Shout Out

My computer is officially broken. Hard Drive = Death. The good news is my good friend Andrew has come to the rescue. Not only can he fix it, but he let me borrow his Powerbook so I could do my school work. So this post is for you A-Coch. You are great.

Finding the Words

I have been posted a lot about my beliefs in reformed theology. I have talked about the total inability of humanity and the perseverance of the saints in regard to their salvation. These beliefs are not really of much controversy; that is why I led with them. However, I would like to begin discussing the doctrine of election aka predestination. 

J.I. Packer defines it here:

The biblical doctrine of election is that before Creation God selected out of the human race, foreseen as fallen, those whom he would redeem, bring to faith, justify, and glorify in and through Jesus Christ.

The Westminster Confession of Faith talks about it here:

III. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.

John Calvin----says it here:

Let us rest ourselves upon our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that He hath not deceived us, when He caused it to be preached that He gave Himself for us, and witnessed it by the Holy Ghost. For faith is an undoubted token that God taketh us for His children; and thereby we are led to the everlasting election, according as He had chosen us before.

Personally, I'm a fan of St. Augustine because he predates most theologians:
God elected believers; but He chose them that they might be so, not because they were already so...Neither are we called because we believed, but that we may believe; and by that calling which is without repentance it is effected and carried through that we should believe. 

Now that's dropping some 5th century knowledge on ya, lawya. But in all seriousness, I'll throw down on some biblical in a later post. 

About Some Posts

As a former history major, you have to cite your work to the max. I realized that I haven't really cited where I get most of my religious information from. MONERGISM.COM . It is pretty much the be all, end all of reformed theology. It basically provides a map to where you can find information on a ton of stuff. It is a really great resource. So check it. 

About the Perseverance of the Saints

The perseverance of the saints means that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives, and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again.

- Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (pg. 788)

If our religion be of our own getting or making, it will perish; and the sooner it goes, the better; but if our religion is a matter of God's giving, we know that He shall never take back what He gives, and that, if He has commenced to work in us by His grace, He will never leave it unfinished.

- C.H. Spurgeon

For non-reformed theologies..."at the end of the day, the security of the believer finally rests with the believer. For those in the opposite camp [Reformed], the security of the believer finally rests with God -- and that, I suggest, rightly taught, draws the believer back to God himself, to trust in God, to a renewed faith that is of a piece with trusting him in the first place."

- D.A. Carson

When we speak of “once saved, always saved,” we are not taking into account the full scope of salvation. We have been saved (justification), was/are being saved (sanctified), and we will one day be saved (glorified). You cannot claim to have been “saved” (justified) unless you are being sanctified. Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord.

- Michael Horton from Putting the Amazing Back into Grace (pg. 171)

The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is something that resonates deep inside my soul. It is true comfort. It destroys doubt. It liberates the believer. The truth of this doctrine is like coming up for air. Beyond that, it is coughing up the water in your lungs. For some reason, I'm trying to swim in concrete shoes. Enough with the analogy. Here's some biblical.

What God begins, he finishes

Psa 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Ecc 3:14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.

Isa 46:4 even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

Jer 32:40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

Rom 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Phi 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

2Ti 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safety into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 

Of all whom he has called and brought to Christ, none will be lost

Joh 6:39-40 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Joh 10:27-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

Rom 8:28-31 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Heb 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Heb 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

God's preservation of the saints is not irrespective of their continuance in the faith

1Co 6:9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will

inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Eph 5:5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Heb 3:14 For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Heb 6:4-6 For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Heb 10:26-27 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Heb 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Rev 21:7-8 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Rev 22:14-15 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

However, it is God who sanctifies us and causes us to persevere

Joh 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

1Co 1:30-31 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

1Co 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1Co 12:3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.

1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Gal 3:1-6 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain - if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith - just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Phi 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

1Th 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Heb 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

1Jo 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Jud 1:24-25 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Saturday

Two years ago, the Gators blocked THREE kicks in the Swamp to keep our national championship hopes alive. It probably won't be any easier this Saturday.

