Ever since I've bene caught up in discussions and other battles of words, I always desired to have a position of verious issues that every Christian should have a position on. I feel like I'm not giving God a good representation if I don't put up a good fight to any aetheist out there. Unfortunately, I am a sinful being and there are many arguments that I have to say that I don't have an answer to. Intellectual defenses have never been my strong point. But God gave me a mind to do something. So I might as well use it as much as I can.
So our small group has been going through Romans 9 and every time the question about Predestination vs Armenianism (or Free Will as most people know it as) comes up, I say that its going to be a while till the night is over. But if there was one chapter to bring it up, it would be Romans 9. So we talked and talked till we finally came to the conclusion that God is sovereign and that no matter how much we think try to think through everything, we are all like Job in that we were never there at the beginning of time and space when everything was created and that to try to understand everything is beyond our reach. Whether it is Armenianism or Predestination, the approach is still the same. Be a disciple of Christ and make disciples of all nations. Besides, to my knowledge, I don't think it necessarily has to be exclusively free-will or exclusively predestination. I think they both exist in their own forms to complement each other. Exactly how they complement each other, I haven't read enough to know what I'm talking about yet. All I know is that I think God definitely chooses certain people to be saved and lead a great and holy lives and that he does give us free-will out of love so that there is a chance that others who were not chosen to make the right choice. You can point out whatever flaws I have in that argument but either way we all end up with the same objective which is that is to glorify God with all our hearts.
Now the other debate I'm thinking about is the creation vs evolution debate. I've been listening to
John MacArthur's Theology of Creation Sermon. After listening to that, it is starting to make sense that to take the account in Genesis 1 as a literal 7 days of creation. To have any other position on it would just take away from the supernatural wonder of Creation. One may try to put all these scientific evolutionary arguments on it but even evolution has its own holes like where the heck is the animal between the short necked version of the giraffe and the giraffe we know today? Also, if we actually whole heartedly bought into the ideology of evolution, the world would be a very scary place. Remember when we learned in school about survival of the fittest and natural selection? I guess it was scary when the whole eugenics movement developed in Nazi Germany where people with mental disabilities and other "undesirable" traits were systematically eliminated from society. Obviously we're smarter than that now. But why is it that so many people still buy into evolution? I guess not many people necessarily equate eugenics with evolution but it is a scary thought. And by the way, I refuse to believe that my work with autistics kids is useless according to evolutionary theory. But like the salvation camps, whether God created us through Creation or Evolution (assuming that you believe that God created us either way), the result is still the same. We're here, and we have a whole world to see, hear and smell and we're alive.
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Comments (2)
great backbone on the Predestination vs Armenianism issue (re: God is soverign, and we have limited understanding/information/perception)
as for creation, the notion of 'days' is still a mystery also. noted that 'the first day' occurred after ONE evening and ONE morning, which in human terms, a rotation of the earth. Yet if we go back slightly on scripture, it begins with "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (hamayim & Arets). what is this heaven/sky? I have no clue, and it'll remain a mystery til the time has come.
indeed, there are billions more questions, to be discussed, to be discovered, to be uncovered. and as time ages for me, even I realized that certain 'positions' may shift as more knowledge / information are presented. But there are other fundamental 'faith' in which is truly unshaken: such as the love of God, the death and risen life of Jesus Christ, His atonement for our sins, the grace that is offered to us freely, and the ever-continuing transformation through His Holy Spirit.
may you continue to rely on His truth, be gentle to others' thoughts, yet stand grounded in Christ Jesus always. look forward to read your future blogs. =)