seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from South Korea
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Chile
seen from Netherlands
Chose or Chosen?
For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:14) I find myself in the midst of Christian brothers who have strong Calvinist leanings. I accept most of the five points of Calvinism to some degree – Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints (T.U.L.I.P.) – but I cannot fully embrace U, L, and I. I completely agree with T…
View On WordPress
Charles Spurgeon tenaciously held to the doctrine of unconditional election. By necessity, this biblical truth flows from belief in human depravity. Because the
by Steven Lawson | Charles Spurgeon tenaciously held to the doctrine of unconditional election. By necessity, this biblical truth flows from belief in human depravity. Because the will of man is utterly dead and cannot choose God, God must exercise His sovereign will to save. Out of the mass of fallen humanity, God made an...
"If God did nothing more for men than provide a Saviour, and leave it for them to accept, if he never operated upon their souls and affections by his holy Spirit, not one of Adam’s race would ever enter into eternal life."
Charles H. Spurgeon
the apostate’s tulip
trying to outline the main points of my deconversion process so i can write about it more in depth in the future and what better way than a T.U.L.I.P.?
1. Total Misogyny - issues from a young age regarding: the inherent inferiority of women, the femaleness of god to create in ‘our own image,’ neither male/female but one in christ - yet prescribed gender roles expected to be followed and these roles not product of curse but created intentionally (help-meet in garden)...so god just likes dudes better and that doesn’t compute and then just all of purity culture. all of it.
2. Unconditional Acceptance - if i had born in any other religion i would accept it as truth just as much because my experience accepting this religion has proved such, and they all claim to have the right way to the exclusion of the others. i’m expected to accept wild claims with no proof and arbitrary rules - miracles happened to prove god is real, oh no they don’t happen today, we just have to believe.
3. Limited Accountability - the holy spirit conviction versus the heart is deceitful above all things - what is me and what is the spirit? no way of knowing. basis of much spiritual abuse, nonsense, extrabiblical teaching, and manipulation of vulnerable members. i am taught not to trust myself, but at the same time to be guided by the spirit who will convict me of sin, sanctify me, lead me?? where does my human/sinful intuition end and holy spirit begin? other people discerning god’s will for MY life with no evidence to back it up? no one can hold you accountable if you are ‘acting within god’s will’ and hearing from him/being led by him. also “people failed you god didn’t” circumvents any accountability for the egregious actions of pastors/leaders/mentors, you cannot blame them for pushing you away from faith because tHEy ARe HuMAn, everyone held to impossible standards but the belief system cannot be held to its own standards.
4. Insincerity of the Saints - faith/belief based on feelings no matter how much they claim it’s not - i choose to believe, ok now i choose not to (there was no difference internally, nothing perceptible, no indications that i changed). the “evidence” of christians being loving/good/transformed is no different than morally good nonbelievers. my life does not look different when i simply remove the label of ‘christian’ from it - i still want to be a good person and treat others well. promises of joy, peace, comfort, etc - never felt. Accepted and praised by spiritual leaders when I faked these feelings to seem spiritually mature. Continued this ruse through adulthood in hopes one day it would “click” and become real and not produced by my mind. Despairing feeling of - if i can do this, anyone around me could also be doing this. Also, church goers just as bad as nonbelievers - backstab, gossip, lie, judge - only difference is they sing songs and say they feel bad about it on sunday then go back to it monday. false sense of superiority when really no different than anyone else, just with more rules to follow. rules give a sense of being right, having the right answer, in a hard world this is comforting. people held to different standards than our models given in the bible (church discipline for premarital sex and affairs, but david, solomon, joseph, esther, etc), “people failed you god didn’t,” if you walk away your experience in the faith automatically gets invalidated “you were never really saved” = your faith was insincere. my concerns are dismissed immediately. “you will come back around. i’m not even worried about this. you know what is right and you’ll come back to it eventually.” at least i’m considered not worth witnessing to.
5. Perseverance of the Guilty - it is all a bait and switch. it is not works, it’s faith - but works prove you have faith, so no works = no faith. they become indistinguishable. struggling with having faith? work. do good. serve. evangelize. work now, the feelings will come. duty and obedience first, love and joy will follow. eventually. one day. faith, not feelings. you don’t need to “feel” good to know god is real and there. but you should be experiencing the things he promises you will in scripture, so the issue must be with you. go on the mission field - if i can’t feel god’s love, the least i can do is help others to feel it. motivated by guilt. I never feel I am enough. It is hard to believe that the same being who tells me i’m depraved and worthless also loves me unconditionally and wants the best for me. so i stay in shame and pretend i am free. because i am supposed to be free indeed. my shame kills my spirit. depression and anxiety are not fruits of the spirit, this causes more shame, the cycle continues. i am ashamed of my sexual nature, ashamed that i question my inferior role as a woman, ashamed that my brothers and sisters utter unspeakably cruel things about the poor, immigrants, and people who disagree with their politics. i keep trying to reconcile my love for helping people with my motivation of guilt - which is which? even doubts are sin. so asking questions begets more shame.
