Heart Religion

Here's an article I wrote about a year ago when I finally concluded that though I knew a lot about God, I didn't actually know God Himself. After years of trying to establish relationship with God (and break the power of sin) with my own grit, determination, and self-effort, I gave up, and I began to write this article during my short transition from from having the faith of a servant to the faith of a son. As the reader can ascertain by observing the content of this article, before I was even able to finish, God adopted me into His family and I experienced the new birth during a Sunday service at a local Nazarene church. As it turns out, the advice of Peter Bohler proved to be just what I needed: I truly did preach faith until I had it, and when I had it, I preached faith.

Heart Religion

“Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is proof of this.” These words were penned by the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, and they ring as true today as they did in eighteenth-century England when Wesley wrote them. Over the course of my four years at Holy Cross, I have fervently contended for orthodox Christian beliefs and practices in my articles for the Crusader and the Fenwick Review. By now, my readers have come to know me as the frothing religious controversialist who touts his conservatism like an AK-47. I confess that I once had a penchant for pushing buttons, but at this point I would like to turn the focus inward. I share the sentiments of Wesley that orthodoxy, or right opinion, fails to capture the essence of what it means to have a living faith in Jesus Christ. Having laid the necessary foundation of right belief, allow us to press on to the fullness that God promises us in the Gospel.

I speak not here to those who despise all religious endeavors; such people will find nothing I have to say to be of any interest. My words are directed to the seeking souls who recognize the human need for the divine. Yet, even for those who thirst after God, religion can be a funny thing. It can be a source of great joy and peace for some while at the same time a source of crippling burden and obligation for others. On the one hand, it can be the opiate of the masses, a cold, lifeless obligation. On the other hand, it can be the joyful communion of the soul with the Living God, a communion that constitutes the very fabric of our entire spiritual being. What are we to make of these diametrically opposed views of the Christian faith? What is true religion?

Unfortunately, most of the Christian world today has settled for a religion made of cardboard. They are satisfied with an outward religion that consists wholly of creeds and practices. They do not seek God in the realm of conscious, personal experience. They believe that God is a personal Being in theory, but they do not allow their theory to cross over into reality. They compartmentalize their faith in God, folding it up neatly and placing it in a drawer where it cannot bother them too much. Devotional time with God is done in the same spirit as doing one’s taxes: get it out of the way and move on. As a result, they are forced to trudge on, following God in servile obedience as a sort of holy obligation. Is this the old religion of love that the Savior shed His blood for? Are we forever consigned to the shallow, murky waters of semi-faith, never to experience the holy Presence that is God?

There are those, however, who are not satisfied with outward religion. They have put it to the test of human experience and found it wanting. They are not satisfied with a mere doctrinal knowledge of God that does nothing to thirst their quench for the Living God. They have correctly inferred that God has much more in store for those who seek Him. Allow me to exhort those who experience this distanced faith to seek for and expect more, because God has promised more. The picture of New Testament faith is a faith that is living, arresting, warm, dynamic, and life-giving. It is not the faith that is dead, distant, cold, obligatory, and lifeless. It is important to note that this Scriptural faith is not automatic, and it is not received in passivity. If one wants the faith of the New Testament, one must strive to enter the straight gate. This requires one to follow hard after God. Any form of complacency is utterly foreign to the pursuit of God and must be utterly discarded if one is to experience God in His fullness.

There are a couple of points that must be borne in mind by the serious aspirant to God's fullest grace. First, one must believe that “He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him,” for “without faith it is impossible to please him,” as the writer to the Hebrews states (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). While this may seem obvious, many of us subconsciously disbelieve this promise. In theory we believe it, but when we sit down with God in prayer we subtly forget it. We seek, not truly expecting to find; we knock, not truly expecting the door to be opened to us. But if we lack this level of faith, how will we ever have the faith required to enter the Kingdom of God? So, it is important to genuinely carry this belief that God is ready and willing to meet us into practice when we seek Him. Second, one must be certain of what the Scriptures promise so as to avoid expecting either too much or too little. Expecting too much could lead to discouragement, and expecting too little could cause us to miss out on all that God has in store for us. So, what do the Scriptures promise? What is that heart religion that elevates us from the misty lowlands of religious moralism to true, Spirit-led communion with God?

Many writers have described this life hid with Christ in God, this true, Scriptural religion far better than I could convey it. A few names that come to mind are A.W. Tozer, Hannah Whitall Smith, and John Wesley himself. But if my words help even one soul, my imperfect efforts will be infinitely worth it. First, for the sake of the Gospel, allow me to disclose my own experience to the reader. For many years I feared God and I knew much about Him, but I never fully knew God Himself. I abstained from many vices, attended church, prayed, read the Bible, and fellowshipped with other believers. Yet, all this time, I felt that something vital was missing. I lacked an intimate connection with God. Christianity quickly became a burdensome obligation for me. I followed God as a servant, but I did not know Him as a son. I was almost a Christian, but not altogether a Christian.

