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"Arminianism vs Reformed(Calvinism) and why?"
- Tim M.
I'm going to start this off by admitting that, until very recently, I couldn't have told you what the differences between Arminianism and Calvinism were. I had certainly heard of these terms, but I was not familiar with the details of the beliefs. I have now read over the entry found on Wikipedia. It was an interesting and informative read. For those who may also be somewhat unfamiliar with these theological concepts, here is a snippet from the Wikipedia article that summarizes the differences between Arminianism and Calvinism.
- Nature of election – Arminians hold that election to eternal salvation has the condition of faith attached. The Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election states that salvation cannot be earned or achieved and is therefore not conditional upon any human effort, so faith is not a condition of salvation but the divinely apportioned means to it. In other words, Arminians believe that they owe their election to their faith, whereas Calvinists believe that they owe their faith to their election.
- Nature of grace – Arminians believe that, through grace, God restores free will concerning salvation to all humanity, and each individual, therefore, is able either to accept the Gospel call through faith or resist it through unbelief. Calvinists hold that God's grace to enable salvation is given only to the elect and irresistibly leads to salvation.
- Extent of the atonement – Arminians, along with four-point Calvinists or Amyraldians, hold to a universal drawing and universal extent of atonement instead of the Calvinist doctrine that the drawing and atonement is limited in extent to the elect only, which many Calvinists prefer to call 'particular redemption'. Both sides (with the exception of hyper-Calvinists) believe the invitation of the gospel is universal and "must be presented to everyone [they] can reach without any distinction."
- Perseverance in faith – Arminians believe that future salvation and eternal life is secured in Christ and protected from all external forces but is conditional on remaining in Christ and can be lost through apostasy. Traditional Calvinists believe in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, which says that because God chose some unto salvation and actually paid for their particular sins, he keeps them from apostasy and that those who do apostatize were never truly regenerated (that is, born again) or saved. Non-traditional Calvinists and other evangelicals advocate the similar but different doctrine of eternal security that teaches if a person was once saved, his or her salvation can never be in jeopardy, even if the person completely apostatizes.
After reading this, it was rather easy for me to determine that my beliefs line up much closer with the Arminian side. Basically, I believe that all humans have the chance to be saved, and that salvation requires some human effort. All that effort consists of is the belief in Jesus Christ as your savior. I believe we are saved because of the decision in our heart to follow Christ, not the other way around.
I believe that humans have free will to choose to either follow or reject Jesus. Humans have the ability to choose this world over Christ, and many do every day. Even if they feel the nudging from God, and there are people in their life that are pointing them in the right direction, they reject the notion of following God and instead choose the narrow path of the world. You can choose to have the world as your god and ignore the true God. This is part of free will. God wants each of us to choose to follow Him, but if our salvation is granted by predestined election, then it is not a choice for either the believers or the unbelievers. The first step in salvation was Jesus dying on the cross, but the second step is for each of us to make the choice in our heart to follow Him.
I believe atonement to be universal, available to all the world. Jesus died for every man and woman in the world, regardless of who you are or what you've done. I'm not special enough to be one of the "elect" that God chose to save; I'm saved because I've admitted that I am a sinner, and accepted that the blood of Jesus is the only thing that can save me. I feel eternally blessed that I was born into a loving, Christ-centered family, but that was a blessing and, frankly, quite lucky. I was not born into that family because I was "elect."
I also believe in the Arminian idea that one's salvation is secure, and yet, if one chooses to abandon their beliefs and turn their back on God, they can lose it. I would say, though, that once somebody has a true experience with God, and they come to a point where their mind takes their salvation from being belief to being fact, it would not be possible for them to turn around and then completely reject their faith. From my perspective, I will never turn my back on God. I have based so much of who I am and how I live my life on my belief that there is a God and He loves me. To disbelieve that would be to change who I am, to my very core. That core is the way it is because I see the existence of God as an unquestionable fact. I believe in God more than I believe in gravity. The proof of God is everywhere, from the peaks of the mountains to the depths of the sea, to the kaleidoscope of human diversity to the amazing animal and plant life in the world. To stop believing in God would be to betray everything I see and everything I feel. Atheists may scoff at this, but to stop believing in God would betray my own logic and rationale. It would break everything I know to be true.
I would contend that those who are in the faith and then leave it never actually allowed themselves to be fully immersed in the love of Christ. The question becomes this: were they ever truly saved? I find a hard time believing that anyone who was ever truly saved would then reject Jesus. That would be like rejecting oxygen and deciding it would be better to breath in dirt.
