Tag Archives: faith

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I'm reading in Hebrews 4...

God's Sabbath rest.

1Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

some manuscripts say because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

It is not that we lose our salvation, it's that the promise of rest did not join with our faith in the first place.  We are united by faith with those who listened to the gospel and believe.

This is also cross referenced to Romans 3:3

Even though there are those who do not listen and there are those who do not believe, that does not mean that the promises of God are not true.  God is faithful to His promises, even when we are not faithful to Him.

3For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

"As I swore in my wrath,'They shall not enter my rest,'"

That's a direct quote from Psa. 95.  Matthew Henry says, "Let us be aware of the evils of our hearts, which lead us to wander from the Lord. There is a rest ordained for believers, the rest of everlasting refreshment, begun in this life, and perfected in the life to come. This is the rest which God calls his rest."

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works."

Exodus31:17, "It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'"

We long for that rest.

I long for that rest.

Humans are designed for a Sabbath and I feel as though I have not had one for a long time.

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I found a piece of napkin in my Bible.  I must have been at a luncheon or something in order to have a napkin.

God works by contraries so that a man feels himself los tin the very moment when he is on the verge of being saved.  When God is almost ready to justify a man, He damns him.  Whom he would make alive, He must first kill...Man must first cry out that there is no health in him...when a man believes himself to be utterly lost, light breaks.  Peace comes in the Word of God through faith.

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It occurred to be today that the "foot in the door" that Satan uses is not "unbelief", it is the seed of doubt.

I was watching "History" today, a program about the battles of the Old Testament and how secular scholars read "history" into them.

Moses, instead of an instrument of the Most High, became an astute military commander who used his intimate knowledge of the terrain to his advantage.

Joshua, rather than following the command of God, became a blood thirsty and ruthless murderer.

The language was sprinkled with "supposedly" and "assuming there is a god..."

It is here, in the Old Testament, that the seeds of the undermining of God's Word begins.  When we sow the seeds of doubt in our minds in one arena, it becomes much easier to reap those seeds in another.

Do I think it is possible (or even likely) that Moses was an astute military leader?  Sure...but I believe that the skill was used of God for God's purpose.

Do I think that Rahab might have had her own best interests in mind when she hung the scarlet cord out of her window?  Of course...but it was all part of the plan of God.

We live in a lost and dying world, full of sin and strife.  But my God is in control.

Proverbs 21:1 - The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.

It seems so reasonable to listen to the world's "logic", to believe that our "modern" era has answers that God's people didn't.

But we don't.  We may have science and we may fall for "political correctness".  But our ways are not His ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts.

It is important (for me) to remember that what I think seems so reasonable may be contrary to the will of the Most High.

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A while ago (years) I read an article about a woman who had a wretched childhood and grew up into a wretched adulthood.  Prostitution, porn, drugs, etc.

Then Christ made her His child.

There were a number of bloggers out there who had problems with her telling her whole story and the issues they had were varied.

One was - why does she glorify sin by telling of the sin she was in?  That is not the way to look at it...she is glorifying God by telling the depths to which she had sunk and that God can nobody is beyond God's grace.

Another - who is she to think that she can just repent  and have a "get out of consequences free" card?   Does she really think that she can just become a Christian and be accepted?  Hello?  do you know what she did?  That is not the way that it is!  If the Father embraced the prodigal, so should we.  It is our job to raise up the children in the faith, not keep them down.

Next - Okay, she's a Christian?  but she will never be qualified for ministry - after all, she may be forgiven, but there are earthly consequences.  No...no...  Paul was  a murderer.  So was Moses.  David was a murderer - and an adulterer.  They were all ministers of God's Word.

The prodigal should be restored.  Period.

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The "T" matters because all have sinned and there are none that seek the face of the Lord.

If there are none that seek the face of the Lord, how do we find Him? The answer is a hard one - for me it was the most difficult of "TULIP".

If we, in our sin, do not have the ability to seek after God, then it must be God that seeks after us.

That is the "U" - unconditional election. Predestination.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Eph 1:3-6 ESV)

Logic tells us that if we are steeping in the "T", we cannot seek God.  We are chosen in Christ.

Chosen.

Our election is not based on the good that we have done - it is unconditional upon our behavior.

It is the very idea of our salvation NOT being rooted in ourselves that points to the glory of God.  Our salvation is not of ourselves, it is by grace; faith is the vehicle that God has chosen.

It is not of works.  We are chosen.

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Here are some conclusions/questions...

The author concludes that babies of covenant families are given faith by God. He is "happily agnostic" when it comes to the salvation of babies that die in unbeliving families.

so...
If we are saved by faith, it would follow that babies have some sort of faith. If they do not have faith, then how are they saved?

