Why is there suffering?

A popular argument against Christianity is the existance of suffering. The notion is this, if God is all powerful, and God is love, then the existence of suffering disproves God. The argument is flawed severely in its logic, and yet as Christians we seem to really struggle with a defense to this claim against God. I have heard Christians say that suffering exists because stuff exists. That one is a little beyond me, I guess what is meant by that is something like this: If a tree falls on a person and they break their leg and suffer, it is because the tree exists. Another example sounds kinda like this: The reason the tsunamis caused suffering was because the ocean exists, and earthquakes happen. I guess the theory would be, God created stuff, and stuff created suffering. I think I understand why people hold to this theory, and I don't think it is the scripture. I think it is a need to maintain a God that is their definition of love. God is love, there can be no mistake made there. Yet if we apply the human standard of love the to The Almighty God then we are attempting to limit the infinite. I held to this position for years also, somehow believing that God is in the business of relieving suffering, and would never consider ordaining suffering, yet looking back I realize that there are some major flaws in that line of thinking. Lets take a look-- How can we reconcile an all powerful and all loving God and a suffering world. The only reconciliation is that God has ordained suffering out of His infinite love, or else he is either not all powerful, or not all loving. You may say 'Jay you are calling God the author of suffering' I would respond with 'yes, that is what I am saying.' Then you may say well that is not the God I worship, or that is not a God of love, or I would never worship that God. Let me ask this question: What was the greastest act of love of all time. Answer, when God sent His son to suffer for His people. Do you realize that if there were no suffering, God would have been incapable of showing perfect love. However God, being love had to institute suffering so as to be able to make His love manifest. Even before time began God knew full well that suffering would exist, it was His plan. The culmination of suffering which we all experience was the ultimate sacrafice which Christ made. We are called to pick up our cross and suffer with Christ, it is by suffering that we partake in the love of Christ, and can relate to the love He bestowed. With no suffering there would be no sacrafice, there would be no grace. Praise God for suffering! The apostles understood this, Christ understood this, the early church understood this, the Church at the reformation understood this, yet sadly more often than not, we do not understand it. Praise God for the thorns, for they created the crown that proved His love, praise God for the twisted mind that dreamed up the torture that is crucifixion. Praise God when suffering, and thank God for suffering. Why is there suffering? Because God loves His people enough to show them that He was willing to submit to suffering on their behalf. If there was no suffering, and then God came down and suffered it would have made no sense, and nobody would relate to what God was doing. Yet because we understand what it is like to suffer, it is absolutley staggering to think that God would submit to suffering by His own will, on our behalf. So what about the tsunami's, or my tree example. Was not the tsunami a means of grace for many in that area? Did that not create an instant dispensation of love from God in the form of brethren from all over the world pouring in to a suffering people. If our leg is crushed by a tree can we not see even more that a God that would submit Himself to this world of pain is certainly a God of love. Suffering is a dispensation of love from God, and should not be viewed as simple circumstance. Our God is the author of love, and suffering is one of His main literary tools. If you want to comment on this or any post, click the title at the top then go to the bottom and click add comment.

Are You Truely Free?

The question I pose in this post seems so simple, yet as Christians we tend to miss it. Christ freed us from slavery to sin an death. He told us that His burden was easy, His yoke was light, yet we still tend to live in bondage. We tend to think we must love more, work harder, volunteer more, and do more because we are in Christ. We have given up the old life, for a life that has even more toil, and less joy. This shouldn't be.

Can we not see that love not an action, it is a reflection, or maybe a distribution, but we are not its source, and no matter how hard we work we will never generate an ounce of love. Or works, are we called to works, burdening ourselves with saving the lost by some effort of our own? We are called to make disciples by preaching the simple gospel, not by working out some elaborate plan that is dependent on us for its execution. We too often voulenteer for things, or allow ourselves to be voulenteered for things, without ever seeking God's will and peace about what we are voulenteering for. We create jobs for ourselves which, had we first prayed, we may have realized we weren't even the person called to do the job. You and I are to be slaves to Christ, and He is such a wonderful master that even the hardest tasks He gives are accompanied by the peace that passes all understanding. We should never be all tied up in knots about what we should, or shouldn't do, we should be at peace, and completely and utterly free, under the complete control of Christ. The only freedom that exists is complete slavery to Christ.