As a result, I was often filled with depression, despair, and crippling doubt. From time to time, my sinful nature would rise up and get the best of me. I was crushed under the weight of it all until I finally came to the end of myself and asked, “Is this all that God has to offer me? Is this the fullness of the Gospel that Christ died for?” Looking at the New Testament and the experience of Christians both past and contemporary, I concluded that the answer was a resounding “No!” With this conviction in my heart, I resolved to follow hard after God until I experienced Him personally and undeniably. I put myself in the means of grace, which are God's normal ways of communicating His grace to us. These include prayer, Bible reading, the Lord's Supper, and church. But this time, I did all of these expectantly, knowing that God is faithful and would fulfill His promises if I would only seek Him and believe in Him. It was not long before the Holy Spirit came in a mighty and undeniable way.

The promises that God has made in the Gospel are wonderfully real. They are not reserved for the spiritual elite or the mystically inclined; on the contrary, they are the common privileges for all of the children of God. First, every full Christian should experience the witness of the Spirit, by which I mean an inward, divine conviction that one has been spiritually born from above. Listen to Paul: “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15-16). Second, it is the blood-bought privilege of every child of God to have consistent victory over willful sin. This may seem radical, but it is promised by no less than Jesus Christ Himself: "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36). Third, with the Holy Spirit comes the fruit of the Spirit, which Scripture enumerates as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 6:22-23). Taken together, these three marks are God's earnest that we are children of God, that Heaven has begun here in our souls.

Lastly, it is important to emphasize that this work of grace is instantaneous. I don't mean to imply that the moment of the new birth must be dramatic or even memorable, but it is a complete work when it is done by the Holy Spirit. We do not grow into a saving relationship with God, we are born into it. While birth involves some process, there is a point when the newborn passes from its mother's womb into the world. So it is with our spiritual birth from above. We pass from death to life, we enter into a whole new world of spiritual living in which old things pass away. This is how we see God work in the Scriptures, and this is how He works today. The difference between this new, high life of faith and any other form of religion is just as striking as the difference between night and day. We know just as surely as we feel the rays of the noonday sun that we are God's and He is ours.

The heart religion of which I speak is the very essence of Christianity. While beliefs and practices are vitally important to the church, we can have these in place and still completely miss God's promises of holiness, happiness, indeed Heaven itself if we do not seek God in the realm of personal experience. Do not seek any comfort but the comfort that only the Holy Spirit can bring to one's heart; everything else is sinking sand. Since I opened up with a quote by John Wesley, allow me to close with another: “I take religion to be, not the bare saying over so many prayers, morning and evening, in public or in private; not anything super-added now and then to a careless or worldly life; but a constant ruling habit of the soul, a renewal of our minds in the image of God, a recovery of the divine likeness, a still-increasing conformity of heart and life to the pattern of our most holy Redeemer.”

Thou Lovely Source of True Delight

Thou lovely source of true delight
Whom I unseen adore
Unveil Thy beauties to my sight
That I might love Thee more,
Oh that I might love Thee more.

Thy glory o’er creation shines
But in Thy sacred Word
I read in fairer, brighter lines
My bleeding, dying Lord,
See my bleeding, dying Lord

’Tis here, whene’er my comforts droop
And sin and sorrow rise
Thy love with cheering beams of hope
My fainting heart supplies,
My fainting heart’s supplied

But ah! Too soon the pleasing scene
Is clouded o’er with pain
My gloomy fears rise dark between
And I again complain,
Oh and I again complain

Jesus, my Lord, my life, my light
Oh come with blissful ray
Break radiant through the shades of night
And chase my fears away,
Won’t You chase my fears away

Then shall my soul with rapture trace
The wonders of Thy love
But the full glories of Thy face
Are only known above

Praise and adore Him...

Breathtaking love

When I got tired of running from you
I stopped right there to catch my breath
There your words they caught my ears
You said, “I miss you son. Come home”

And my sins, they watched me leave
And in my heart I so believed
The love you felt for me was mine
The love I'd wished for all this time

And when the doors were closed
I heard no "I told you so's"
I said the words I knew you knew
Oh God, Oh God I needed you
God, all this time I need you
-- Relient K

And I wept. God is love.