If babies have faith, but can fall away, what does that do for perseverence?

I'm fairly new to Reformed theology and I know that baptism does not save. However, Lusk seems to say that baptism is more than a symbol, it is more like the (my words) door through which salvation comes.

How does one relate baptism to salvation?

If baptism is a symbol, and not a vehicle, why baptize infants before they understand the symbolism?

Here is a tough one. I spent years outside the church. Looking back, I can pinpoint a moment when my relationship with God became very real. Given it is possible that is the moment I "got saved" - are the babies that I lost before that moment saved or lost?

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A commenter here (Elena) left a link in the comments section that (in a nutshell) says that our Christian marriages must reflect the church's marriage to God (so far, I agree). To go further (relate it to birth control), God would never use contraception in His marriage to the church, therefore we must never use birth control either. This theology (study of God) does not address the difference between artificial birth control and Natural Family Planning.

Actually, I fully accept Philothea Rose's view on God's marriage and our marriage...I just followed her reasoning to its logical conclusion...read on.

This is, primarily, mental Onanism. Fun, with little hope of producing anything.

Anyway, given that the way God increases His family is through salvation, the linked post connects contraception with sotierology. This argument actually strengthens the idea that God has a permissive will when it comes to family planning - and that God is a Calvinist (actually, the correct way of looking at the grammar - that Calvin's theology of sotierology is correct).

I'm going to look at this from both a Calvinist and Arminian/Catholic view of salvation.

This is premise I'm using - either you are conceived here and "born" when you enter heaven, or you are both conceived and fully born into the faith here.

1) (everybdy). We all recognize that God works in real and specific ways, and at very specific times in order to bring us to Him. If we fall upon our faith in His timing, is He not planning the time of "conception"? This supports family planning...however...

1) (Arminian/Catholic) If the way God increases His family is through salvation, and His will is that *everybody* comes to Him - how can you then justify Natural Family Planning? If God wants every single person possible to come into His family, how can a couple who says that artifical birth control is wrong, justify *not* wanting every single person possible to come into their family? I don't think you can. If you want your marriage to truly reflect God's marriage, you must strive to have as many babies as you possibly can. The Natural Family Planning thing does not reflect God's marriage.

2) (Calvinist) If the way God increases His family through salvation, and you believe in election (some are chosen, some are not), those who are "hardened", those who are prepared for destruction - the objects of God's wrath...these are never conceived. Faith is a gift from God and faith = belief = being conceived into the family of God. In sotierology/contraception theology, those who do not receive the gift of faith (belief/fertility) also do not receive the gift of life (conception/salvation).

3) (Arminian/Catholic) Arminius and the Catholic Church teach that a person can lose their salvation. This is where I think that an Arminian or Catholic should (yes, should find this sotierology/contaception theology absolutely abhorant.

If God gives a person the gift of life (salvation/conception) only to remove it later - is that abortion, or infanticide? The other issue - if God can abort a person that He has given the gift of life to, because He has found them wanting, that supports the idea that it is permissible for a couple to abort a baby that is found wanting. Do you really want to go there?

I reject the idea that God supports either abortion or infanticide, when it comes to His marriage and His family, so I must either reject Arminianism/Catholicism or sotierology/contracteption or both.

4) On the flip side, Calvinism, once a child is conceived (saved), they are secure, God will never get rid of them. There will be those who "fall on rocky soil", who never come to belief (I guess you could relate that to a miscarriage). But once you are given the gift of faith, God will not lose you.

So, there here are the points - if you truly want to
- God either is permissive (or even actively supports) family planning, or all family planning is sin, even NFP
- if you believe that the doctrine of election is true, then God specifically plans His family.
- if you believe that a person can lose their salvation, then God supports (and practices) either abortion or infanticide (I reject this)
- If you believe perserverance of the saints - that you cannot lose your salvation, then you believe that God would never abort one of His children.

Conclusion - if you're a Calvinist, you're okay with God practicing family planning. If God's okay with family planning, I am too...

If you believe that a person can lose his or her salvation, you are also okay with God practicing family planning, only in a much more disturbing way.

Taken to its logical conclusion, either this theology does not work...or Calvin was right.

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When my kids were little I worked for a little while for a historic neighborhood association. One day I was driving around (long story, but I was doing my job) a block where a little house had been torn down. That was the first time I noticed "that" house. It had been empty for years, it was boarded up, siding was missing, as was part of the roof.

But it grabbed my attention. No, God grabbed my attention.

...continue reading →