The Second Deformation

At our church we are about to start ‘The Forty Days of Purpose’ and the congregation is certainly buzzing about it. Of course the buzz is entirely positive and I have not encountered one person with any reservations about it. Even my fundamental brethren seem to be embracing this upcoming forty days of purpose. I suppose I stand alone in opposition to it. The program is based on Rick Warren’s book ‘The Purpose Driven Life’, and it is spreading like wildfire through all of Christendom. I have heard it said that we are in the midst of a second reformation; the church is now engaging the culture, and providing a seeker sensitive experience. It is clearly working, purpose driven churches are experiencing massive surges in membership, people by the millions are making ‘decisions’ and becoming ‘Christians’, yet I stand firmly against this tidal wave and trust that when tested by fire the true nature of purpose driven Christianity will be seen clearly.

I would like to focus today on this notion that we are in the midst of a ‘second reformation’. Certainly anyone who has read Foxe’s Book of The Martyrs know that the first reformation was wrought with martyr blood, sweat, and tears. Brave men and women committed to righteousness stood firm against the established Roman Church and clung dearly to every last word of scripture, and the Roman Catholics slaughtered them for it. What we have today is certainly no reformation, it is more of a relaxation, or as my title states, the second deformation. I will for the rest of this post refer the purpose driven movement as the second deformation. What was the first deformation? The first deformation occurred when the Christian church accepted becoming part of Rome. When Constantine was ‘converted’ and Christians were no longer persecuted but instead were now part of a national religion. Of course Christianity had to be toned way down in order to please everyone. The Christian faith became subject to Rome and adapted itself for life under Roman control. Other gods became acceptable, worldly means of worship, works based salvation, and moral relativism and so on started creeping into the Church until eventually the Church was so steeped in traditions, lore, and false teaching that it did not even recognize the truth. Then came the reformers, over 1000 years after Constantine to clean up the mess that had been made.

Before we really dig too hard on the Christians at Constantine’s time lets take a good look at what we might have done in their shoes. Would we have contributed to ‘the first deformation’? When Christianity became common place I am certain the attendance skyrocketed. I am sure that conversions were happening right and left, and I am willing to bet that most Church leaders were ecstatic claiming that it was a powerful working of the Holy Ghost. Certainly it would have been an exciting time with discussions about Christ becoming common place, people from other religions becoming ‘Christian’ the intellectuals and idiots both embracing the ‘new’ Christianity, which in turn embraced them. It isn’t much different from what is going on now. Yet we look at the course of history as the Roman church matured it slaughtered people by the millions, enslaved its member spiritually, physically, and financially. Even today millions of people are trusting in the Roman system to save them yet remained unaware of the true Christ and untouched by His Holy Spirit. It all started with exciting times, and big numbers, which came as a result of uniting Christianity with the world.

Here we are today, in the midst of the exact same situation. We have taken the world and its gods and its idols and have carried them into our sanctuaries and set them up. Then we watch the worshippers of those gods and idols come into the sanctuary and worship the false gods and idols as they always have. We then proclaim “look at this wonderful thing God is doing!” “People are coming in by the thousands, we have found a formula that the world loves and we are seeing a great harvest.” Yet all that really is happening is that the world can find what it loves in the church. They can have their lust filled without their consciences being singed. We have gotten to a point where we design our worship around the ‘unchurched’ as opposed to God’s word. We have pagans driving our agenda, designing our worship, and shaping our God. We find as many bible translations as possible to fit a message that the unbeliever would like to hear. We preach messages that encourage and comfort sinners, yet rarely confront sinners. We have coffee, guitars, bagels, powerpoint… and so on (none of which are bad in and of themselves) and we use all of these things to appeal to the wicked. The Roman Church in the time of Constantine did whatever it took to convert everyone, it adapted other beliefs and overtime became so corrupt that it was beyond repair. That was the first deformation, what we see now is the second deformation. It hasn’t changed, mingle a lot of truth with a few deceptions and over the course of time it becomes a lot of deception with a little truth (i.e. Romanism).