"What is your view on Genesis and evolution? Do you take a literal view of Genesis in 7 days?"
- Erik C.
In preparation for this entry, I watched the entirety of the debate between Ken Hamm of the Creation Museum and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Now, I am not, nor will I ever be, a scientist. When I was of grade school age, I did have thoughts of becoming an archaeologist or an astronomer. However, as you may notice, I am neither of those things, so I'm not going to delve too incredibly deep into the science of it all. Anyway, the debate itself was interesting, though it did not quite capture the two opposing sides that I am considering. It pitted Ken Hamm, a Christian and young-Earth creationist, against Bill Nye, an atheist who believes the Earth is billions of years old. I am coming to this issue with one unquestionable truth: there is a God, and His hand was at work in the creation of this universe and this planet. The question is whether he simply spoke things into being, or if he used processes such as the big bang and evolution to allow for the universe, the planet, and the human race to arrive at their current existence.
On one hand, I truly want to believe the literal Genesis creation story. If I take the story as literal truth, it makes a lot of sense to me. There are certain Biblical things that I would have issues reconciling if evolution is true. For instance, as Christians, we accept that Jesus was a real person, flesh and blood. The Bible lays out his genealogy, following His ancestral trail back through King David, back to Jacob and Abraham, back to Methuselah, and back to Seth, and back to Adam. According to the Bible, Adam was the first man created. Now, if you're an evolutionist, and you accept Jesus, and accept the people before Him in the ancestral line, what about Adam? Was he a real person?
If he was a real person, then he would have simply been the next generation. He would have had parents and grandparents, and yet God chose Adam's generation as the first important enough to mention. Would he really have done anything important? Or was his name just chosen by the writer of Genesis as the scapegoat for bringing sin into the world?
If evolution is the way God created humans over millions of years, was there one generation that did not have a soul, but their offspring did? One generation not made in God's image, while the next generation was? Did they know that they had a soul, and thus needed to worry about things like afterlife and righteousness, and sin, while their parents did not? Did their parents have free will? If the first sin brought death into the world, and thus there was no death in the world before that moment, and evolution happened over millions of years, would not every being that had been created before that moment still be alive up until the first sin?
If Adam was not a real person, then why was he included in Jesus' genealogy? Why was it recorded that he lived 930 years, and that he was the father of Cain and Able and Seth? Why would the genealogy of our savior include fictional characters? If that part of the genealogy is not accurate, does that not bring into question the whole ancestral line?
On the other hand, I understand that the evidence to support evolution and the big bang are convincing. Stars are moving away from each other - the universe is expanding. There are mutations in nature, and new species do spring up. There are fossils that seem to show changes over time.
After watching the debate, my mind hadn't changed on one thing: I don't think this question is something we can truly answer. We can look at the science and make observations, but those observations are based purely on the physical universe. Like I said earlier, the one unquestionable truth in all of this for me is that God created the universe. He had his hand on whatever process caused all of this to come into being. I find it completely illogical to believe that, if there was a big bang, that it happened by itself, for ultimately, there needs to be a source. There cannot be nothing, and then an explosion, for there was nothing there to explode. It makes no logical or rational sense. So, we're dealing with a physical universe, in which we can only observe its physical attributes, and yet it was created, in part, by the actions of a limitless, incalculable supernatural being. If you accept that God created everything, then you cannot be limited only by what can be physically explained. If there was a big bang, the He started the fire. If evolution was the path used to get us here, then He guided that path. There may be things in nature that we cannot explain, because it was not created or affected by something natural. I see God's handprints everywhere in nature, but I certainly don't believe that we can see all of God's handprints. Science is a wonderful thing that should be embraced, but it can't and never will explain everything, because not everything is physically explainable.
I certainly cannot say that I unquestionably believe it was done in a certain way, but I have a harder time believing in evolution. That's more of a personal bias though. I don't like the idea of evolution. That being said, at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter, because the foundation of my faith is not affected by which method God used to create the universe. I can accept the fact that I do not know, and that some of my assumptions may be misguided or completely wrong, and that would be okay. The only thing I can say I believe without question is that God is the great creator, and that it was His hand that created this amazing universe and this diverse planet. I'll wait for Heaven to be sure of the details.
As part of my desire to keep an active blogging life (and to counter the fact that I often have trouble coming up with topics), I've decided to see if there is anything my wide reader base (sarcasm) has any thoughts on what I should write about. So here is your opportunity to send me questions concerning any topic you have on your mind. I am posting this on both my personal blog, Chromiden's Chronicles, and my more serious-natured blog about life, Don't Feed the Hypocrite. The type of question it is will determine which blog the response gets posted to.
