Epiphany

I was sitting in Church last Sunday and had a minor epiphany. I realised that I now know and love these people. Such that it doesn’t matter about our theological differences we are family. Just as my brothers and sister are always my family regardless of thought and deed. So, it is now with my Church family.

I think many believers go to Church with a bible in one hand a metaphorical loaded pistol in their pocket. If the Pastor or the Church body start become theologically different from themselves. They cock the hammer on the pistol. If things get worse, they pull out their imaginary gun and start waving it around wildly hoping to get their own way. Stressing the metaphorical element of this whole scenario here but the next step is walking out the door never to return.

I have to say that before I came to this Church I asked God to guide me to the Church He wanted me to become a member of and make it that He wouldn’t allow me to leave. For a number of reasons that is the Church I am a member of now.

For a start, the Pastor is now a close friend and he wouldn’t let me leave without a good reason which he would pursue me to obtain. The Church is quite theologically diverse and although the theology is Reformed individuality seems quite acceptable. I have challenged this premise continually and the Church community continues to accept my opinions with much love and patience. I have come to know the congregation and they are now my friends such that it would be difficult to turn my back on them and to walk away.

Another reason that keeps me with them more than any other is that my disabled son has been with this Church since it was planted and these people have loved and supported him. All the while accepting his different ways. Now, you might say “And so they should!” And yet many people Christian and otherwise are far from accepting of disability. Talking the talk and walking the walk are two completely different issues in this case. 

I can assure you. This is the one thing that of every doubt I have had that God wants me here with this Church. I come back to. That I owe them much on my sons behalf. And a while ago when I first was with them I would have left but that my son pleaded with me to stay.

And so. God has answered my prayer. I asked him to guide me to a Church that He wanted me to join and not allow me to leave and I have to say that He has done that. From where I stand I actually have skin in the game now. I now care deeply for these people and have patience and tolerance for their differing opinions. Even though I may disagree and believe the issues to be important.

So the greatest take home for me is that I’ve always looked for a Church that was a theological match to my beliefs. Whereas now, I see that the quality of the person is much more important than their theological standpoint. I think there will be many who believed on Jesus for their salvation in the Kingdom of Heaven who didn’t agree theologically with each other. Perhaps this is the beginning of wisdom for me?

Replacing God: The Strength Within

It always interests me that those of secular society. Humanists and the like hate the very idea of a moral and powerful creator God. It seems to fan the flames of internal rebellion in their somewhat hardened hearts. They rail at the very idea of a divinely guided creation and simply can’t understand how anyone could challenge the concept of evolution over millions or billions of years powered by competition and survival of the fittest. 

 

Yet, it always intrigues me as a reader of science fiction how these people never miss a chance to attack God, religion and Christians. Usually in that order but are only too happy to envisage humanity, ancient aliens and the like that have through science obtained virtually super natural powers. God like abilities which can create new creatures, such as, robots that are virtually indestructible and have quantum computer artificial intelligence. Then, there are the actual quantum AI computers powerful enough to benevolently control planets and empires. While building enormously powerful space ships the size of moons also controlled by the same types of computer. Not to mention encasing Sun’s in Dyson Spheres and shifting planets to other solar systems. Developing nano technology that can heal, repair and even engineer all manner of other technology. All, nothing short of miraculous and definitely God like. 

Yet humanists will not brook the idea of Jehovah God doing the same things in relation to Earth and the universe we live in this actual reality? But the fact that they can imagine themselves as Gods is pertinent from a Christian perspective. In the book of Genesis at chapter three we read starting at verse 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it (the tree of knowledge), your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan has encouraged mankind to attain to Godhood from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. The devil has always used perspective to deceive mankind and convince them of his various lies starting with what he said to Eve in the Garden. 

In our time, the New Age Movement has strongly evangelized among non-Christians and liberal Christianity alike. That they need to forsake Jehovah and look inward to find enlightenment. In that way they can rise to be Gods themselves. There is much of this concept modeled in modern science fiction as characters there, use technology to raise their cognitive abilities and to become as God’s. This is not all there is to this idea because as they attain God like intelligence, they also reject morality believing that their knowledge is superior and they are now beyond mere humanity. 