Anyway back to PDL. I will be participating in our Churches Forty Days of Purpose so that I can get first hand experience of what it is about. Hopefully I will post on this blog my thoughts and reactions to the teachings of the book and the reactions of the class. That is all for tonight.

Eternal Security Part 3

It has been awhile, and with how things are going it will probably be awhile until the next post, but nonetheless I have a free moment and feel inclined to post. Eternal security and total depravity placed side by side paint an awesome picture of what God's grace really is. I know that many people disagree with both of these doctrines, I am not sure I understand why. To denounce these doctrines is to say some pretty strange things. For instance to denounce total depravity is to say that there is righteousness outside of Christ, it could then be said that though it would be hard it still would be possible the live righteously. This would negate the necessity of Christ's sacrafice. Moreover to denounce eternal security is to say that the work of Christ on the cross for your redemption is still dependent on your own merits and therefore incomplete. Lets look at total depravity juxtapose with eternal security and see the true blessing and meaning of God's grace. Do you realize that when God saved you that you went from being incapable of pleasing God and entering his presence, to being permanatly placed in his presence, incapable of angering him. That is awesome, and the fact that you did absolutely nothing to earn it. This grace was freely given to you by Him for His purposes. You say, 'whoa Jay' you are off of your rocker on this one, of course you can still anger God. My answer is this, if God sees your actions and your sin through the attoning blood then you have no hope. Surely you have committed a myriad of sin after your conversion and if God sees that sin certainly he will, he must cast you out of his presence forever. He cannot see your sin, certainly The Son may see it, yet he intercedes and the Father sees only the merits of Christ on our behalf. Yet if we are capable of angering God, then we must continually be recovering ourselves with the blood of Christ, and he must be continually sacraficed. Yet we know he was ressurected and intercedes on our behalf in heaven. Think of that grace, think of what it really meant when you were born again. You went from uncapable of pleasing God, to forever fellowshipping with God. Praise God for His free grace. That is all for now, I really would like to post sometime soon on the topic of total depravity, hopefully I will make the time.

What's wrong with Christmas?

oo often this time of year we get into the mindset that we need to put Christ back in Christmas, or that we must remember the reason for the season. While this statement is true, so far as we must remember and think intently on what Christ has done for us, should this not be the case every season? Or to put Christ in Christmas, should he not be in our everyday lives. We can make a really good case that the 'holy day' Christmas in itself is not Christian. For instance the time of year is wrong, the early Christians didn't celebrate it, the puritians didn't celebrate it, birthdays are only mentioned twice in the bible and they both ended with murder (pharoh's baker, and John the Baptist), it was a MASS adopted by the Catholic Church which convieniently coincided with the pagan holidays of the surrounding culture, this list goes on and on with reasons we could believe Christmas is not Christian. With that said I will say this, I too celebrate Christmas with my wife and our families, we have an "idol-i-tree", (oops I mean Christmas tree), stockings, the whole works. So I recognize hypocrisy on my part, and that is why I will not tell anyone not to celebrate Christmas.

Here is my real beef with Christmas. It is the fictionization of Christ's coming to this earth. Think about it, we sing these sweet songs: "Away in a manger no crib for a bed the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head" or "Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright" yet something seems amiss. We view beautiful manger scences with a perfect looking baby so sweetly gazing into Mary's eyes. We see paintings with a holy glow around Mary and Jesus. My question is, does any of this line up with the real experience of child birth? No. There is pain in delivering a baby, and then it is bloody, and it cries. Usually the head is shaped like a cone. Real child birth certainly is a holy experience I have no doubt, but what we portray as the manger scene is simply fairy tale. It was dirty, labor was hard as it always is, Jesus came into the world as a human, fully human, fully God. He did not come in as an angelic abnormal child like all of our traditions portray him, he came into this world like you and I. This picture that we have painted certainly is not the picture the bible paints, and we wonder why the world continually rejects true Christianity. The "Christmas Christianty" which we too often present is easy to accept because it isn't real, and it is just something fun to believe in, or to pretend to believe in. Yet the real Christianity which is laced with toil, self denial, and the struggle of mastery over the flesh, the faith where we confess we would be nothing but fodder for the pit of hell if it were not by the grace of God, that Christianity is lost in our retelling of the Christmas story. Ah, in the real Christmas story we see that underlying joy amidst the struggle of life, we see the beauty of grace and the humility of Christ. I guess that is what frustrates me the most, it is important to understand that Christ came into a dump for us, that he gave up all he could have. The real Christmas story is such a powerful image of Christ's gospel, yet our tradition makes it into a fantasy with no power at all.

