Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Calvinism Vs Arminianism

In Geisler's book, Chosen but Free, I agree with the fact that extreme views are both wrong.   Both views limit God in some way or another, in that Arminianism could technically claim that God's knowledge is not complete (this would then be evident of an imperfect God).  Its to the point that nobody knows who can be saved, which is good from the standpoint of missions in that we need to go forth and minister, but it is bad in that it comes from the completely wrong base.  Hyper Calvinism is wrong in that it basically eliminates free will from the equation.  This is a problem in that it limits humanity.  This limitation would mean that God made it impossible for people to receive his grace.  This would heavily hint at God being unloving and this would mean that God is imperfect.  These views are both unacceptable, in my opinion, because God must be perfect in order to be God.  I appreciate the amount of scripture that Geisler used in his book, because it implies knowledge on the subject.  I would deem it ignorant of a person to hold a particular stance or argue against particular stances if he or she did not have a firm base for why they are bringing such arguments.  In my opinion as well, I believe the whole Calvinism vs. Arminianism debate is foolish and ignorant to some extent.  In the realm of eternity, does it really matter?  The only thing that matters in the end is if we obeyed God's commandments.  The commandment concerning this topic of discussion is going forward into the world and teaching the love of Christ and the consequences of not following Christ.  I have also found there to be a great division in the Church surrounding this topic.  This division is counterproductive to the Christian cause and is, in essence, and anit-Christ. I believe the whole debate is somewhat of a ruse of Satan to divert believers from the Great Commission.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Strife in the church

I believe that strife in the church is one of the biggest problems in the church today.  The fact that Christians find their issues with other Christians to be more important than loving one another is hypocrisy.  The gist of the whole New Testament is love one another because God had the will to love us.  Being ignorant human beings, some Christians have the audacity to put themselves above their fellow man.  In addition to this, I've found it somewhat disturbing at what has happened to the church.  There is almost no ministry to the widows and orphans yet there is still the church position (Deacon) that was created in order to perform this ministry.  I know several families who have widows and they get overlooked completely by churches (this is not a universal problem, I know, but still widespread).  The main point of Christianity is love, and if Christians do not know how to love then they do not truly know the love of Christ, because when you know the love of Christ, you cannot but help spread it.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

My Salvation in Layman's terms

I was born and raised in church, and was taught, since i was a child, that there is sin in the world (wrongdoing) and everybody sins.  I was also taught that since everybody sins, they will all go to a place called hell.  This was because God is in heaven, and He cannot tolerate sin, and in order to pay for our wrongdoing, we were supposed to die and go to hell.  I learned that God loved us though.  In fact, He loved us enough to send His son to die for our wrongdoings instead of us.  The stipulation for us getting this benefit is that we have to believe that He did die for our sin, and accept Him as our Savior (saving us from going to hell).  Accepting that implies that he should control our actions in the same way a servant (or slave) obeys his master.  I realized that i did wrong (quite a bit of wrong, actually, because i was a trouble maker as a child) around the age of 6, and I realized I would go to hell if i died.  It happened one day after kindergarten (in which I was a great troublemaker), and it all finally dawned on me, and I accepted the fact that I did wrong and accepted Him as the one who was going to save me from hell.