Choice or No Choice? That is the Question
When a person believes in Christ and trusts Him for their salvation, Christ becomes their life for them. Literally, in some way which is hardly possible to explain, we put on Christ and he becomes our life for us (
Colossians 3:3 ,
Ephesians 2:1-7 ). God then no longer sees a sinner banned from the presence of God, but a saint washed in the blood of Christ's sacrifice. All of that is fine and dandy, but I struggle. I struggle to great ends, in fact. I cannot seem to figure out which of the following is the most biblical answer.
1.) Did God choose me long ago to be a follower of Christ?
or
2.) Does God offer everyone the gift of grace, that is, salvation, and I responded in faith to him, trusting Christ as my savior?
This debate is the age old "Calvinism/Arminianism debate." It bores many, scares many more, and angers some others. At the seminary, this is an ongoing topic of discussion. Many believe God alone chose the specific individuals whom He would save. Others believe He offers salvation to all and those who respond with faith in Jesus Christ are saved in the end.
For a long while I believed quite comforably that I chose to respond to God's gracious gift of salvation by placing my faith in Christ. Lately though, actually for a long while, I have deeply questioned this understanding of God's interaction with mankind. I don't know, maybe my Reformed (Calvinist) homies have something going for themselves . . . I don't know.
Oh boy, many of my non-Reformed compadres just might hit me up something good for this post . . . Ragamuffin, anything to say?
So umm, what now?
As my wife flipped through the channels on the tube, I caught a random question from Family Fued. It was something along the lines of, "Name one thing Adam and Eve were the first to do." As a result of this, a random question popped into my head. Here it is:
What do you think the first thing Adam and Eve did when God created Eve from Adam?
Genesis 2:21-25 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
WIPEOUT!!! Hilarious!!!
Wipeout is a hilarious show! My wife and I are laughing our faces off! Check it out.
Are We Ignorant by Choice or Design?
Our pastor mentioned an interesting statistic this past weekend in his message. He explained that a poll done among thirty-six thousand Christians revealed that too many, far too many, believers believe that there is more than one way to heaven. This poll, done by the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life, revealed that among Southern Baptists, sixty percent of those polled do not believe that faith in Christ is the only path to salvation.
This is breathtaking, simply breathtaking! It is not breathtaking in the way a purple mountain gloriously captivates our sights. It is breathtaking in the sense that it steals my breath and causes me to choke up and take notice of a serious problem. Even if this percentage is inaccurate, even if it was only twenty percent of Southern Baptists, it is still just as breathstealing! This should not be. Scripture clearly points out that faith in Christ is the only way anyone gets off this rock when all is said and done. Consider Christ’s words in John 14:1-7, particularly verse six.
1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
No one enters eternal life except through Jesus Christ. It is clear, cut, and dry. Jesus is, in fact, the only way to heaven.
But why is this even an issue? I think that it is in part due to the rampant anti-intellectualism that has scourged the pews of our churches. People have decided that intensive study and learning is not for the common man in the pew. For some reason, it appears that many think that serious biblical study is something for theologians and seminary professors. Since I began seminary, I have noticed a huge gap between the professors in the seminaries and the people in the pews. Granted, there is going to be an inherent difference in the intellectual levels of the church and the seminary for obvious reasons. Their purposes and motivations are slightly different. Even so, the large chasm between the church pews and the professors’ papers ought not be so wide. There is so much to learn and see and experience and share in regards to our walk with Christ. Certainly there is more to it than Sunday Mornings!
It is my desire that churches, particularly pastors, seek to teach the members of Christ’s body the things above, as Colossians 3:1-4 puts it,
"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." This would come at a high expense; at least it appears to be a high expense to the modern church goers of the day. There is much to learn and much to teach.
If we believe that God has saved us, a reckless and godless people (which make no mistake, we are in fact just that), then it should be natural for His people to seek the things which help us to better understand our faith. These things are church history, Christian doctrine and theology, biblical languages, Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfillment, and so on.
Yes I agree, these things are not immediately as pleasing as Lost, CSI:, Golf, Football, Baseball, and the rest. No less, these things also do not grant us the salvation we so happily have in Christ.There is much to learn! So I ask, are we ignorant of God's Word by our own choices, or is it someone else's fault that we have let go of the things of God? Let us not be the victim of this
rampant anti-intellectualism. The less we attempt to tackle, the more ignorant we become and the more vulnerable we are to the foolishness of man.