Comments on Total Depravity

I find that total depravity is one of the least debated points concerning reformed theology. It seems that everyone goes along with the idea. However, I think this is because people do not understand the full ramifications of accepting this belief. 

People want to agree that they are not perfect. No Christian thinks they receive salvation because they are so awesome(if you do think this, you may have missed the point). After all, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick...For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners(Matt. 9-11-13)."

Packer describes total depravity in this manner:
"Total depravity entails total inability, that is, the state of not having it in oneself to respond to God and his Word in a sincere and wholehearted way (John 6:44; Rom. 8:7-8 cited below). Paul calls this unresponsiveness of the fallen heart a state of death (Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13)..."

Jesus states in John 6:44:

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Paul states in Romans 7-8
"...the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."

The implications of a belief in the total depravity/inability opens the door to other beliefs such as the doctrine of election or predestination. I would like to explore these connections in future blogs. For now, I'll leave it short and sweet. 

Note: Total depravity should not be confused with the theological concept of utter depravity which R.C. Sproul describes as "to be as wicked as one could possibly be." I believe the doctrine of utter depravity to be wrong and non-biblical.

The New Posts - Total Depravity

This is my first post in my attempt to discuss some of my religious convictions. I was going to try to display some of these ideas in my own words but I think so many people have already said it better. This particular section is written by J.I. Packer from his book Concise Theology.

"Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Ps. 51:5)

Scripture diagnoses sin as a universal deformity of human nature, found at every point in every person (1 Kings 8:46; Rom. 3:9-23; 7:18; 1 John 1:8-10)...This moral deformity is dynamic: sin stands revealed as an energy of irrational, negative, and rebellious reaction to God's call and command, a spirit of fighting God in order to play God. The root of sin is pride and enmity against God, the spirit seen in Adam's first transgression; and sinful acts always have behind them thoughts, motives, and desires that one way or another express the willful opposition of the fallen heart to God's claims on our lives.

Sin may be comprehensively defined as lack of conformity to the law of God in act, habit, attitude, outlook, disposition, motivation, and mode of existence. Scriptures that illustrate different aspects of sin include Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 12:30-37; Mark 7:20-23; Romans 1:18-3:20; 7:7-25; 8:5-8; 14:23 (Luther said that Paul wrote Romans to "magnify sin"); Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:1-3; 4:17-19; Hebrews 3:12; James 2:10-11; 1 John 3:4; 5:17. Flesh in Paul usually means a human being driven by sinful desire; the NIV renders these instances of the word as "sinful nature." The particular faults and vices (i.e., forms and expression of sin) that Scripture detects and denounces are too numerous to list here.

Original sin, meaning sin derived from our origin, is not a biblical phrase (Augustine coined it), but it is one that brings into fruitful focus the reality of sin in our spiritual system. The assertion of original sin means not that sin belongs to human nature as God made it (God made mankind upright, Eccles. 7:29), nor that sin is involved in the processes of reproduction and birth (the uncleanness connected with menstruation, semen, and childbirth in Leviticus 12 and 15 was typical and ceremonial only, not moral and real), but that (a) sinfulness marks everyone from birth, and is there in the form of a motivationally twisted heart, prior to any actual sins; (b) this inner sinfulness is the root and source of all actual sins; (c) it derives to us in a real though mysterious way from Adam, our first representative before God. The assertion of original sin makes the point that we are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners, born with a nature enslaved to sin.

The phrase total depravity is commonly used to make explicit the implications of original sin. It signifies a corruption of our moral and spiritual nature that is total not in degree (for no one is as bad as he or she might be) but in extent. It declares that no part of us is untouched by sin, and therefore no action of ours is as good as it should be, and consequently nothing in us or about us ever appears meritorious in God's eyes. We cannot earn God's favor, no matter what we do; unless grace saves us, we are lost.