So ask me anything - about the goings on in my life, my opinions on certain issues, general advice, my views on certain aspects of the Christian life. Or whatever. I'll answer pretty much anything, openly and honestly. Feel free to post these questions as blog comments, Facebook comments, or send me a Facebook message or an email [ cooper [dot] joel [at] gmail [dot] com ].
It's quite possible that I won't get a response from this, and that's more than alright, I just thought I'd give it a try. :)
We all want to get to Heaven, don't we? Those who would say "no" to that question are probably those who don't believe in such a place. For those who do, getting to Heaven - attaining one's salvation - is of great importance, and yet, there are many who do not know or understand how to get there. There are many who believe that good people go to Heaven, just because they're good people. Is that the case? Well, here we get to consider how to get to Heaven by being good, by using math.
When we're born, we start off with Y = 0 points by default. We then realize this truth: by the time you die, you need to have accumulated X points to get into Heaven. At the beginning, we don't know what X is, but we assume it is a large number, so we need to start earning points.
1 point for making our mom and dad smile.
2 points for giving the kid next to us in class a pencil when he forgot his.
3 points for picking up the girl's book when she dropped it in the hallway.
5 points for helping the old lady across the street.
10 points for raking an elderly person's lawn - without being paid.
we reach 18 years of age, and we've done these and other such things for all those years, earning some great amount of points. Perhaps 65000 of them. Is that enough? If we die today, is that enough to earn our way into Heaven? Is Y >= X?
No, no it's not.
So, as we enter adulthood, we find bigger and better ways to earn points. They're rolling in by the hundreds. We're giving money to charities and lending our tools out to friends. We're being nice to everyone we meet, making them laugh. We're helping to feed the poor and clothe the naked. We're earning so many points, it must surely be enough. By the time we hit 40, we've accumulated a million points. Surely that is enough, right? Is our salvation secure? Is Y >= X now?
No, not yet.
Then we read this:
"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin."
- Romans 3: 20 [NIV]
And this:
"Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it."
- Ephesians 2:9 (NLT)
We can't earn our way to Heaven.
In math terms, X = ∞. Yeah, X = infinity.
We keep adding up our points, and yet, Y will never reach X by gaining such numbers. Even after a life time of good works.
What? I have a million points, and yet I get nothing? How do I earn my way to Heaven? How do I earn salvation?
The truth hits us hard: we can't. It isn't possible.
Then we read this:
"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
- Romans 10: 9 [NLT]
"God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God."
- Ephesians 2: 8 [NLT]
It isn't us. We don't earn our way to Heaven. There's more to it than that.
We also read this:
"Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness."
- Psalm 145: 3 [NLT]
"'I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,' says the Lord God. 'I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.'"
- Revelation 1: 8 [NLT]
"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever."
- 1 Chronicles 16: 34
Unmeasurable. Eternal. Infinite.
God.
We then learn the one truth that matters more than anything: Jesus is God. Thus, Jesus is infinite. J = Jesus. J = infinity.
Thus: Y + J = X.
It's the only way you get Y to equal X: by adding J to it. It doesn't matter what else we've done. We can do all sorts of wonderful things to add to Y, but it won't get us to X. It won't get us to Heaven. Also, it means that if we accept Jesus as our savior, Y becomes X - infinity - and you can't reduce infinity by the sins you commit. No sin will keep us from Heaven. No sin has a value of infinity. Thus, if we have truly accepted Christ, and our Y has truly become infinity, it will never become less than that.
I know this is somewhat of a silly way to think about this, but I wanted to put an interesting twist on the topic of salvation. Salvation is through grace and grace alone; we can't earn our way in. Jesus is the only answer.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- John 3: 16
All the Christ followers of the world believe this, holding it to be the foundation of their faith. John 3: 16 is the most recognizable verse in the Bible, and it simplifies everything we believe into one simple thought: Jesus died for our sins, and because of that love, we will live with Him forever.
This ought to be enough to unify all believers, right?
We Christians can be a petty bunch. Since the creation of the church, it has been split into countless denominations, often based on differences that are comparitively trivial. We have fragmented our faith due to things that are insignificiant compared to the one thing that should hold us all together: the blood and the salvation of Jesus Christ. The fragment is so great that some people refer to the different denominations as different religions, as though Baptist and Lutheran are so incompatible that they are now different systems of belief.
