I love to read.  I don’t remember exactly how old I was when I first started reading books on my own, just because I wanted to, but I was about eleven or twelve, I think.  I remember back in the 70′s getting lost in the adventures of The Three Investigators.  While other kids who read were following the mysteries of The Hardy Boys, I found that I was more interested in this series because of the supernatural element.

I moved on to other mysteries and detective stories like Ellery Queen and Sherlock Holmes and then my Dad introduced me to Edgar Rice Burroughs.  He was the creator of Tarzan of the Apes and many other larger than life characters that operated in many fantastical, magical, fantasy filled worlds that I found more fascinating than my earlier times helping to solve mysteries.

As time went on I read many genres; westerns, fantasy, science fiction, adventure, action, suspense, horror and of course many of the classics.  From comic books to extensive collections of adventure series, I always had something to read.  I was a quiet, shy, introverted kid that found the most enjoyment while alone with a book.  I had a vivid imagination and could get lost in the worlds of many of the stories that I read.

This has carried over into my adulthood.  I still read a lot but my focus since I was born again almost seven years ago has been on all things theological.  I have focused mainly on anything that helps me to do my work for the Kingdom.  I still have many works of fiction that I intended to read before I got saved that have been placed on the back burner.

I used to read fiction, I believe, to escape this world; this world that I really did not find much joy in.  My atheism and my dislike of people in general didn’t help me in this.  The wonderful and mysterious worlds of fiction kept me engaged on a level that allowed me to find some joy at least.

The introduction to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom has changed me.  I find joy in this world and relationships now because of the changes He has made in me and because of the importance of the work I need to do for Him.  And the investigation into the mystery of God and who He is, is satisfying in and of itself.

Yesterday afternoon I read a work of fiction again.  I read The Shack.  I know that I am a little behind the times on this one and almost did not write about it but I believe I should.  I originally did not want to read this book.  The hype surrounding it actually turned me off to it.  All the highly touted books in the realm of Christianity since I got saved have let me down.

The Purpose Driven Life is more about us than Christ.  The Prayer of Jabez was a misplaced idea about incorporating something that someone else prayed for in a certain context for the enrichment of ourselves,  again.  And I don’t really believe I need to say anything about Your Best Life Now, the title says it all.

Most everyone was saying how life changing The Shack was while the fundamentalist crowd has critiqued every word for theological error.  I read a little about it and figured that I would probably just look for the error in it also.  But yesterday, while sitting alone feeling pretty lousy from this flu or cold or whatever I have, I decided to give it a try.

I read it in three hours.

It surprised me.  It was fascinating and wonderful.  I t was an amazing view of a God that loves us and wants nothing more really, than a dynamic relationship with us; and our trust.
It will probably upset some with the authors liberties in the portrayal of God but I found it rich and authentic.  The relationship of the Trinity went a long way in helping me to possibly understand a difficult concept better.

The idea of a God that reaches out to His hurting children did not quite fit the reformed concept of foreknowledge that was there but that did not bother me.  That, I believe, was the power of the story.  If you allow yourself to lose any critical attitude and immerse yourself in the story, you will get something wonderful from it.

The story and the concepts of God in it fit so well with my growing ideas about who God is.  The relational aspects of our walk with God are just now starting to come to the front of my own and others theological thought.  Emerging churches, missional movements, open theism; all of these have at their core the concept of a loving God who wants us in a rich relationship with Him and each other.  This was a major theme I saw in The Shack.

The portrayal of the trinity as truly one God is exactly what I believe also.  We tend to treat God as three separate gods in our attitudes and speech, but I have always made it a point to see the God of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit that is here with us now as the same being.  They all share in this relationship and in all the pain and suffering with us.

The last concept put out in the book, the necessity of forgiveness was, in my opinion not expanded as much as I would like, but it was a powerful part of the story.  Forgiveness is one of the major steps to finding peace in this world.

The author made it a point in some interviews that this is a work of fiction.  He is not trying to put out a commentary or textbook about theology.  Take it as that and you will find it enjoyable.  Life changing, I don’t know, but a valuable work to place into your mind for the enrichment of your spirit, I believe it is that.

Read it, enjoy it, but have some tissues nearby.

Love you all.

