or misquoting my view of philosophy and its place in relationship to Scripture. I do not worship the pages of the Bible for it is the God who wrote that Bible that makes the Bible worth anything. I simply appeal to the highest authority I have to appeal to. It’s not logic, it’s not math, nor is it any other area of human knowledge. I appeal only to Scripture.

Theology and Logic

The Law in Galatians 3 from a Redemptive-Historical Perspective

My Comfort in Romans 9

One valuable form of studying theology is through philosophic lenses. Trying to use non-biblical terminology to put theological ideas in a logical form that the common person can rationally understand is a grand endeavor. However, after reading some writings recently, I have noticed a great danger. When one abandons the Bible and how it states things and switches to logic as the means in which to reach people, that person is in grave danger of abandoning his or her biblical center and bordering heresy. I am in no means calling these people a heretic but I find that what they are communicating is not biblical.

For instance, I am a Five Point Calvinist, may be even seven if that were a true reality. I believe in God’s sovereign, unconditional election of who is to be saved and that he sovereignly passes over those whom he has not set he gracious favor upon. In some sense I ascribe to double predestination. If God is chosing who will be saved he is at the same time chosing who won’t be saved. Predestination and unconditional election is found in passages such as Acts 13:48, Romans 8:28-30, Romans 9:6-23, 11:1-7, Ephesians 1:4-6, 11-12. Yet at the same time, we are accountable for our choice to believe and to live the holy life the Gospel commands or to not believe and to live in sin. See texts such as Ezekiel 18, 33, Acts 3:19, Revelation 2:5, 2:21. These seem to contradict each other but the Bible affirms that both are true. Therefore I must affirm both are true. That is not logical of me to do so but to be a good steward of the Bible, I must.

Logic is a great tool but it must be made subject to the Bible. It cannot be aloud to try to explain things that the Bible is silent on. An example that comes to mind is from a blog on Theology for the Masses. We are debating whether or not Christ had original sin. Logically, Christ could not have original sin because he would be tainted and not be the perfect sacirifice. Therefore since Christ is fully human, no one can have original sin because ontologically there is no difference between Christ’s humanity and the rest of Adam’s descendents. I will admit, that is a great argument from a logical standpoint. However, the Bible affirms 1.) Humans have original sin; 2.) Christ is both fully human and fully God; 3.) Christ is the perfect sin offering. Does it help to try to put them together in a logical form. But when logic tries to discern this, the argument above is accurate and that the Bible surely can’t affirm all of these factors. But it does and logic must take a back seat to this issue.

My Prophetic Literature I class has been reading through Isaiah. His prophecy is amazing to read. It is a back-and-forth roller coaster. In Isaiah 37:22-29, God is pronouncing judgment upon the king of Assyria. He mocked God and now it is time to pay the piper, so to speak. In vv. 26-27 God says,

26 “‘Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.’”

He says that he determined this action. God planned for Assyria to come down from the north. To sweep into Palestine, destroying Syria, Israel, and Philistia in the process of his coming against Judah. God had determined it long ago, not King Sennacherib. Assyria was only fulfilling what God had determined long ago.

Yet read the next two verses,

28 “‘I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
29 Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.’”

God is holding this man accountable for his actions against God’s people, and against God himself. This was God’s plan yet Sennacherib is responsible for his actions. This is not logical as to why if God ordained this, that God punish a man for fulfilling his destiny.

All I can say is what the Psalmist said in Psalm 8:1, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” When God is logicized, he loses that majesty because he is bound up in logic, which man can fully grasp. But if we keep logic from bounding God up, the majesty still remains. Awe is left in tact. God is still the being who by his very nature demands our worship. Logic is a good tool to help put our doctrines into good, well-developed, and well-rounded statements. But does it hinder us from the majesty of God? Too much and the answer is yes.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:16 that God is a great mystery. I say to philosophy and logic, “Bow down, and accept the mystery.”

Theology and Logic Pt. 2

The Law in Galatians 3 from a Redemptive-Historical Perspective

My Comfort in Romans 9