Debating Calvinists

Man, debating Calvinists gets tiring. I never thought I'd expend so much energy trying to prove that "all men" actually means "all men." It is almost as if they were ordained before the foundation of the world to relentlessly debate or something... ;-)

The Pretense of "Objective Reasoning"

We hear a lot about "objectivity" in academic circles and in the university. Since the Enlightenment, "objective reasoning" has been enthroned as the arbiter of all truth for all facets of life and knowledge. In fact, the Enlightenment project explicitely set out to discover and systematize the truth about our world apart from traditional religious morality and revelation. Many scientists and thinkers who are still dripping with the vestiges of Modernist presuppositions continue to hold out an almost religious hope that one day, they will discovery a "Theory of Everything" by which they can coherently explain and connect all facets of the universe in which we live.

Even apart from the Postmodern critique, which in my judgment is more of a reaction to Modernism than a fully-orbed epistemological framework, this pretense of "objective reasoning" is perhaps the most presumptuous and beguiling ruses ever to be foisted upon mankind. It is presumptuous because it assumes a kind of "neutral" position of "objectivity" from which all things can be rightly judged and assessed - a species of wishful thinking if there ever were one. It is beguiling because a whole host of presuppositions are being snuck in the back door of this tower of allegedly "objective" reasoning (read: naturalistic reasoning).

Don't be fooled; what most academics and popular atheists out there are advocating is not cold, hard, objective reasoning - but cold, calculated, metaphysical naturalism. It is often said of religious believers that they convert for largely subjective reasons, whether its a sense of sin, hopelessness, meaningless, or other personal crises. The naturalists are the ones who look reality in the face in all of its ugliness and brutishness. Right?

Wrong. Does not this argument cut both ways? While religious converts are usually more vocal about their motives for coming to belief (probably due to humility and honestly on their part), I submit that atheists and naturalists of various stripes rarely give their real reasons for giving up religion: they don't want to be held accountable. They want to live autonomous lives apart from the shackles and obligations of traditional morality. The idea of a holy God who will one day judge the living and the dead frightens the theism out of them, so they choose not to believe it while throwing up a smokescreen of intellectualism.

Is this always the case? No, but I would wager it happens far more often than we realize - and far more than atheists would like to admit. The bottom line is that there is really no such thing as a dispassionate human being. Very rarely do we successfully lay aside all passions to discuss or debate something in a cold, dispassionate fashion. I'm not even sure that we should, given that having passions is part of what being human is all about. But I am sure that naturalists should be more honest about their very subjective reasons for holding the doctrines that they do. But can we blame them? Darwinism made them that way! ;-)

Faith can be reasonable, and unfaith can be reasonable (although I'd argue that it's not supported by the evidence). It's our passions that tip the balance. The believer hopes that he is right based on ambiguous but sufficient evidence, the unbeliever fears the prospect of being wrong in the face of less-than-conclusive evidence. No one is neutral, no one is objective, everyone makes a passional choice not based upon rationality at all (cf. William James).

For freedom Christ has set us free

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1).

Did you know that Christ can set you free from your sin, and can do it right now? That's right - if you are in bondage, if you find yourself frequently or even intermittently overcome by temptation, if you have come to the end of yourself in trying to break the power of sin, you are just the type of person Jesus came to set free. He died to accompish this mighty work in you.

Yes, I know there are those who say that Christians cannot expect to be free from the power sin, as well as those who say that we must go through a grueling, lifelong process before we are finally free - but they are wrong. Jesus Christ died for more than just to weaken the links in your chains - He died to break them, once and for all. It is simply not the will of God for His people to be under the dominion of sin. In fact, to be His child is to be free from it (Rom. 6:6; 1 John 3:10). Jesus is a real Savior, and He is ready and willing to save you from your sin now.

Consider the alternatives if this is not true. Either (a) God is not powerful enough to free you from your sin right now or (b) God does not desire to free you from your sin right now. Do either of these options really sound plausible? We are either left with a God who is less than omnipotent, or a God who is less than omnibenevolent, both of which are dismal prospects indeed. But God does have the power to free us - and He died to release it to us (Romans 8:1-4; 1 John 3:8). And He does desire to free us - or He wouldn't have shed His blood to cleanse us from all unrighteouness (1 John 1:9). And why can't we receive this freedom right now? Surely it is God's will that we do.

When I first began to feel the conviction of the Spirit in my life because of my sin, my first response - and one that is quite natural and common - was to try to clean up my own life. I was able to do some pretty good behavior modification for a while, but at some point I realized that I had exhausted my own natural abilities in overcoming the power of sin. I was able to walk a few steps with my chains on, but eventually they became taut, and I stopped dead in my tracks. I realized that I could go no further on the path of works-based salvation from sin - I reached the end of that path, and the chains were still on my wrists. As I approached the end, someone was coming into focus in the distance: it was Jesus, looking at me as though He had been waiting there all those years for me to finally give up and give in. Well, I did, and everything changed that day.