While we may not be able to quick stitch all the denominations back together, what we can do is not allow petty differences to further fracture our lives and relationships. There have been instances where families and churches have been torn apart because of differences in doctrine. These differences are often relatively minor, but we give them more power than they deserve. We create denominations within our own families, and relationships are often burned because of what side someone stands on. If we all follow Jesus as our savior, what else could possibly have the power to tear us apart? It should not matter what the issue is or on what side you stand, for Jesus is the great unifier, and causing a rift based on anything else means you're giving that issue more power than you're giving the blood of Jesus.
We must try and view things the way Jesus views things. He looks down upon His followers from Heaven, and what does He see? He sees a kaleidoscope of people. Yes, there are different colors and genders, but there are also different opinions and doctrines. Is His salvation only available to those who belong to a particular church, or are on a particular side of some trivial issue? No, He loves all of us equally, because we are all the children of God. Did the thief hanging on the cross beside Him have all the same doctrinal opinions that the disciples of Jesus did? Surely not, and yet that thief is now in the kingdom of Heaven.
We are meant to be the body of Christ - one body, not several. We are meant to be strong, but how strong can we be if we are so easily fractured? We must learn to let go of the things that do not comprise the foundation of our faith. We must come and stand together as the body of Christ, standing unified on one foundation. We must be one in the name of Jesus.
Maybe it's just me, but I think X is getting a bit too much credit.
X wasn't the one and only son of God, sent to Earth in human form.
X was not born in a manger, visited by shepherds.
X didn't heal anyone, or raise anyone from the dead.
X wasn't hung on a cross to die for sins it didn't commit.
The blood of X did not save me from my sins.
X didn't come back to life.
X isn't in Heaven right now, preparing a place for those who believe.
I don't call X my lord and savior.
Thus, I will never use the phrase "X-Mas," because I don't celebrate the birth of X.
I celebrate Christmas, because it was Jesus who did all those things.
The world may want to turn Christmas into simply "the holidays," but that doesn't mean I'm going to.
Thus, Merry Christmas!
Makeup. I know, where do I get the audacity to delve into such a profound theological topic? And you thought this blog couldn't get any deeper.
First off, there is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with women wearing makeup. There are certain time when, perhaps, it has uses. That being said, I wish women wouldn't use it. This is not because of any opinions I have on how someone looks with makeup, but it has to do with a deeper issue.
Women, this is for you.
You're beautiful. Whoever you are, you're a beautiful creation of God, knit together in your mother's womb, made exactly as He wanted you to be. You do not become beautiful when you put on blush or eyeliner or mascara. You don't become beautiful, because you already are beautiful. You don't need something that comes in a bottle in order to become what God already made you to be.
The danger is when a woman begins to believe that they are never pretty enough without their makeup. It creates a mindset of I'm not good enough. I need extra help to be found attractive. I need to spend money to be noticed. On my own, I am nothing special. Cosmetic company commercials and advertisements all want to send the same message: you need this product to look good.
Except that each of these things is wrong. In fact, each of these things is a lie from the evil powers at work in this world. Such thinking also makes women believe that their value is solely found in their appearance, and such thinking is damaging to one's self-esteem and self-worth. Women, know this: you are so much more than how you look. You are worth so much more than you can possibly imagine, and it has absolutely nothing to do with your body. Do not cheapen your own existence by placing so much worth on how you look, because you don't need to worry about it. You are beautful without having to do anything.
Some women cling to their makeup bag as though it was their life. They can't imagine going anywhere in public without makeup on their face. I honestly think this is so sad. Such thinking is only part of the corruption in the world: placing great amounts of value on things that are ultimately worthless. Celebrities spend large amounts of money to stay youthful looking, ensuring they look their best each time they emerge into the spotlight. It is foolish to live life in such a way, for what value is there in spending so much time and money on one's looks? You are beautiful just as you are, without spending a dime.
A woman's confidence should not come from how they look. Their confidence should come from the knowledge that God created them, loves them, and is with them every step of the way. God loves you no matter what, and thinks you're beautiful no matter what. Any good husband would think the same.
To reiterate, makeup is not evil. It is the reasoning behind it that can be destructive to one's self-esteem. Why do I wish women would not wear makeup? Because they think they need it. Because they don't believe they're beautiful without it. Because they think themselves to be unattractive without it.
None of these things are true. Women, realize that beauty cannot be bought. More importantly, it doesn't need to be bought, because you already have it. You were born with it.
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