He has risen!
And now for Easter another round of preaching (next week its going to be Ogres again). :-)
The Text I am going to look at is in John 20, 11 - 16: “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, „Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).“
This is one of those striking pictures the bible draws for us. Here we see a distraught Mary weeping at the tomb of Christ. The two men she had come with, have already gone and she alone has remained weeping in utter anguish for the death of her master, friend and hope. God does not chastise her for that, he knows her sorrow is true. Instead he sends her two angels that are supposed to comfort her. But to no avail. She wants Jesus, not angels and thus turns around to leave. Can you imagine that? She sees angels and turns away! Let that sink in for a moment. Seeing angels never was a common thing. It was and is always a shocking, humbling experience. I have seen angels twice in my life and I am glad that it has not been more often.
And yet she turns away. Her thoughts are so focused on her master, her loss and the body, that she basically just ignores the angels and walks off. She is not content with seeing something heavenly, no, she wants him, him she thinks she has lost. She searches for Jesus. And then Jesus comes to her. Do you see the beauty of that?
But she does not recognize him. Why? She is so focused on her pain and sorrow that, even though he is standing right before her, she can not see him. And like being blind she, like with the angels before, just frantically asks him, no begs him to show her the body. "At least give me that", is what she thinks. "Don't take that away from me." What does Jesus do? Does he walk away? Does he throw his hands up and shakes his head? No, he comes closer and finally calls her by her name. Jesus in his ministry on earth healed so many blind people, and now he heals another one. He opens her eyes and calls her by her name.
There is a place in the bible (Matthew 7, 23) "And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’". But Mary he knows. And in knowing her, she knows him. This "Knowing" is something very special in biblical context. When we "know" something, than that usually means that we have some knowledge about a fact or truth in some kind of field. But the biblical "knowing" is way deeper. It is not just a basic knowledge about something or someone, it is a choosing, emotional binding in depth knowing. The modern version of it would be like being soulbound. A indistrucable connection. The bible teaches us that when God "foreknows" somebody it means that he has chosen this person to be saved by his sons substitutional death on the cross before the beginning of the world. One of the oldest german poems comes from the medieval period. It describes this special bond of love in such a beautiful way that I have to give it here:
Dû bist mîn, ich bin dîn: (you are mine, I am yours) des solt dû gewis sîn, (never question that) dû bist beslozzen (you are locked) in mînem herzen; (inside my heart) verlorn ist das sluzzelîn: (the key is lost)
When Jesus knows you, this is the truth over your life.
And Jesus knows Mary. And now her eyes are open. The tears have gone, light has shown into the darkness and the night is over. Finally she can see. Finally her eyes are open and she just says "Rabboni".
I will leave you with that and wish you a happy Easter. The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!
May God bless and keep you till he comes back, Avarchillion
God doesn't choose us because we will believe - God chooses us in order that we might believe.
John Piper
T. U. L. I. P.
For those that do not know, the acronym TULIP is shorthand for the 5 points of Calvinism.
Thus each letter of the acronym stands for one of the points. T. U. L. I. P. For instance:
T-- Total inability or total depravity. Man has no ability to come to Christ because he is bound to his sin nature, which does not desire Christ. We all choose according to our strongest inclinations, when faced with two options. Our strongest inclination, when presented with the gospel, is to refuse the gospel.
U-- Unconditional Election. Since no man can come to Christ, left to himself, then God took the initiative and chose who he would give to Christ, as a gift for his dying for sinners. God the Father chose the bride and gives this bride to Christ.
L-- Limited atonement. This doctrine teaches that Christ death was limited to only those whom the Father gives him. God chose a people to redeem among fallen humanity and Christ came to die for their redemption.
I-- Irresistible Grace-- Though God's grace is always resisted by sinful men, nevertheless those whom the Holy Spirit comes upon and quickens, cannot resist God's grace. Thus the Father chose the elect, the Son died for them, and the Holy Spirit applies to them, what Christ done for on their behalf.
P-- Perseverance of the Saints. Though men do fall away from a profession of faith, nevertheless, those whom God has quickened and made alive through regeneration, will persevere until the end.
Calvinism is just a nickname for what scripture teaches. John Calvin is not responsible for these doctrines. Nay, God the Holy Spirit taught them as Holy men spake being moved by the Holy Spirit.