The question is, how do you want to live? Do you want to live under sin's power and dominion, or do you truly want to be freed from it, even at this very moment? If you are groaning under the weight of sin's bondage, if you find yourself crying with Paul, "Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death?" then Jesus has only one question for you: Do you believe I am able to do this? (Matthew 9:28). Will you believe God's promise of radical deliverance? Will you stretch out your hand in faith to receive God's gift of freedom? Will you let go of all efforts of self-sanctification and self-purification, throw in the towel, and kneel down at the foot of the cross? Nothing is keeping you from God's liberating grace but your closed hand - just open your hand and receive the boon of liberty from the gracious hands of the Almighty!

"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36). Amen.

Wesley on initial salvation

Or, can all your wisdom and strength open an intercourse between yourself and the world of spirits? Is it in your power to burst the veil that is on your heart, and let in the light of eternity? You know it is not. You not only do not, but cannot, by your own strength, thus believe. The more you labor so to do, the more you will be convinced “it is the gift of God.” 11. It is the free gift of God, which he bestows, not on those who are worthy of his favor, not on such as are previously holy, and so fit to be crowned with all the blessings of his goodness; but on the ungodly and unholy; on those who till that hour were fit only for everlasting destruction; those in whom was no good thing, and whose only plea was, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” No merit, no goodness in man precedes the forgiving love of God. His pardoning mercy supposes nothing in us but a sense of mere sin and misery; and to all who see, and feel, and own their wants, and their utter inability to remove them, God freely gives faith, for the sake of Him in whom he is always “well pleased.”
-- John Wesley, "An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion"

Christianity makes sense

Okay! So, after that somewhat serious post, we need to lighten things up a bit. I wanted to float out a few under-developed thoughts about why I think Christianity makes the best sense of the world in which we live.

1) Christianity explains sin and evil. I think that it's a telling weakness of non-theistic worldviews that they are unable to account for human evil without undercutting its striking realism. We all know that certain things are pure evil, we don't need a syllogism to prove it to us. Without theism, we have a few options available to us to explain evil. First, "evil" could just be a type of behavior that, at least at some point, served an adaptive purpose in the scheme of naturalistic evolution. Second, "evil" could be simply a lack of education or a matter of ignorance. If we are honest with ourselves, neither of these explanations will cut it when we reflect upon the Holocaust or Apartheid. No, there is such a thing as evil, and Christianity accounts for its reality par excellence.

2) Christianity explains why there is something rather than nothing. Arguments of natural theology aside, there has to be a sufficient reason why something exists rather than nothing. Evolution cannot account for the presence of matter itself that is required for its mechanism to function. Like it or not, we are here, and there has to be a sufficient reason as there is for everything else in human experience. Christianity tells us why we are here, and why there is something rather than nothing.

3) Christianity has Jesus, a man with whom there was no guile. The authenticity of Jesus Christ is really unmistakable. By all accounts He was perfect in every way, and His morality was the highest that the world has ever seen. Every generation since His birth has been fascinated by Him, friend or foe. Who is this man who causes so many to stumble? Who is this man who attracts so much attention, and who carved out a cross-shaped hole in the history of mankind? It's Jesus Christ.

4) Christianity gives meaning to life. Without God, life is meaningless. Without the Christian God, we are left with a morally and existentially dissatisfying deity. Naturalism begins in delusion, matures into despair, and finally ends in the eternal death of the cosmos. Christianity begins with creation, moves onto redemption, and ends in eternal fulfillment, provided you cooperate.

5) Christianity is not a species of wishful thinking. To tie the Numinous to the holiest Being in the universe is perhaps the most frightening move one can make. To say that the God of the universe holds you and I accountable for our sins is a scary thought indeed, one that can hardly be the product of vain imagination. Christianity begins in fear, though it ends in love, which brings me to my last point...

6) Christianity explains love. No one who genuinely experiences love (which is all of us), whether that love takes the form of charity, eros, or simple affection, can write it off as a mere chemical reaction. It is patently impossible to truly love while at the same time seriously believing that your love is nothing more than a physical phenomenon akin to the instinct of an animal to scratch an itch. No, like evil, love is simple too real to write off as anything less than cosmic. The only consistent position of the non-theist would be to abandon love altogether, which, I think, would result in death. One cannot live consistently and happily without the reality of love - the two options before the naturalist are delusion or death. Love only makes sense if the God of love exists - and, thankfully, He does.

The sinfulness of sin

"If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell." (Matthew 18:9)

It seems to me that modern evangelicals take sin far too lightly. When do we hear verses like this preached on in church? When do we ever hear words like repent, hell, and judgment? Have we forgotten how sinful sin is? Sin is horribly evil. It cost Jesus His life, and it will cost those who remain in it their souls.