That is all I have for now.

Have a happy December 25, and remember that Christ came into filth, and was born just as any other man or woman is born, and because he came in the flesh, as a human, we can trust in his sacrifice and ressurection.

Eternal Security Part 2

I have found it ironic the way that I deal with the issue of eternal security. I find that when I have commited sin that is bringing me guilt and I am struggling to repent it is in those times when I sruggle with eternal security the most. In the times when things seem to be going well and I have my flesh in submission it is then that I am confident in eternal security. I say this is ironic because typically people on the non eternal security side will view this doctrine as a liscense to sin, and therefore not of God. You would think that when a believer was in sin, or struggling with sin, that they would cling to this doctrine. I have found the opposite to be true. When we are in sin we tend to doubt the infinite forgiveness which is in Christ of all sin, and we begin to believe that even after being justified in someway we must do something to obtain forgiveness. This of course is false, we are saved by grace, not of our own actions. That fact never changes, grace is given not earned, nor diligently kept, it is freely given. Still sin, when it takes occasion in us, brings us to the point where we even doubt the grace we have been given, and our natural response is to seek some sort of work of obedience to bring us back to a right standing with God. We are like dogs returning to our vomit, we once lived believing that we were good enough to get into heaven, and now we fall back into thinking we must be good enough to get into heaven. I am not sure what the answer is for us as believers. It is hard to remember when we sin, that we are redeemed, and that we must simply turn from the sin and keep marching on toward eternity. There is no need to question your eternal destiny, it is a waste of time, emotion, and energy, the battle has been one already, simply move on and continue in grace.

eternal security

It has been a considerable time since I last posted, and I apologize to anyone who checks the blog regularly for my lack diligence. With that said hopefully I will begin posting regularly again, no promises though. The past two days my thoughts have been centering on eternal security, ‘saved once, for eternity.’ This may be the most numerically divisive issue in Christendom, by numerically divisive I mean 50% believe in eternal security, 50% believe salvation can be lost. However this topic gets glossed over by many Christians. Nearly everyone will take a stand on abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, and [insert controversial subject here], yet among Christians positions on these subjects tend to be lopsided, with a small percentage leaning to the extreme liberal stance, while the majority consider it asinine that a Christian would consider homosexuality normal, abortion acceptable, and so on. We will debate issues that have been settled already, yet the majority of believers avoid the issue of eternal security. What is even more unsettling about this is that everyone has a belief concerning it, and it is typically a strong belief. If you ask a believer if they can still go to hell they will quickly answer yes or no. It is not something where people say they aren’t quite sure about it, or don’t have an opinion, it is always a simple yes or no. Regardless of which side of this argument you fall, it is a critical argument nonetheless. It is a debate that must be enacted, and both sides must search the scriptures and find the truth concerning it. This is not an issue like post-millennialism, or pre-millennialism, or whatever. That issue may be debated among believers who have all other things in common and the first principles of Christianity are not affected by the position held by the believer regarding this subject. Yet this issue of eternal security is foundational to our faith, it is a critical stone in the foundation of our relationship with God. So in this first, and maybe last (I hope not) post concerning eternal security I will just lay out the fundamental reasons it is an important debate. 1. If we are not eternally secure, obedience is required for salvation, if we are eternally secure disobedience cannot result in damnation. 2. If we are not eternally secure, salvation is from Christ, but is conditional based on the believer’s actions. If we are eternally secure salvation is from Christ independent of the believer’s actions. 3. If we are not eternally secure, Christ’s atonement was for past sins, and future sins, which we confess to Him. If we are eternally secure Christ’s atonement was for sins past present and future at the point of salvation. 4. If we are not eternally secure our obedience brings us to a right relationship with God. If we are eternally secure our relationship with God brings us to a point of obedience. 5. If we are not eternally secure God judges us by our actions (non-confessed sin.) If we are eternally secure God judges us by the merits of Christ despite the actions of the flesh. 6. If we are not eternally secure we will be held accountable the deeds of the flesh. If we are eternally secure the deeds of the flesh are not imparted to our eternal soul. This is just a list of 6 issues that could be addressed concerning eternal security. You can see that these issues are all foundational to what we believe, how we live, and who we think God is. We can gloss over this issue for the sake of unity, but the bottom line is that 50% of Christendom is fundamentally wrong. Either 50% are assuming a freedom that they don’t really have, or 50% are shackled by requirements they don’t need to meet. That is the premise of the debate on eternal security. I will say that I undoubtedly believe that we are eternally secure, and that to believe otherwise is to stand upon a shaky foundation built by the merits of your own will. I will go further in saying that not believing in eternal security is essentially denying the very core of what God’s grace is. It is like being a Galatian who begins in the spirit but then attempts to be justified by the flesh. It is to call Paul a liar when he says it is no longer I that sin, but sin that dwelleth in me, that is, in my flesh. It is to deny the very imputed righteousness of Christ. I hope to go more into this at a later time. Please post a comment if you disagree, set me straight if you feel you need to. Or drop some encouragement if you think I am on the right path.

