A Three Year Pilgrimmage

I can hardly believe it myself but A Peculiar Pilgrim has reached the ripe old age of three.  In blog years that probably makes it eligible for retirement.   Many blogs flame out after a year or two and while it certainly hasn't been stoked into the roaring fire I've intended for it the last couple years, at least my flickering light hasn't been snuffed out completely.  I only posted about 30 articles in 09.  That's barely more than 1 post every two weeks.  I hope to improve on that in 2010.

In the flesh and blood realm I will be teaching a class on Redemption starting the first week of January.  I've been hard at work preparing the outlines for the course.  I'm thankful to God for this opportunity and I pray it will bless those that God brings into my classroom.  My plan is, if time avails, to post articles based on the outlines I'm preparing for the class.  I'll likely post the corresponding articles a week  before I teach the lesson.  This will also help in articulating and unifying what I've written in my outlines.  I have about 17 lessons prepared (as of right now) so I would expect at least that many articles on the doctrine of redemption over the first quarter of the year.

As has been the tradition the last two anniversaries, I am posting links to my favorite articles of 2009.  In no particular order, they are:

The Justice of God and Are we Saved by Belief or by Actions? - These two articles are responses from the comment section of my post, Will Atheists Go to Hell? by (shockingly!) a couple of atheists.  The interaction was cordial and enlightening: A good read.

Grasping God - An article that explores the difficult to comprehend doctrine of God's omnipresence and my personal struggle to grasp it.

AW Pink on Erroneous Evangelism - A quote from the esteemed theologian (with some personal thoughts added in) that pinpoints the deficiency of the modern church's proclamation of the gospel.

Is Christianity a Crutch for the Weak? - An article based on a Sunday School discussion that posed this very question.

Four Views of Salvation Throughout Church History - A helpful chart that shows how Calvinism, Arminianism, Semi-Pelagianism and Pelagianism are contrasted in regard to the roles both God and man play in redemption.

Classics from the Comment Section

I discovered this gem of a remark from an atheist buried in the middle of the comment section of the post referenced in my last article, entitled 'Does God Send People to hell?'  It may well be the best comment I've ever received on this blog.

Here it is:

I was just randomly surfing the web and ran across this blog. I totally disagree with about everything you said, but thanks for saying it honestly. I get so fed up with the patronizing tone of Christians who say “God wouldn’t send people to hell, people choose to go to hell”. What complete and utterly patonizing BS. Christians believe God will send people to eternal and neverending torment. And God made the rules. I think it’s totally absurd and barbaric, and I don’t believe a word of it. But thanks, at least, for sparing me the BS.

-an atheist

My response:

You're welcome.  We here at 'A Peculiar Pilgrim' strive to provide a 100% BS-free environment for all our visitors. Any BS you may encounter will quickly be scoured away by the glorious truth of God's word.

I'm sorry that you think God's decrees are barbaric and absurd, but I do understand your dismay.  I pray that God will reveal to you the depths of his love and mercy and that you would reconsider your position.

Thanks for your honest input.

A Peculiar Pilgrim

Can We Send God to Hell?

Provocative title, I know.  But I didn't come up with it!  Read on for details.

I just received a drive-by comment on an old post I wrote a couple of years ago that demands an immediate response.  The post is titled 'Does God Send People to Hell?'  In it I dispelled a popular myth in the modern church that God does not send people to hell.  This denial of God's responsibility in condemning sinners takes two equally heretical forms.  First (and the issue primarily dealt with in the article) is that many people deny that God 'sends' anyone to hell, they simply go there by the free exercise of their will.  The other false teaching is that there is no hell at all.  The orthodox Christian teaching of eternal punishment is a misinterpretation of the text.  Neither position holds weight under the full testimony of scripture. God executes his judgment on all unrepentant sinners; he sends them to a place of eternal misery.  Apparently several readers disagree with my position, some vehemently. Here is the comment in full that I just received.

Is Christianity a Crutch for the Weak?

I remember attending a Sunday school class one morning long ago where the teacher asked us an intriguing question.  He prefaced it by quoting media mogul Ted Turner's statement that Christianity is a crutch for the weak, a religion for losers.  I had heard variants of that sentiment many times before.  Of course, Turner is far from the only person to make such accusations.  Christianity is often scorned by non-believers as a security blanket to comfort those who have failed at life.

The teacher then posed the question, "Do you agree or disagree that Christianity is only for the weak?"  Unanimously, every person in the class disagreed, offering responses such as, "Christianity is for people of strong resolve.  The Christian life is not easy and only resilient people can live it. The weak could not persevere through the demands of a Christian lifestyle."