Jesus did not come to save His people in their sins, but from their sins; He does not just come to pronounce "amnesty" upon sinners while they remain just as they are, stubbornly and openly rebelling against a holy God. He came to save them from His wrath, and from the sin to which they are enslaved. Jesus died on that bloody cross to free us from the guilt and the power of sin, a reality that seems to have been lost amidst chorus after chorus about God's love. Instead, we prefer the language of "brokenness" and "fulfillment." Instead of being viewed as perpetrators, sinners are now viewed principally as victims who have contracted the disease of sin and now must languish on their sickbed as the Great Physicians nurses them back to health. While there is an element of truth to therapeutic language, it simply does not do justice to the multitudinous passages in scripture that refer to us as enemies of God who have willfully broken His holy Law and therefore justly incurred His wrath. We are in rebellion, and are on our way to judgment unless we repent and turn to God to be saved.

Some evangelicals talk as if sin itself and its power to damn one's soul was converted when they "received Christ." Because someone has signed a card or uttered an incantation, suddenly God looks at them through the "Jesus glasses" and no longer sees their sin. This cheap grace nonsense has to stop, and sin must be seen for what it is: horribly evil, and a slap in the face of the Almighty. Christ is not the minister of sin, or will He save anyone who is unwilling to let go of their wicked ways and turn to Him. The Gospel offers no hope and no peace to those who are self-satisfied in their sin.

Let but a pert, self-sufficient animal that has neither sense nor grace bawl out something about Christ or his blood or justification by faith and the hearers cry out: 'What a fine gospel sermon!' Surely the Methodists have not so learned Christ! We know of no gospel without salvation from sin. -- John Wesley

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Now I realize I sound like a fire-breathing, "hell-fire and brimstone" preacher, but once and a while we really need to hear this message - and in the lukewarm American church, we desperately need to hear it. We have completely forgotten the holiness of God, and the wrath of God upon sin. Consequently, more and more people are describing Christianity as a kind of life-enhancement, something that will make one's life better or more fulfilled. But until the unconverted are decimated by the Law of God, until they are crushed under the weight of the guilt and power of their sin, they will not be in the proper place to receive Christ. They won't understand why they desperately need Him until they see that they are desperately wicked.

Unless sin is seen for the horror that it is, we will not properly understand the love of God or the cross of Christ. Without holiness and judgment, Christianity becomes utterly vapid, flabby, and trivial. It's almost incredible how quickly churches devolve into self-indulgent social clubs when the language of holiness, judgment, and sin drops out. If the sinfulness of sin is repudiated, the cross of Jesus is devalued to the point of almost near superfluity - something I'm sure modern evangelicals do not want to do.

Repent and believe the Gospel. Turn from your sin to Christ, and He will graciously forgive you and free you. Otherwise, all that is left is judgment.

Predestined to be an Arminian

I have come to the conclusion after many years of biblical, theological, and philosophical reflection that I was predestined to be an Arminian. At the end of the day, the Calvinist system poses so many insurmountable problems that it shows itself to be simply untenable. For instance, I have yet to hear a sufficient explanation for how the Calvinist God is not the author of sin and evil. If God is the only causal actor in the universe, then God is necessarily the ultimate cause of all sin. Of course, Calvinists are not without their rebuttals, but they are singularly unconvincing. In terms of scriptural support, I have spent years watching Calvinists perform hermeneutical gymnastics of epic proportions to justify their system in the face of overwhelming biblical evidence to the contrary. For a theological system that often touts itself as being "solely based on the Bible," they certainly lean heavily on contested philosophical judgments rather than solid biblical exegesis.

Here's a fun deductive argument that I offered today on a theological forum:

Why Calvinism's God is more wicked than the Devil
1) The Devil is an exceedingly wicked being
2) The Devil tempts people to sin
3) Therefore, to tempt people to sin must be exceedingly wicked
4) Arguably, to cause someone to sin is more evil than to tempt someone to sin, for causing a sin determines that it will necessarily happen, whereas to tempt someone merely influences a person in that direction
5) In Calvinism, God causally determined that people sin
6) Therefore, Calvinism's God is more wicked than the Devil

This, of course, echoes a passage from John Wesley's famous polemic against Calvinism, "Free Grace":