Is God Cruel and Sadistic?

Is God cruel and sadistic? Of course not, that is a stupid question right? Of course it is a stupid question, however until today my understanding of God with regards to the Ten Commandments seemed to point to a cruel sadistic God. Allow me to explain… Thou shall not covet… Thou shall not bear false witness… Thou shall not take the Lord’s name in vain… etc. We as Christians understand that it is only by grace and the power imparted to us by the Holy Spirit because of the sacrifice of the Lord that we can be obedient to all Ten Commandments. Before Christ the Jews did put faith in the promise of a coming messiah, however they did not have the imparted righteousness of Christ. To be perfect and righteous the pre-Christ Jew would have to be obedient to all the commandments as well as the rest of the law. So my question is God, or was God cruel and sadistic? The question might not seem so dumb in this light. Think about it, God required perfect righteousness out of those who are complete unable to have any righteousness because they have not yet been imparted with the Spirit and the righteousness of Christ. If God demanded unattainable righteousness of His people then He was cruel and sadistic. Now, I will not deny that obedience to all of these commands is required for perfect righteousness, and perfect righteousness was and is required for salvation. Fortunately now having Christ’s imparted righteousness to us we can stand firmly on His merits before God in the Day of Judgment. We also know that if you believe the promises of God, you receive the promises of God. If you believe that Jesus died for your sin and that by His death and resurrection you will be saved, then certainly you will be saved. Still my question remains what hope was there for the Old Testament Jew without yet having the imparted righteousness of Christ? Here is the question we must ask: Are the Ten Commandments only commandments or are they also promises? What does the word ‘shall’ mean? Does it mean ‘must’? Yes. Does it mean ‘will’? Yes. God wrote on stone tablets a distinct foreshadowing of the new covenant, think of it: ‘you will not kill’ ‘you will not covet’ ‘you will have no other God’s before me’. Think of these statements as promises of the coming righteousness, which would be imparted to them by Christ. Their eternity was dependent on the belief in these promises, which were fulfilled by Christ. ‘Think not that I come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.’ Christ was and is the very fulfillment of the Ten Commandments. God was not cruel in requiring an unattainable command, He was gracious in promising that His people would someday be perfect. When we see only the ‘must’ side of the word ‘shall’ then we have no other option but to say that our God was cruel. Yet if we also recognize the ‘will’ side of the word ‘shall’ we see the Ten Commandments as a glorious promise of God to His people whom He loves. Do not misunderstand me, the ‘must’ side of the law, the required righteous standard is very much real, but it is no more real than the awesome promise of the ‘will’ side of the law. Next time you are reading exodus 20 remember that those Ten Commandments are more than just standards to condemn, they are the promised righteousness of Christ. The are the schoolmaster that point us to Christ by showing us our need of Him, and also what His sacrifice provides for the believer.