Theology pt. 5

remember: i am not posting these blog's as fact but as discussion starters to help form and solidify my (and your) theology. i love hearing all points of view and having good healthy discussions (feelings aside). leave me comments. molding my theology is my life long process so let's get started.

this question was proposed to me tonight and i had to ask: "does God have free will?"  

here's another, "can God sin?"

why or why not?!

theology pt. 4

remember: i am not posting these blog's as fact but as discussion starters to help form and solidify my (and your) theology. i love hearing all points of view and having good healthy discussions (feelings aside). leave me comments. molding my theology is my life long process so let's get started.

Can you change God’s mind?

I have heard the term fundamentalist Christian used frequently and I don’t quite grasp the term fully. I understand that a fundamentalist is someone who upholds the belief of the strict and literal interpretation of the Bible. Apposed to someone who believes the Bible to be figurative or allegorical I consider myself to be a fundamentalist. But in reading passages like Exodus 32 the literal can be that you can change God’s mind.

At points you have to look beyond literal and see principle. That is important Bible study methods.

Can you change God’s mind. No! God raises questions and situations to bring you into conversation with Him. God’s omnipotent power does not stop with us; meaning it’s wrong to think that if we don’t ask then God wont act. Our silence does not stop the power of God (this idea gives us more authority than God and ultimately makes us greater than God). It raises a good question to think, what if Moses would have agreed with God that Israel should be destroyed and that God should start over with him? Would God have destroyed his chosen nation?

By no means because of the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Moses was confident in who God was/is. He knew what God’s promise was. His confidence superseded his insecurities. His response was not specifically on behalf of Israel but on the reputation of God (among Egypt and among the rest of the world).

God desires for us to have communion with Him. He desires to bring us into His glory. If we abstain from communion with Him then we are forfeiting the glory of God (Romans 1:23). God has choses those who are to be saved but brings us into His glory by using us; by praying for their salvation of the lost and having conversation with them. Peoples fates are not in our hands but God moves us into conversation with Him so that we may know His power. To think we have the power to change lives is to “exchange the glory of the immortal God” for worship of created things (us).

In this truth I still believe that we are held accountable for our “worship” of God. Worship meaning the offering our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. In worship we commune with God. In worship God directs us. In our abstinence of worship (specifically communion), we sin. Ultimately forfeiting the glory of God.

What do you think?

Genesis 18:16-21 - God engages Abraham into the a conversation with Him in His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham enters the conversation and pleas for this city.

Exodus 32:7-10, 11-14 - The people of Israel under Aaron’s leadership made the golden calf in Moses’ absence. God told Moses about it on the Mountain and in his reveal He tells Moses that He is going to destroy this nation and raise up Moses and make a great nation of him. Moses pleas for God’s mercy and reminds Him of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then the LORD relented from the disaster he spoke of.

Numbers 14 - Israel cries out to the LORD after the report of the spies that the land to too great for overtake. Their hearts to do not believe the LORD and grumble about why He took them out of Egypt. God told Moses that He would destroy them and make him (Moses) a great nation. Moses pleas to God on behalf of Israel and God relents his wrath and says that this nation will not enter the Holy Land except for Caleb.

theology pt. 3

remember:  i am not posting these blog's as fact but as discussion starters to help form and solidify my (and your) theology. i love hearing all points of view and having good healthy discussions (feelings aside).  leave me comments.  molding my theology is my life long process so let's get started.

salvation:

do you think that salvation is for our ultimate benefit or to ultimately benefit God?  i use the word ultimately purposefully because my thought initially fall's under both categories but i think the ultimate purpose of salvation can only fall in one of these categories without contradicting each other.     

theology pt. 2

remember:  i am not posting these blogs as fact but as discussion starters to help form and solidify my (and your) theology.  i love hearing all points of view and having good healthy discussion (feelings aside).  leave me comments.  molding my theology is my life long process so let's get started.

the sinful nature.