Tags: Atheism, Christianity, Church, edgar rice burroughs, ellery queen, fantasy science fiction, foreknowledge, Holy Spirit, Jabez, Jesus Christ, Kingdom, Love, mission, Prayer, Relationships, Self, sherlock holmes, spirit, Supernatural, supernatural element, tarzan of the apes, Theology, worlds of fiction

The modern Christian conception of God does not actually come from the Bible. Instead, its roots can be found in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. And the God of Greek philosophy is far more remote and inhuman than the one portrayed in both the Old and New Testaments. This has created a tension in the field of theology that does not really answer any of the questions that the atheist or the hurting lost souls of this world so desperately need.

I have been in a few discussions on this site and in my class on Wednesdays about these concepts.  Some might even call them arguments.  There are a couple of us that get a little passionate about our beliefs. 

There are different aspects to classical theism that I do not subscribe to and I have attempted to create a dialogue about such things as Gods omnipotence, His omniscience, and other attributes and how they relate to a proper understanding of the reality of spiritual warfare. 

In my group of brothers and sisters in Christ I have not found much resistance with the idea that we have free will or that God does not definitively control all things.  The area of most resistance, surprisingly, has to do with God’s foreknowledge of events and free will choices. 

I do not believe we can actually have free will or make true choices if God already knows the choice.  How can I not make the choice He has already seen?  But some seem to think my question should instead be, how can God’s or anyone’s prior knowledge interfere with (cause to happen or prevent from happening) my present choice or future decision to act?

A friend made this statement, “I know that I will not rob a bank today. That does not mean I don’t have a choice. I know what my choice will be, yet I can freely choose.”

My answer is that if God knows the future like you or me, then there is no free-will problem. In fact, this comparison of divine omniscience to human inferred knowledge is essentially what I hold to be true, instead of the sovereign view which would say that God knows, unlike you, that you would most definitely not rob that bank. You know you would not, based on your knowledge of who you are, and God knows you would not, based on the same thing.  Not on the basis that He has already seen your day come to its conclusion.   

I’d like to raise God to be higher than this view.  I believe God knows more than us, namely every possible choice we can make. I believe God just doesn’t know in the absolute sense, which choices we will make until we actually make them.

The fact is that we all “know” things that don’t actually happen the way we expected.  What if someone, at gunpoint, forced you to rob a bank?  That would force you to do something that you knew at the beginning of your day you would not do.

To really understand the classical view I am talking about, this concept of infinite divine foreknowledge as put out by classical theism, we must see it as having zero contingency.  If God absolutely knows what will happen before it happens, then there is neither meaning nor responsibility for human choice. This determinism is the foundation of most of the moral complacency of Greek fatalism. The common view of the sovereignty of God is really due to the scholastic merging of Aristotle’s thoughts, not from study of the very dynamic God of the Bible.

Let’s take a look at a logic problem.

1.    God’s having absolute foreknowledge implies that if I mow my lawn on Saturday afternoon, then God saw at an earlier time that I would mow my lawn on Saturday afternoon.

2.    Necessarily, all that God has seen is true and absolute.

3.    No one has the power to make a contradiction true.

4.    No one has the power to erase someone’s past knowledge, that is, to bring it about that something known in the past by someone was not known in the past by that person.

5.    No one has the power to erase someone’s existence in the past, that is, to bring it about that someone who did exist in the past did not exist in the past.

6.    So if God foreknew that I will mow my lawn on Saturday afternoon, I can refrain from mowing only if one of these conditions is true:
(i) I have the power to make what God has seen false.
(ii) I have the power to erase God’s past foreknowledge.
(iii) I have the power to erase God’s past existence.

7.    Alternative (i) is impossible. (This follows from steps 2 and 3).

8.    Alternative (ii) is impossible. (This follows from step 4).

9.    Alternative (iii) is impossible. (This follows from step 5).

10.  Therefore, if God foreknows that I will mow my lawn on Saturday afternoon, I do not have the power to refrain from mowing my lawn on Saturday afternoon.

Work on that one and I leave you with this thought based on years of actually believing it and still not seeing an answer in the classical view of absolute exhaustive foreknowledge.

One of atheism’s strongest condemnations of Christianity is, if God (if there is one!) absolutely knows what will happen, why does he allow the world to go on with all of its atrocities and horror?  Why doesn’t He change things? Why did He even bother?