This is the blasphemy for which (however I love the persons who assert it) I abhor the doctrine of predestination, a doctrine, upon the supposition of which, if one could possibly suppose it for a moment, (call it election, reprobation, or what you please, for all comes to the same thing) one might say to our adversary, the devil, "Thou fool, why dost thou roar about any longer? Thy lying in wait for souls is as needless and useless as our preaching. Hearest thou not, that God hath taken thy work out of thy hands; and that he doeth it much more effectually? Thou, with all thy principalities and powers, canst only so assault that we may resist thee; but He can irresistibly destroy both body and soul in hell! Thou canst only entice; but his unchangeable decrees, to leave thousands of souls in death, compels them to continue in sin, till they drop into everlasting burnings. Thou temptest; He forceth us to be damned; for we cannot resist his will. Thou fool, why goest thou about any longer, seeking whom thou mayest devour? Hearest thou not that God is the devouring lion, the destroyer of souls, the murderer of men? Moloch caused only children to pass though the fire: and that fire was soon quenched; or, the corruptible body being consumed, its torment was at an end; but God, thou are told, by his eternal decree, fixed before they had done good or evil, causes, not only children of a span long, but the parents also, to pass through the fire of hell, the 'fire which never shall be quenched; and the body which is cast thereinto, being now incorruptible and immortal, will be ever consuming and never consumed, but 'the smoke of their torment,' because it is God's good pleasure, 'ascendeth up for ever and ever.' "

Sounds about right, Johnny.

It also sickens me to no end when Calvinists misleadingly equivocate on terms whenever it is convenient - i.e. whenever they want to hide the parts of their system that are morally abhorent. It's almost incredible how often they borrow Arminian terminology when trying to convince others of the coherence and superiority of their view. It's almost as if, deep down, Calvinists know their view of God is abomidable, and thus they are trying to keep His dirty laundry out of the public eye. The Calvinist doesn't want you to look behind the curtain, for then you will see that the Wizard is not all that he's cracked up to be. The more consistent Calvinists are, the more absurd their system becomes - which should be a telltale sign that something is terribly wrong with it.

The only way one can be convinced of Calvinism is to be willing to put on the John Calvin goggles and interpret Scripture and reality accordingly. If you are willing to believe that up is down and black is white, then Calvinism is for you.

Now before I close, I must offer this disclaimer for the theologically tender-hearted out there: do not let my trenchant remarks against Calvinism make you think that I hate Calvinists. They are brothers in Christ, and there is much in the broad Reformed tradition that I very much cherish. But TULIP is so slanderous on the character of God as revealed in the Bible that I simply cannot address this issue with any less passion than I do. Make a mental note of this disclaimer, because this is certainly not the last post in which I will revile at Calvinism.

Be assured, Calvinism is not true, and God is good. Arminianism artfully preserves the glory of God, the very thing that Calvinists zealously try to protect, but sacrifice on the altar of all-encompassing divine determinism.

Stars

Stars - aren't they beautiful? For my dog's nightime walk, I decided to grab my iPod and blast it as Satch (my dog) and I ran around the neighborhood. Towards the end I looked up at the sky and was just struck by the breathtaking beauty. There are no city lights out here in Wilmore, so you can really see the stars shining brightly. It's hard to deny the Creator God when you gaze at the stars - it takes years of naturalistic brainwashing to convince yourself that they're nothing more than a ginormous cosmic accident! If one is open to see the glory, the only feelings one can have are awe and wonder. And the only conclusions one can rightfully draw is that God exists, and that He is glorious. In fact, I'd be so bold as to say that it's downright irrational to believe otherwise. =)

Patriots

Being from New England, I cannot really help being a Patriots fan, especially given the fact that they have gone 17-0 and are on their way to go 19-0. But what's especially fun about being a Patriots fan right now is that they have become the "bad guys." They're the Yankees of football, although, of course, the comparison does not stick because of the factor of salary caps. Nevertheless, we are the team to beat, and the team to hate, which is actually more fun than I expected it to be! As the Patriots stomp over every team in the NFL, I can only smirk at those who want an astericks to be next to our Super Bowl wins because we were caught taping during the first game of this season. If anything, the incident helps to prove that we are virtually undefeatable because the NFL tightened the reigns on cheating afterwards. Arguably, it was far more difficult to cheat for the rest of the season because of the NFL's increased efforts to prevent cheating. Yet, we beat every single team that came our way, often devastatingly. But besides this, it should be clear to all who are not naive that more than likely every team has cheated at some point. Does this excuse the Patriots? No, but it certainly levels the playing field and stops the mouths of those who think we don't deserve our Super Bowls.

I hope the Packers get to the Super Bowl because I like them. But though I usually love to cheer for the underdog, for some likely perverse reason I hope the Patriots crush them. =) Do not underestimate the power of the Dark Side!

(P.S. Brady looks like such a scumbag half the time because of that scruff!)

