Healthy Questions

In Part 1 we looked at the question of what it means to be dead in sin. We finished with the sober realization that man, of himself, is detestable to God. Sin permeates him to the very core. I want to briefly ponder an important implication of this for a moment. While We Were Yet Sinners Considering how vile we were in the eyes of God, it is astonishing that He did anything at all for us. In Romans 5:7 Paul states that we ourselves might be willing to offer our life in exchange for someone else's - although we would be extremely selective in whom to die for. We might die for our wife, our children, or a very honorable person, but we most certainly wouldn't see the point in giving up our life for someone we didn't like, or someone that hated us - let alone a violent criminal. However, this is exactly what God has done. What He did, He did for the ungodly (v6, 4:5), for those who were yet sinners (v8), for those who considered God a hated enemy (v10.) Jesus hung on the cross

Part 1 - Rotten to the Core "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins," (Ephesians 2:1) What does it mean to be dead in sin? What causes such death? By what means can a person be made alive? These aren't easy questions, and the concept of spiritual death is strange to us. I'll try and tackle each question separately, beginning with what it means to be dead. Under Sin & No Good Reformed doctrine speaks of "Total Depravity" - a potentially misleading term necessitated by the acronym "TULIP." Sproul prefers "radical (or core) corruption." That is to say, "That sin penetrates to the root or core of our being. Sin is not tangential or peripheral, but arises from the center of our being." (Sproul, What is Reformed Theology? ) "...we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin ; as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; Al

A couple of weeks ago a good friend asked me what I made of John 15, specifically these verses: "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit." (John 15:2) "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." (John 15:6) Do these verses indicate that those who are "in Christ" may ultimately end up in hell? Allegory Alert Proposition: If "in Me" is to be born-again, and being "taken away" and "cast into the fire and burned" represents eternal punishment, then this passage clearly speaks to believers that become unsaved. Clearly, this view hinges on what Jesus means by being "in Me." Before we discuss that, however, a warning is needed: Allegory Alert! Yes, that's right, this is a symbolic representation, a visual aid. After le

This question was raised by a friend who was reading Revelation 3:5: "‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." He's done his own research, but I wanted to think it through for myself. What is the big deal about this verse? Well, if God erases peoples' names from the "book of life" then it can be said that salvation may be lost. This shatters the notion of "once saved, always saved" and makes salvation always at risk, always hinging on each man's actions. Therefore this is a critical question; it touches on a fundamental issue of the Christian faith. I won't deal with the larger context, but rather just focus on the book of life and possibility of being erased from it. (If you're unclear on the purpose of the book of life, take a look at Revelation 20.) So, starting with Revelation 3:5. A plain readin

We were just finishing our bedtime prayers last night, when my seven year old little girl asked me, “Daddy, if God knew that people would be bad, why did he make Eden and everything?” Passing the Test Sometimes parenthood can get real interesting, real fast. You’re tired… you’re ready to finish up your own day – and you are unexpectedly asked to give an account for God’s actions in the history of men. We had just read a few pages of “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and with that in mind I responded with, “Because God wants the story to play out… He wants to see all of history happen.” I then held my breath to see if this would pass muster. I can’t imagine many situations being as tough as this; I felt like a candidate before a confirmation hearing, or a student in a national spelling bee final: I had given my answer to a complex question, and must now await the verdict. My daughter’s approval of my answer was evident in the fact that she moved on to a completely different subject. Trus

A friend asked me a question last week that I had to admit I couldn't answer: What does Scripture mean when it says Christ is interceding for us? What is He doing? The greater part of my confusion on this matter comes from a misunderstanding of the word "intercede." I have always associated this word with prayer, and so when I hear the Word say that Jesus "always lives to make intercession for us" (Heb 7:25) I immediately conclude that Jesus is in heaven praying for me all the time. I remember that Jesus prayed to His Father for His followers in the "High Priestly Prayer" (Jn 17), so this is at least conceivable. It does introduce another matter in which I have little understanding, which is why Christ prays to God… but I'm not opening that can of worms just yet. I think I can avoid that because, with a little study, I can conclude that Christ's heavenly intercession for us is not primarily about Him praying. Intercession Defined Here are

The study guide I am using for Ephesians contains the following question: The New Testament repeatedly calls the message of God’s offer of grace to sinners through the substitutionary death of Christ the “gospel” or “good news”. When we hear good news, we want to share it spontaneously with everyone we meet. For example, think of getting a raise, finding out you’re going to have a baby, and so forth. Yet many believers in Christ are reluctant to communicate their faith with others. They seem complacent about this staggering promise of salvation from sin and death through Christ. Why is this so? Thinking about this, I came up with three reasons. Firstly: Weak Faith …or, a lack of appreciation, understanding and love for Christ and all that He accomplished for us. When we barely understand the gospel ourselves we have little to tell anyone else. When we don’t see the exceeding sinfulness of our sin, the rightness of God in condemning us, the personal cost He paid to redeem us, and the pu

