My carefully constructed religious edifice came under fierce attack some five years ago and suffered irreparable damage. The alarms of imminent collapse began reverberating through the dark corridors of my failing heart. Wave upon wave of relentless missile attacks crumbled the once stalwart marble pillars of my faith. The incoming warheads contained a volatile combination of sin and self-righteousness. Structural failure was imminent. My religion had failed me; no longer could it support my overwhelming sense of failure. It could no longer assuage my complex of guilt. I attempted to prop up the sagging ceiling with support columns of modern evangelical platitudes and aphorisms. They turned out to be hollow inside and buckled beneath the weight. The brick and mortar I had so meticulously hand-crafted disintegrated all around me in a resounding crash.
Exposed to the harsh elements of the wilderness I couldn't help but gaze at the majesty of the heavens and contemplate my plight. Late one night in the midst of an intense spiritual malaise I raised my eyes to the stars and cried out in desperation, "Father help me, I've lost my way. I don't measure up to your righteousness and I never will. I don't know what to believe anymore. Please reveal to me the truth." If ever I've been convinced that God hears and answers my prayers, that night crystallized the reality of it once and for all.
Yes, God heard me. I'm sure he had been waiting for this cry for deliverance for quite some time. After all, God is in the deliverance business. Salvation itself is defined as deliverance or rescue from danger. I have no doubt that through his sovereign power he had brought me to this fiery trial, carried me through the flames and now was in the process of treating all my grievous burns.
Showing posts with label Arminianism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arminianism. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Monday, October 1, 2007
What Can Separate Us From the Love of God?
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:33-39)
The Apostle Paul asks several important questions in this text. He also gives his readers profound answers.
Who can accuse God's people of any crime?
No one. God alone justifies the guilty. He answers to no man. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy.
Who has the right to sentence his saints to death and hell?
No one. Christ took our condemnation up on himself. We are free from the sting of death and the punishment of hell.
Who can separate God's people from the love of Christ, which has been freely bestowed upon them?
Nobody can and nothing will. No circumstance or trial can wedge apart this bond. Through God's love we have been made more than conquerors. Again, he reiterates that no being (angels nor rulers), thing (the sword, death nor life, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth) or circumstance (tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger) can separate us from the love of God. He even goes so far as to say 'nor anything else in all creation'. I think that pretty much covers everything, don't you think?
The Apostle Paul asks several important questions in this text. He also gives his readers profound answers.
Who can accuse God's people of any crime?
No one. God alone justifies the guilty. He answers to no man. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy.
Who has the right to sentence his saints to death and hell?
No one. Christ took our condemnation up on himself. We are free from the sting of death and the punishment of hell.
Who can separate God's people from the love of Christ, which has been freely bestowed upon them?
Nobody can and nothing will. No circumstance or trial can wedge apart this bond. Through God's love we have been made more than conquerors. Again, he reiterates that no being (angels nor rulers), thing (the sword, death nor life, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth) or circumstance (tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger) can separate us from the love of God. He even goes so far as to say 'nor anything else in all creation'. I think that pretty much covers everything, don't you think?
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Is Free Will God's Greatest Gift?
I had lunch the other day with a good Christian friend. He brought up the issue of free will, a subject that had weighed heavily on his mind recently. He confided with me that he thought he heard the voice of God speak to him one day.
This is what the Lord supposedly told him.
"Free will is the greatest gift I have given to man." - Or something close to that.
My friend did a remarkable thing after hearing the word of the Lord, something I see very few Christians do when they supposedly hear God speak to them.
He discerned the message.
He rightly divided the word of truth. He questioned the scriptural integrity of those words. He did as Spurgeon advised; judged the right from the almost right.
See, the words 'free will is God's greatest gift' may sound good, right and true on the surface, especially in the midst of a doctrinally confused generation of semi-Pelagians dominating the face of evangelicalism.
But is the notion scriptural?
This is what the Lord supposedly told him.
"Free will is the greatest gift I have given to man." - Or something close to that.
My friend did a remarkable thing after hearing the word of the Lord, something I see very few Christians do when they supposedly hear God speak to them.
He discerned the message.
He rightly divided the word of truth. He questioned the scriptural integrity of those words. He did as Spurgeon advised; judged the right from the almost right.
See, the words 'free will is God's greatest gift' may sound good, right and true on the surface, especially in the midst of a doctrinally confused generation of semi-Pelagians dominating the face of evangelicalism.
But is the notion scriptural?
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