I know from experience that none of your answers will satisfy.

Love you all

Tags: Atheism, Belief, Bible, Christianity, classical theism, Discussion, divine omniscience, foreknowledge, Free will, greek philosophy, Knowledge, Lie, Love, Sin, Spiritual Warfare, Theology

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

There is a movement that is intent on removing all vestiges of God from the public square.  Displays of commandments, the phrases mentioning God in the Pledge of Allegiance and on our currency, any public declaration of the name Jesus; all these are taboo, dangerous, and have to be gotten rid of.  Unless of course you are blaspheming or ridiculing God or Jesus.  Then you might become a celebrity.

The radical atheist movement is in league with the enemy.  They might not know it and logically could not if they are the atheists they claim to be.  I have a little experience as an atheist and this movement confuses me.  When I did not believe in God, I was not scared or threatened by Him or any of these displays.  You could go to church, pray, give away your money to the church or to the makers of all of these t-shirts, plaques, crosses, etc., and it did not bother me one bit.  It actually amused me, unless my saved wife was using our money. 

But these neo-atheists don’t portray an assurance of their conviction.  They, instead portray the opposite. They seem to be scared of something they supposedly do not believe in. 

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now.  

We have an election coming up and are faced with the fact that there are no qualified, trustworthy, competent, CHRISTLIKE, electable candidates to choose from for the highest office in our nation.   As this nations government gets bigger and bigger, the broad way to hell seems to be expanding also. 

The war that probably never should have happened goes on and on and the only way to end it will seriously dampen every other nations opinion of us as a world power.  In the meantime, people die.

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

There is not a lot of good news coming from anywhere.  The economy seems to be heading in a direction that is simply scary.  There are people losing jobs and people with little work.  Gas is ridiculously high and impacting everything’s pricing.  Some are losing their homes.  Some are losing their stuff.  We are in an economy that is affecting most people in some way. 

There is no clear way to fix the problems.  So we are faced with many lifestyle adjustments. 

There is a whole lot of enemy activity going on right now. 

On a personal level, I have friends and family that are being devastated by attacks that seem to be intensifying.  Things such as marital discord, child rebellion and hostility, addictions in loved ones, antagonistic in-laws, and many other cacoetheses’ are affecting many families that I know personally. 

But we trust God.  Or do we?  Are our actions and reactions to these attacks displaying this trust?

As far as the atheist movement goes, I take the same attitude that I did as an atheist.  I don’t care.  Because I do trust God.  I do not need a plaque to declare to me the ten commandments.  In fact, I don’t even have to memorize them.  Jesus taught and the Holy Spirit impressed on me that they are all summed up in the two.  The two are, to love God and love everyone else, even my enemies. 

I don’t need my money to remind me that I trust God.  I am not even sure as a card carrying patriot of the Kingdom of God that I should even recite the pledge of allegiance.  I ask the same thing of all those Christians that rally behind a movement to legislate morality and have this worldly government recognize my God, what are you afraid of? 

Just look at the picture I used in this post.  It seems that almost every notion of trusting God in our culture has to be pictured as conjoined with this nation.  But I would dare say there are more outside this nation that truly do trust Him than here.   

As far as the election goes, I think I will let these words from the comment section of Cerulean Sanctum, by Dan Edelen say it for me. 

“Our responsibility in voting is to represent the Kingdom of God. We do not compromise. We do not support candidates who make concessions to evil. That may mean that we must vote for someone outside the two major parties. It may mean that we write in a God-fearing candidate. It may mean that we vote for no one in a particular race if a godly candidate has not been revealed to us by the Lord. Our focus is not in ensuring we vote for the winning side or that we cast our vote against someone wicked, but that we vote in a way that honors the Lord and shows us to understand that Christ has no fellowship with Belial.”

He says what I feel much better than I could.

As far as the economy goes, there is not much to say except, trust God.  And heed these words of our Lord.

Mat 6:19-26  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal  “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

As for my friends and family that are close, I encourage you to embrace this season of trial and tribulation for what it is.  An attack of the enemy that has become so severe in your lives because of the attention you are getting from them.  You must be doing the work of the Lord to be hit with such an onslaught. 

Continue in prayer and love, for these are the weapons that make us victorious.  And know that I am praying with and for you.

So again I ask us all, In God We Trust?

I really hope so.