in my journey to understand reformed theology the question of our sinful nature kept coming up in my mind.  i know full well what James 1:13-15 says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.  But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown gives birth to death."  temptation and sin does not come from God.  the question kept raising in my heard, how does this fit in the theology of a sovereign God...a God centered life...a God that has total control over ALL things?

just like every one of you, i know my weaknesses and it seems there is one sin more than any other that i struggle with.  if God has complete control why doesn't He take this from me?  i have begged Him over and over again to rid my life of this filth and i keep coming back to it.  does He allow me to struggle for a purpose?  does He hold me in my filth to keep me humble? 

if this were so, this would contradict every thing i know God to be...a God who HATES sin...a God who turned His sight from His Son because He became sin on our behalf on the cross...when Jesus prepared to go to the cross in the garden of gethsemane, with the knowledge of becoming sin (and its consequences...separation from God) brought Him to blood sweat tears.  it does not make sense that God would keep us in our filth to teach us a lesson (though, for those who love God, all things work together for good...Romans 8:28).

the apostle Paul struggled through this in Romans 7:7-25.  we are able to see his struggle of "understanding his own actions" (v. 15).  he see two opposite worlds at war within him.  good and evil, righteousness and sin (he also talks about this war in Colossians 2:13-15 and the victory we have).  he continues and describes this battle within as "he does what he wants but (what he wants) is the very thing he hates" (v. 15).  he then confesses that nothing good lives in him, in his flesh (his natural state without Christ).  he says that he has the desire to do what's right but not the ability to carry it out  (v. 18).

this is my struggle.  i have the knowledge of what's right but i can not carry it out (in my own power).  i do not have the ability to choose right (apart from the Holy Spirit of God).

in my own struggle and my knowledge of Scripture it seems to make perfect sense that the only ability i have within me...in my own power...is to choose sin.  my flesh fights against (resist) the things of God.  the Holy Spirit then brings me back to repentance.  in a round about way...i can choose to sit in my filth because that is in my ability (in my fleshly state which is constantly at war with God)...but to choose God is outside our will.  

Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."  

to choose righteousness is Christ (and not our choice at all)...to choose sin is the flesh.  these two will war (even in our hearts) till Christ returns.  But remember...we are not slaves to sin because we have power outside our strength (Romans 6:17-18).           

your thoughts?

 

theology pt. 1

i have not blogged near as much recently because i have been spending a lot of time in my Bible, journaling, praying, and reading.  i have been battling through the southern baptist theology that i was brought up in.  i guess you can call me a recovering baptist.  simply put i am thinking a lot through reformed theology.  

it's hard to struggle through something like this in the sight of the world (on the www) (as someone who has worked in the church for 9 years) but it may be the only way to come to great conclusions.  i formed this blog as a journal for my thoughts so here they are...raw.  please feel free to comment your thoughts on my thoughts and check back to see my response.  

i will try to keep these post simple and clear.

this thought process starts off with the question of how much choice do we have in this world with a supreme and personal God?

i am coming to the conclusion that we less choice than i ever thought before.  we make choices ever day...some good...some could be better and that makes this process hard.  in Romans 3:9-10, the apostle Paul says that no one is righteous, no not one.  he also say is Romans 7:18 that "i know that no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh."

first, you have to define flesh.  our flesh is our natural state apart from the work of God's Spirit.

to get to the point, i am coming to the realization that the only choice we have as humans is to resist Christ...the sinful nature...our sinful desires.  our natural bent, that no one can argue with (who believes in the Scriptures), that our natural state, from day one, is sinful.  we are born to resist God.  Therefore, our natural state is the only freedom of choice we can possibly have.  The only choice we are capable of making is sin.  

John 6:65 says, "no one can come to (Jesus) unless it is granted him by the Father."  the choice of us "choosing God" is not our choice to begin with.  if we are able to "choose" any good, it's because of God.  John also say in chapter 1:13, "to all who did receive Him, who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  

conclusion: we have no will to choose God or to choose righteously. 

your thoughts???