 

Because there is no morality then if millions die as a result of the heinous things they create. Wars, plagues and misbegotten nano technology for instance and it eventually turns out that aids and Covid 19 are human creations? I’m not saying that they are but, if they were? Then that would be an example of the type of Godless immorality at the hands of supposedly superior elites and exactly what I am talking about here. 

In conclusion, I would simply ask that if we can conceive of mankind eventually rising in technological capability and capacity to perform and achieve the miraculous. Then why can’t we accept that there is a God called Jehovah who already has that technological capability and capacity to have designed and created not only Earth but the very heavens themselves. As the bible says in Psalm nineteen verse one “...The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”  

Depravity Compared

Interestingly, the old Calvinist – Arminian question of God’s Sovereignty versus Freedom of Choice is rearing its ugly head again in my life. Not least in this argument is the idea of Total Depravity. I was thinking about that and thought of people I knew of that showed a clear difference in their level of depravity.


So, when looking at the concept of total depravity I thought some of the extreme secular socialists of history like Lenin, Stalin and Mao. When thinking of people who behaved more like Christians but who weren’t I could name a large number who lived around the area that I grew up. Namely, Te Poi, Eastern Waikato in the North Island of New Zealand.

Generally speaking, our neighbors were of the same generation as my parents. Those my parents grew up with and who were brought up in a quasi-Christian environment. Who may have attended Church but in many cases didn’t and who might have been said to have, “Adhered in a form of Godliness but denied the power?” There were definitely genuine Christians among them but certainly not all of them by any means.

Now, looking at the three communist dictators. Lenin was responsible for the deaths of eight to twelve million people and started the Russian Civil War. Numerous others perished subsequent to his establishment of Soviet Union. Lenin and his comrades were obviously brutal dictators. Stalin succeeded Lenin and was responsible for the death of in excess of forty million people Most of those opposed communism and were sent to the gulag (work camps) where they worked as slaves and eventually died of exhaustion. Mao was the Chinese leader who defeated the nationalists in 1949. He then founded the Peoples Republic of China.

Through communist policies he killed as many as eighty million people. He killed intellectual dissidents, put people in labor camps and condoned beating them and stoning them in struggle sessions. His great leap forward campaign in the late 1950’s led to between fifteen and forty-five million people dying of starvation.

These leaders believed in secular humanism and that as there is no God and no morality. They believed the “End always justifies the means.” This ethos holds that. humanity and all of the species on the Earth and in the Galaxy / Universe are developed over millions / billions of years through a process of genetic mutation and a process of competition through predation of the vulnerable and survival of the fittest. Those who hold to this philosophy believe there is no sin, no righteousness and no consequences. Therefore, to kill millions of humans is nothing in the greater scheme of the evolution of species. There is no right and wrong and nothing to stop you doing whatever you want providing you have the power to do so. Might has right. In other words, these men were verifiably Totally Depraved.

By comparison, the people who were contemporaries of my mother and father were exceptionally moral. In the way that you would expect of people who were Christians to be. They were kind, caring, loving and capable of resisting sin themselves while encouraging others to resist sin at the same time.

The time in which they lived was by comparison to today a very safe, peaceful and moral time. Children were brought up to be disciplined, respectful and to care about other people. To be quite honest these people were by no means totally depraved and quite often behaved in a manner that was exemplary and even exceeded the behavior of many Christians in that era of New Zealand in the 1960’s.

Now I know that the first thing many Christian’s would say is that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s grace alone. So, righteous good works are as filthy rags before the Lord. Only the blood of Jesus can wash away our sins and I would agree with them but this is not what I am discussing in this article. What I’m saying here is that there is a discernable difference between the behavior of individuals and that some are definitely more depraved than others.

Therefore, each man’s level of depravity depends on the behavior of the man concerned. Hence, the idea that a person is incapable of choosing to follow Jesus due to total depravity is at the very least a moot point.

So, is it to be total depravity of Calvinism or radical depravity of Arminianism? Are we completely depraved in God’s sight or not completely depraved but actually badly damaged by sin, though still able to choose Christ Jesus by ourselves? Perhaps it doesn’t really matter and one way or another. Perhaps God sees to it that those who would follow him in Christ Jesus find the way whether by his enabling or their choice. Depending on the circumstances Hmmm, sounds a bit like Molinism?