Love you all

Tags: Atheism, Election, Hope, Politics, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare, Trust, War

Rodin - Gates of Hell

Hello all fellow soldiers in the ultimate battle.  I am new to this blog stuff and after reading many different ones over the last few months I am finally going to take the plunge.  I am no one special.  Just a warrior trying to stay engaged with the work of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I can’t shut up talking about Him so I thought I would try to write also. 

This date seems appropriate for the theme behind my first post.  We live in a dangerous world.  But there is also an unseen world that has as much violence going on as ours does.  And I believe both of these worlds overlap and affect each other.

I am not necessarily a writer, so please bear with me, if anyone is reading this.  And I have some definite doubts about whether that will happen.  But if no one does, or is, reading this, that’s okay too.  I’m enjoying it for now. 

My intent is to just think, write, and see what happens.  I haven’t been on God’s side for long.  A little over six years.  I served the enemy for seven times that as an atheist.  And this takes me to what I want to write about on this first post. 

What I wonder is where, exactly, are those gates that Jesus said would not prevail against His church in Matthew 16:18?  

No one seems to know. 

First, one must assume from Christ’s words and everything the bible teaches us, that the enemy is a real one.  I do.  And I know he, Satan, has allies.  They are called the world and the flesh and they must be engaged in battle also.  But as far as Satan and his minions, they pretty much have free reign.  Why?

Because most of the church doesn’t believe in them or at least do not see them as a threat. 

God is at war and He has been for a long time.  We can see that all around us.  Sad people, sick people, hurting people.  Liars, cheats, thieves, murderers.  Evil of all kinds run wild in our world.  When I watch the news or read an article or even hear prayer requests at church I am reminded that the enemy is real and roaming about like a roaring lion, seeking a new person to devour. 

But this is not the way it is supposed to be. 

Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against His church.  But we can see the evidence that the gates are actually wide open and the enemy forces come out and do battle whenever and wherever they want. 

Jesus won the war on the cross of Calvary.  But for some mysterious reason that only God understands, Satan is not to be destroyed yet.  So we are left here to be a part of this spiritual warfare.  But we are supposed to be on the offensive, not the defensive.  Jesus left us a weapons manual, Paul taught us how to properly maintain our gear and weaponry, and the Holy Spirit is our ever present leader. 

By saying the gates would not prevail, Jesus was letting us know that because of His soon to be accomplished victory, the enemy would be contained by walls and gates but that we, the church, would be keeping it under siege.  And in the beginning of the church, I believe this was the case.

The early soldiers understood how to do warfare.  Spiritual warfare.  They knew that preaching, teaching, prayer, communion, fellowship, worship, giving, feeding, caring…LOVE, was the way to keep the enemy under siege.  Love and holiness were key.

Holiness.  Oops.  I probably just ran off all three people reading this.  Today, love is okay.  As a matter of fact it is all that is okay in most churches.  But holiness is a term that runs most off or at least turns them off.  But it shouldn’t.  Holiness is not legalism.  It is simply a total separation from the enemies’ side and an alignment with God’s side.  Remember though, the enemy is the world, the flesh and the devil.  A lot of us would say we are willing to stand against and maybe even take the offense against Satan, but we don’t realize to do this we must stand separate from his allies also.  And this we are not as willing to do. 

Those early soldiers understood this and stood for Christ against the world and the flesh.  So they were able to some degree, I think, to keep the enemy in check.  Just imagine being burned alive or hung on a cross and praising God the whole time.  Imagine seeing Jesus standing at the right side of the Father as you are being stoned.  To us these things sound horrible.  But to those soldiers of old, this was the ultimate victory in their lives.  Lives that were given to Jesus, the One who gave His life for them. 

Then the church was compromised, infiltrated as it were, by the ally of the enemy known as the world.  Constantine helped bring this about.  And I am not sure when the ally known as the flesh took over.  But thru these two allies of the main enemy, the gates were somehow thrown wide open.  The enemy was loosed again.  He is still loose.  But we, if we are willing, can chase him back and shut them again.  And we can keep them closed until our King returns. 

I am ready.  And I am calling for some to go with me.  So, if anyone knows, please, where, exactly, are those gates?

Tags: Atheism, Blogging, Blogs, Holiness, Mercy, Servant, Spiritual Warfare