Total depravity entails total inability, that is, the state of not having it in oneself to respond to God and his Word in a sincere and wholehearted way (John 6:44; Rom. 8:7-8). Paul calls this unresponsiveness of the fallen heart a state of death (Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13), and the Westminster Confession says: "Man by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto" (IX. 3)

Genetic Lottery Winner

A good article about Myron Rolle. You may know him has a defensive back for the Florida State Seminoles. However, he is so much more than that.

Rolle is a finalist for one of 32 Rhodes Scholarships, which would provide an all-expenses paid two or three years of study at Oxford in England. It's a remarkable achievement for a Division I football player, but not a surprise if you know Rolle. The junior graduated in just over two years and is studying to become a doctor. In between, he has started 30 straight games since his freshman season.

Not only is Myron Rolle a potential first-round draft pick but he is a potential Rhodes Scholar. I am absolutely baffled at how someone can be so disciplined. Does he have any free time? How do you finish your undergrad in two years, move onto a doctoral program, excel enough to be considered a Rhodes scholar, and commit yourself to playing Division I-A football? Do you ever sleep? Are you a robot? Some student-athletes can barely make grades. 

My favorite part is how deals with it among friends and teammates.

"Yeah, some of my friends and fraternity brothers, they're like, 'Man, you can get drafted in the first round or whatever, man you'd get all this money, what would pass that up for?'" he said. "I'm like, 'You just don't understand. This is big time...This is a lifetime of learning and a lifetime experience I'll be able to partake in if granted the award."

Kudos to you Mr. Rolle. You are both a gentleman and a scholar.

Permissible, Not Beneficial

I have been struggling a lot lately with politics--which is a stupid and fruitless endeavor. Most of my Gainesville friends adhere to some sort of liberalism as their primary political philosophy. I do not understand this. After reading this article, I have a better understanding.  

"What do liberals and libertarians have in common? The fundamental value of liberty. What do liberals and libertarians disagree about? What liberty means." Liberals...see threats to liberty from concentrations of private power and will continue to defend government as a means of combating those threats.

It makes sense. I still do not agree with it but at least I have new perspective. Life is all about gaining perspective for me. Sometimes, I am just too shortsighted. 

In the end, it isn't that important. It's not like liberal ideals compromise the sovereignty of God or something. That brings me to my next point. I am going to try to use this blog more to talk about my religious convictions--specifically reformed theology-- and how I deal with them.

The Free Market Is Not Your Enemy

A response to Alan Greenspan blaming deregulation for the housing boom:

Greenspan Has No Free Market Philosophy

Opponents of the free market are giddy at Alan Greenspan's declaration that the financial crisis has exposed a "flaw" in his "free market ideology." Greenspan says he is "in a state of shocked disbelief" because he "looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity"--and it didn't.

But according to Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, “any belief Greenspan ever had in truly free markets was abandoned long ago. While Greenspan long ago wrote in favor of a truly free market in banking, including the gold standard that such markets always adopt, he then proceeded to work for two decades as leader and chief advocate of the Federal Reserve, which continually inflates the money supply and manipulates interest rates. Advocates of free banking understand that when the government inflates the currency, it artificially increases prices and causes booms in certain sectors of the economy, followed by inevitable busts. But not only did Greenspan lead the inflation behind the dot-com bubble and the real estate boom, he blamed the market for their treacherous collapses. Greenspan should have recognized that what he wrote in 1966 of the boom preceding the 1929 crash applied here: ‘The excess credit which the Fed pumped into the economy spilled over into the stock market--triggering a fantastic speculative boom.’ Instead, he superficially blamed ‘infectious greed.’

“Should it be any shock that Greenspan now blames the free market for today's meltdown--rather than the Fed's policies, which fueled an inflationary housing boom, which rewarded reckless lenders and borrowers from Wall Street to Main Street? Greenspan didn't mention the word ‘inflation’ once in his testimony.

“Whatever Greenspan's economic philosophy is, it is not anything resembling a free market.”

In case you forgot...

Colt McCoy wears assless chaps to gay bars.