The other night we stumbled upon (and over) 1 Timothy 1:19-20, in which Paul instructs Timothy to fight the good fight, "keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme." (1 Timothy 1:19-20) This passage raised a few eyebrows, mine included. We discussed it for a while, but I realized I needed to come back and study it closer. The questions that come to mind: Who were Hymenaeus and Alexander? What does it mean to suffer shipwreck in regard to our faith? What blasphemy caused Paul to react so strongly? What does it mean to hand someone over to Satan? Please don’t conclude from the title of this post that I find humor in the subject, or that I take lightly the notion of being handed over to Satan. Whatever it means, it is not something I wish to come within a million miles of. However, you may more

They will cast their crowns before the throne. "The twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne…" (Revelation 4:10) Preparing for worship this Sunday, we have a song that reads: We fall down, We lay our crowns, At the feet of Jesus. This song is most clearly taken from this scene in John's revelation. Okay, so we can sing the song and not be unbiblical in so doing, but can we sing it biblically? That is, can we sing it with the meaning intended in scripture? The impression I've always had when singing this song: anything of worthiness, any accomplishment, any acclaim we have, we surrender to Jesus as an indication of submission to His universal lordship. Does that hold up? My questions: What things does scripture have in mind when it mentions humans' crowns? If this is a heavenly scene, ought we be laying crowns down here on earth? Crowns in Scrip

This post started out as a response to a question from Ted Kluck . In the process I wound up saying quite a bit about my experience and thoughts on Church and I moved it here instead. This isn't comprehensive by far - there are many places where I wanted to add an asterisk to indicate "a whole 'nother story." So, for anyone with too much time on their hands... Pre-Emergent (That's agriculture humor, there) I have been part of the emergent movement - long before I ever heard the term used. We left the charismatic church out of discontent with many things, and started in-home meetings. We (~10 families) even moved into an urban neighborhood together, trying to emulate early church community. We dropped as many traditional terms and practices as possible, striving to be something new and fresh. After 6 years or so things became very difficult and we each moved to different corners of the area. We maintained some relationships but sought to follow Christ individually.

The last post generated some very interesting discussion. I wanted to respond to a few of the comments, but it got lengthy and made more sense as a new post. The main focus here is God's love for the unelect - those who will never truly be His and will not gain eternal life. Dave: "I am not a Greek scholar but as a layman I can see that “world” [in John 3:16] has at least five different meanings in the NT. >> I agree that Kosmos has at least five general meanings: creation, the present age, world system, adornment and people. However, none of these definitions equates to "elect" or "chosen." Dave: I think the context is clear...we have Jesus talking with Nicodemus (a Jewish Pharisee) about how in the past God provided healing for the Jews by lifting up a brass serpent, but under the new covenant, saving is not for the Jews only, but for the whole(believing) world. (those from every tribe, tongue and nation)...... by looking to Jesus (who became sin,

God Loves the World To help (me) keep track of where we've been: Part 1) All are sinners Part 2) Sinful man hates God Part 3) God hates sinful man Let's see if I can wrap up my thoughts in this fourth post. God Loves the World If my last conclusion is correct and God hates man, how can He therefore "love the world" as John 3:16 states? Perhaps this passage is referring only to those "chosen before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:4 etc.) and not the whole of humanity. In other words, "God so loved His chosen ones that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that we can interpret world in this way. When John uses world it clearly means only one of two things: either this physical world (Jesus made the world and came into the world), or the world of humanity (the world did not know Him, the world hates Jesus.) I don't think we can confidentl

Rather than add yet another review that may only draw more attention to the book called "The Shack," I have decided to make my point brief and direct folks to existing reviews. For myself, I found the following: The book is poor fiction The fiction is a vehicle for the theology The theology is rotten I haven't yet found a comprehensive review - I suppose such a thing would be a book unto itself, but here's a few of the better ones: Tim Challies (17 page .pdf) Albert Mohler (radio) Hank Hanegraff (brief) If you must read the book (and you really don't have to), please realize that you will be absorbing more theology in the few hours it takes to read it than you will in most calendar months. Examine Young's version of God in light of what the Bible says about God. Use the reviews to help with this. Other related resources: The Love of God, John MacArthur. Young's God is not only love, but is really ONLY love. This is a classic and appealing distortion of

God Does Not Love Sinners I've been working on the question of whether God loves all people. I've been doing so because there's a lot of confusion on this matter, and I can say that until the last few years I was very unclear on it myself. As usual, these blog posts serve to help me think through the question personally, and open up the possibility of some healthy discussion on the subject - feel free to participate. The whole question was triggered by a fairly simple statement made by someone dear to me. At the time there was no opportunity for this discussion, but I very much wanted to air out my thoughts and see if they held up under the light of God's Word. Part 1 : "God loves sinners too, Alan." I knew there was truth in this comment, but I also knew that there was room for misunderstanding. The misunderstanding often begins with a case of mistaken identity: we fail to see that we are ALL sinners . The implication therefore is that God must somehow