Receiving from God / The Cosmic Bellhop

"Our job as workers for God is to open people's eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion - only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receieve something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, the forgiveness of sins." -- Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost For His Highest" (emphasis mine)

This is an excerpt from my devotional reading last night, and it expresses my thoughts keenly. Those of us in the Arminian camp too often lean to an overarching synergistic paradigm for salvation. The problem with this is that there are indeed times when God must work alone in the face of human impotence, where all we have to do is stretch out our hand to receive His gracious, free gift in an almost passive sense. In fact, the most crucial graces are those in which God works alone - justification, regeneration, and entire sanctification. After all, we can't forgive our own sins, give birth to ourselves, or cleanse out the remnants carnal nature ourselves. Nor are these to be viewed as cooperative affairs - no, only one person is acting (God), the other is merely receiving and exerting no effort whatsoever. In fact, it is at the point of a complete relinquishing of self-effort that God is finally able to do His mighty works of grace in us.

John Wesley once quipped that many think they are justified who are not. What are the fruits of justification (and regeneration), and how can we know we are in the favor of God? First, there is the immediate witness of the Spirit, assuring us that Christ has died for us and now accepts us on the merits of His death. Second, there is the fruit of the Spirit, namely, love, joy, peace, and victory over sin's power and dominion. The subjective and objective witnesses always go together, and they keep us free from both self-delusion and presumption.

We need to make room in our soteriology for the work of God alone, for without it we will inevitably slide into an insipid semi-Pelagianism that stifles the work of the Spirit. We need to recognize our ongoing dependence upon God's grace, from the first rays of Light that shine into the sinner's awakening mind to the new birth and beyond. We also must be sure to keep in mind the standards and promises of redemption, so as not to lower the bar for the normative Christian experience just to suit our theologies of unbelief.

This is the Gospel, people - Let's take it seriously. Speaking of taking the Gospel seriously, I was flipping through the stations yesterday and I came upon Joel Olsteen. All I have to say is, how can anyone trivialize the cause of Christ so woefully? Do people really believe that God is some sort of cosmic bellhop that just wants His creatures to be self-satisfied with life? I once heard Olsteen say something in an interview to the effect of, "Yes, we believe Jesus died for our sins and that we need Him to be forgiven, but people need to get past that to all of the other things that God has for them." Like what? Wealth? Health? Promotions? No, Mr. Olsteen, the cross is the center of the Christian life, not just a doorway into a life of abundance. The Christian is called to a life of cross-bearing, of self-sacrifice, and yes, even of suffering and loss. The holy mystery of faith in Christ is not that He takes all of life's burdens and troubles away, but that He gives you the strength to carry them for His sake.

Why even tie the name "Christian" to your message, Olsteen? Why not use "higher power" or something, since that is all you really mean - the force of positive thinking. Don't blemish the name of Christ by implicating Him in your feel-good-ism. I realize that my remarks probably sound trenchant, but I am fairly indignant towards those who trivialize Christ and His cause. One cannot read the New Testament without being struck by the radical personage of Jesus Christ and how serious His message is. He flipped over tables. He prayed throughout the night on the mountainside. He wept in the garden. He asked the Pharisees how they expected to escape the damnation of hell. Does this sound like a cosmic bellhop to you?

Pray for Olsteen and his congregation - actually, pray for all of the church, we desperately need it. Be on your knees before God, that is where we belong. Peace on you.

Rock Band

If any of you out there in the blogsphere haven't played Rock Band, you need to find someone with with a PS2, PS3, or an XBOX 360 (the best of the next-gen systems, and consequently owned by me) and play it NOW. As an avid guitarist and drummer, let me just say that it's the best music game to date. Enamoured with video games and music as I am, this game was truly made for a nerd like me.

If you are interested in learning how to play the drums, this game is actually a great start. On the hard and expert levels, the drum parts are virtually identical to the music tracks, and the little drum set that you play on is very well made. Playing cooperatively in a band with this game is a lot of fun. I had two of my good friends over (married couple) yesterday and we rocked hard.

Sorry, no witticism or theological meanderings this entry, just a testimony to hardcore, face-melting action a la Rock Band.

Satisfaction in God

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

-- Psalm 63:1-5

"In this alone can you find the happiness you seek; in the union of your spirit with the Father of spirits; in the knowledge and love of Him who is the fountain of happiness, sufficient for all the souls he has made," uttered John Wesley. C.S. Lewis was famously "suprised by joy" that had so captivated him in his youth. On another front, John Piper has famously stated, "God is most glorifed in us when we are most satified in Him" (if only Piper were to take this notion to its logical conclusion and become an Arminian!). And, assuredly, we all remember Augustine's unforgettable line, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, oh Lord."

