I'm not going to offer my comments on this (atleast not now), but I just wanted to share this quote I just read from The Potter's Freedom p. 248 by James White:
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Consider for a moment how precious it is that the Christian can say, 'I have been crucified with Christ.' This is personal atonement, personal substitution. We revel in the awesome love of our Savior who loved us as individuals and gave Himself up for us. For me! Me, the hate-filled sinner who spurned Him and His love! How much less glorious is the idea, 'Christ loved a generic group and died so as to give them the opportunity to possibly join the group and hence receive certain benefits.'
But let us ask this question: can the justly condemned sinner who stands upon the parapets of hell in eternity to come, screaming in hatred toward the halls of heaven, say, 'I was crucified with Christ! He loved me and gave Himself up for me!' Surely not! Can such a person say, 'My sins have been punished twice! First they were perfectly atoned for on the cross of Christ, and now I am undergoing punishment for them again here in hell!' The very idea causes us to recoil in horror. You see, particular redemption means personal redemption. Christ died in my place, not generically, but individually. What a glorious Savior!"
Just something to think about; do you believe that Christ died on the cross for the sins of every single human being who ever lived? Or do you believe that Christ died for only the elect?
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Six days and Gay marriage
So what does the six days of Creation and gay marriage have in common? Absolutely nothing! But first things first; my interesting day. If anyone wants to see me get my butt kicked in a debate, then look no further than today. In one of my sociology classes we had to debate on gay marriage. Luckily, I was chosen to oppose gay marriage rather than defend it. But what was so difficult about this debate was that I had to defend my position from a sociological perspective. And if you know anything about sociology, you know this; the duty of a sociologist is not to determine right and wrong. Basically, this meant that I could use no subjective evidences to build my case. Or in other words, I couldn't appeal to my personal beliefs! So, needless to say, I was destroyed. But I did learn quite a bit! For one, I learned that I absolutely suck at politics. And two, I learned that I suck at politics! And three, I learned that it is very difficult to defend Marriage sociologically! So yes, I admit defeat. If you want to know the details, just ask the vast majority of class that voted my team as the losers :-P
Ok, now let's switch gears shall we?
"Six days?"
"Yep!"
"Six truly really days?"
"Yep!"
"You're sure it says six days?"
"Yep!"
"I wonder why He took so long?"
Have you ever wondered that? If God is really so powerful, couldn't He have created everything in 6 seconds? One second? One thousandth of a second? Or even in no time at all? Why did God take so long to create? Well, that is what an atheist asked recently in response to my article, "Evolution and the Bible." And I appreciated the question so much that I thought i'd answer it here! So why six days? Let's see what the Bible says...
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work...For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)
The answer is simple! God created in six days as a model for us to live our lives; Six days of work and a day of rest! But think about this for a second. If those days aren't literal days but rather millions or billions of years, what would that mean to us?
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work...For in 4.4 Billion years the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested for 200 million years . Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)
Does that make any sense? God created in billions of years and rested for millions so that we might work for six days and rest on the seventh? Next time you go to work, ask your boss if you can take off work on the Sabbath. If he says yes, don't go to work for the next 10 years. Chances are you'll get a call asking, "Where are you? You were only supposed to take off on the Sabbath!" Then you would say, "Yes, that's true. But God rested on the Sabbath for millions of years, so why can't I rest for 10 years?" See the problem? We must let the text of Scripture interpret itself rather than inserting our own ideas into the text. And if we choose to go down that slippery slope of redifining words according to what we think they should mean in Genesis, then what is going to stop us from doing that in other parts of the Bible as well?
Ok, now let's switch gears shall we?
"Six days?"
"Yep!"
"Six truly really days?"
"Yep!"
"You're sure it says six days?"
"Yep!"
"I wonder why He took so long?"
Have you ever wondered that? If God is really so powerful, couldn't He have created everything in 6 seconds? One second? One thousandth of a second? Or even in no time at all? Why did God take so long to create? Well, that is what an atheist asked recently in response to my article, "Evolution and the Bible." And I appreciated the question so much that I thought i'd answer it here! So why six days? Let's see what the Bible says...
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work...For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)
The answer is simple! God created in six days as a model for us to live our lives; Six days of work and a day of rest! But think about this for a second. If those days aren't literal days but rather millions or billions of years, what would that mean to us?
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work...For in 4.4 Billion years the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested for 200 million years . Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11)
Does that make any sense? God created in billions of years and rested for millions so that we might work for six days and rest on the seventh? Next time you go to work, ask your boss if you can take off work on the Sabbath. If he says yes, don't go to work for the next 10 years. Chances are you'll get a call asking, "Where are you? You were only supposed to take off on the Sabbath!" Then you would say, "Yes, that's true. But God rested on the Sabbath for millions of years, so why can't I rest for 10 years?" See the problem? We must let the text of Scripture interpret itself rather than inserting our own ideas into the text. And if we choose to go down that slippery slope of redifining words according to what we think they should mean in Genesis, then what is going to stop us from doing that in other parts of the Bible as well?
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Take a Guess!
Yes, I know. I should probably write more often. But a lot of new theological thoughts have been entering my mind as of late and I just don't think i'm ready to start writing on those things until my thoughts are more developed. These recent develpments include some study in the areas of textual criticism, Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, and Watchtower theology. So when I feel like i'm somewhat established in those areas, we'll probably see an overload of new blogs.
But for now, I thought i'd post something that's always been on my mind. So i'd like for you to try something. Take a wild guess at what this quote is from...And don't cheat!
"And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them...And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men...And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth; that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief."
Where did this quote come from? Did it come from one of Benny Hinn's latest prophecies? Or was it from an early church father testifying to the continuation of the miracle gifts? Nope, this quote is from none other than the false prophet and founder of the Mormon church, Joseph Smith in Moroni 10:8, 19, 24.
So what is the significance of this passage? Everyone who calls themselves a Charismatic or Pentecostal and/or believes that the miracle gifts, such as healing and tongues, are for today, must be able to explain two things:
1) The "gifts" bear no resemblance to what was written about in the Scriptures.
2) Christians have not (and still don't) manifested the miracle gifts from the 2nd century all the way to the present.
In doing personal research in the areas of Pentecostal theology, i've always wondered why I can't find any early sources within orthodox Christianity that testify to a present manifestation of the miracle gifts? So i've always wanted to know: what are the earliest sources that would attempt to explain away the second point mentioned above? Or in other words, before the 19th century, was there anyone even attempting to defend the continuationist position that the miracle gifts had not ceased?
The results thus far are astonishing: the earliest source for the defense of the miracle gifts so far is....THE BOOK OF MORMON? Incredible! Now, before someone tries to accuse me of guilty by association, let me assure you that I am not using this argument to disprove the continuationist position. I simply want to bring up something for my Charismatic and Pentecostal readers to think about: Is it not atleast a little bit interesting that THE BOOK OF MORMON is the earliest defense of the continuationist position? And if i'm wrong, please show me an earlier source.
One last thing I noticed from this passage in Moroni--it uses the same argumentation in verse 19 (which is a quote from Hebrews 13:8) that Charismatics use today! "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Therefore, since Jesus doesn't change, miracles can't cease!" Of course, this is taking Hebrews 13:8 grossly out of context and is based on a misunderstanding of the continuationist position. No continuationist believes that miracles have ceased. We simply believe that the *gifts* have ceased. But what about Hebrews 13:8? If the Mormons and Pentecostals are correct, then we have a serious problem on our hands. Would this not mean that Jesus must do the same things, in the same way, from the moment he created the world all the way to the present? If so, then let's see how well this logic follows through:
1) If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then how could he enter into human flesh and die on the cross for our sins? Would this not imply change?
2) If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then why did the Holy Spirit not manifest itself in the lives of every believer until Acts 2? Would this not imply change?
3) If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then why did He once require animal sacrifice, but no longer today? Would this not imply change?
Obviously, the argument fails miserably. Hebrews 13:8 has nothing to do with the fact that Jesus is free to manifest miracle gifts in believers as well as cause them to cease. It only has to do with the fact that His character or essense will never change. For example, Jesus cannot rid Himself of the attribute of love because that would change His character.
Again, I would love to see some quotes from an early Patristic source testifying to the defense of the miracle gifts. If you know of any, please send them my way!
But for now, I thought i'd post something that's always been on my mind. So i'd like for you to try something. Take a wild guess at what this quote is from...And don't cheat!
"And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of God unto men, to profit them...And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men...And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth; that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief."
Where did this quote come from? Did it come from one of Benny Hinn's latest prophecies? Or was it from an early church father testifying to the continuation of the miracle gifts? Nope, this quote is from none other than the false prophet and founder of the Mormon church, Joseph Smith in Moroni 10:8, 19, 24.
So what is the significance of this passage? Everyone who calls themselves a Charismatic or Pentecostal and/or believes that the miracle gifts, such as healing and tongues, are for today, must be able to explain two things:
1) The "gifts" bear no resemblance to what was written about in the Scriptures.
2) Christians have not (and still don't) manifested the miracle gifts from the 2nd century all the way to the present.
In doing personal research in the areas of Pentecostal theology, i've always wondered why I can't find any early sources within orthodox Christianity that testify to a present manifestation of the miracle gifts? So i've always wanted to know: what are the earliest sources that would attempt to explain away the second point mentioned above? Or in other words, before the 19th century, was there anyone even attempting to defend the continuationist position that the miracle gifts had not ceased?
The results thus far are astonishing: the earliest source for the defense of the miracle gifts so far is....THE BOOK OF MORMON? Incredible! Now, before someone tries to accuse me of guilty by association, let me assure you that I am not using this argument to disprove the continuationist position. I simply want to bring up something for my Charismatic and Pentecostal readers to think about: Is it not atleast a little bit interesting that THE BOOK OF MORMON is the earliest defense of the continuationist position? And if i'm wrong, please show me an earlier source.
One last thing I noticed from this passage in Moroni--it uses the same argumentation in verse 19 (which is a quote from Hebrews 13:8) that Charismatics use today! "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Therefore, since Jesus doesn't change, miracles can't cease!" Of course, this is taking Hebrews 13:8 grossly out of context and is based on a misunderstanding of the continuationist position. No continuationist believes that miracles have ceased. We simply believe that the *gifts* have ceased. But what about Hebrews 13:8? If the Mormons and Pentecostals are correct, then we have a serious problem on our hands. Would this not mean that Jesus must do the same things, in the same way, from the moment he created the world all the way to the present? If so, then let's see how well this logic follows through:
1) If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then how could he enter into human flesh and die on the cross for our sins? Would this not imply change?
2) If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then why did the Holy Spirit not manifest itself in the lives of every believer until Acts 2? Would this not imply change?
3) If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then why did He once require animal sacrifice, but no longer today? Would this not imply change?
Obviously, the argument fails miserably. Hebrews 13:8 has nothing to do with the fact that Jesus is free to manifest miracle gifts in believers as well as cause them to cease. It only has to do with the fact that His character or essense will never change. For example, Jesus cannot rid Himself of the attribute of love because that would change His character.
Again, I would love to see some quotes from an early Patristic source testifying to the defense of the miracle gifts. If you know of any, please send them my way!
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