The upshot of all of this is that God is the author of happiness. He created you and I for relationship with Him, and that's the only way any of us can be deeply and lastingly happy. God does not desire us on our knees because he enjoys having His creatures grovel in the dirt before Him. No, rather God desires us on our knees because that is the only place where we are able to receive the "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17) He so greatly wills us to have. Until we come to the end of ourselves, until the last gasps of the sinful self cease to strive and strain in a last-ditch attempt to micromanage one's life...in short, until we come before God with nothing but the faith of an open hand, He cannot and will not bestow the gift of eternal life. Here is the beginning of holiness, in the renewing, regenerating work of God - a sheer, wondrous gift of grace. And, certainly, holiness and happiness are inextricably connected. The God of holy love would not have it otherwise!

"His love is greater than life," declares the Psalmist. What an otherworldly truth! His love is a cruciform love, a love that gave it all and yet somehow keeps on giving. When I look to the cross I am unavoidably struck by both of the depth of human sinfulness, particularly my own, and the breadth of God's love. Here the love and holiness of God meet in the singularly most horrific and beautiful event ever to occur in human history. Here is where fallen humanity belongs, at the foot of this wondrous cross, on our knees.

In this openness, this stillness, this self-surrender, this posture of need, there is Christ. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Peter Bohler

"Preach faith until you have it, then, because you have it, you will preach faith." -- Peter Bohler

Welcome to my foray into the blogsphere! I figured that since I think a lot, I might as well donate some of my thoughts to the internet community, though I'll understand if you want to return them right back to me. Just remember your receipt.

I have decided to introduce myself briefly by quoting Peter Bohler, the Moravian who instructed the young and zealous John Wesley on what it means to be justified by faith. Earlier in his life, Wesley had become convinced through reading the Holy Living tradition (the likes of Kempis, Law, and Taylor) that "holiness is the end of religion." But as captivated as he was by this holiness, Wesley had to go on a long and surprisingly paradigmatic theological journey before he finally entered into the life of God, of holiness. By paradigmatic, I mean that as Wesley pieced his theology together one doctrine at a time, he naturally fell into many common pitfalls and went down familiar mistaken pathways until he, somewhat unwittingly, stumbled upon the right one. Of course, Wesley was not spearheading this journey, the Holy Spirit was. Ironically enough, one of the doctrines that Wesley would expound upon at length later in his life, prevenient grace, was the very thing that was leading Wesley to the very door of salvation, the new birth.

I have a particular affinity for Wesley because my own spiritual journey mirrors his in some striking ways. Although I don't come from a practicing Christian family, I met an evangelical in high school who argued tenaciously for his faith in one of my history classes. Convinced of the truth of Christianity cognitively at the age of 16, I began to read the New Testament for myself. I also read up on theology online, made some Christian friends, and began asking endless amounts of questions. I began to read sound Arminian literature after my first encounter with Calvinism (which horrified me), and it wasn't long before I found out about John Wesley. During my first year of college, I become convinced, like Wesley, that "holiness is the end of religion." I began to realize that many people professed Christ with their lips, but did not walk in the holiness that I found in the NT. I also noticed that many Christians held to a relatively pessimisic view of the normative Christian life - that Christians "sin in thought, word, and deed every day." Eventually I came to reject this theology of unbelief because I simply could not find it in the New Testament. But, though I was in a state of repentance for several years after this conviction, I still could not break the power of sin, nor did I have assurance of my salvation. I didn't love God, but I wanted to. Instead, all I felt was the fear of God, and a sense of distance from Him.

I am leaving many details out, but eventually I came to a place of extreme doubt and despair. I concluded that I never really experienced the new birth, that inward change that breaks the power of sin, fills one with the Holy Spirit, and enables one to cry "Abba, Father." So, I resolved to seek God in the means of grace. I had the faith of a servant, and desperately desired the faith of a son, the proper Christian faith. I even wrote an article for the college newspaper entitled "heart religion" about justifying faith. I took the advice of Peter Bohler to preach faith until I had it. I read Scripture more fervently, went to church, and prayed with the expectation that God would work mightily in my heart.

And then He did. Everything changed that day - and yes, I can describe my experience as my heart being "strangely warmed!" I don't even remember what the pastor was preaching about, but I do remember the joy. It was hard to contain! For two weeks I was literally walking on clouds, praising God each morning and night, desiring each moment to depart and be with Christ whom I now loved deeply. Eventually I came down from cloud 9, but the precious witness of the Spirit has not left me. I depend upon God's grace every moment like I depend upon the air that I breath, and His grace has enabled me to live a victorious and holy life. And oh, the joy, the peace, and the love. Only the God of holy love could inspire them!

There is much more to my story, and much more to me, but there will be plenty of time for that in the blogs to come. For now, peace on you.