Archive for the ‘Theology’ Category

God was surprised by my blog

Posted: January 22, 2012 in Open Theology, Theology
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Now that I have started my blog off with something that everyone has already blogged about, I thought I better follow that up with something else that has had many people far smarter than me talking about too.  The Openness of God.  Process Theology.  Does God know the future?

To me, the whole “God doesn’t know the future thing” is like a classic pair of bell bottom jeans.  Every time I think we are finally done with this, it keeps coming back into style.  Not that I am skinny jeans kind of guy, but seriously, bell bottoms again?  Anyway, I can understand what leads so many to entertain this whole line of reasoning.  First, it is hard to explain to people how we can believe in a good, loving God and then explain why so many horrible things happen in this world.  From the Holocaust to the young youth pastor dying in a motorcycle accident, most of us have no idea how we can say God is loving and in control and yet allows these things to happen.  So, it is way easier if we just let God off the hook.  If God isn’t in control and doesn’t know the future, then it is really our fault that all things occur.  We can’t blame God, just ourselves and other people.

Second, if God isn’t in control and doesn’t know the future, then He has a whole lot riding on us as the church to get the Great Commission job done on our own.  Who really wants to go deep into the jungle, get malaria, and then be tied to a cross and sent over a waterfall?  Ok, so I have met a few radical missionaries who would see that as a dream come true, but for most of us, we need some strong motivation to do those kind of things.  If God is in control and has determined everyone who will be saved or not, why should I risk my life and go without high speed internet to take the Gospel to remote places?  It is way more motivational to see God turn to us and say, “Hey buddy, I don’t know how this whole thing is going to turn out, but if you don’t get your free will in gear, there is no way these people will ever get saved!”

Now, please understand me.  I am not saying that we bear no responsibility for our actions or that if we believe that God knows the future that we have no motivation to preach the Gospel.  I am just following the line of reasoning that I hear from people who teach the Openness of God theology.  As with the whole hell issue, we could answer so many questions a lot easier and more logically if all this stuff about God were true.  My blog would probably do better since I wouldn’t have to be boring and agree with what has been the main view of church leaders throughout all of church history.

Alas, that pesky thing called the Bible is going to give us some problems with this.  My favorite passages about this are in Isaiah packed into chapters 40 – 48.  God is taking Israel on and their ridiculous worship of idols.  In these 9 chapters, God continues to compare Himself to idols, or I should say contrasting Himself to idols.  One of the biggest differences that God highlights is His ability to know and predict the future.  One slam dunk is in 44:28 when God predicts the exact name (Cyrus) of the Persian leader that He will use to bring the Jews back into Israel and rebuild the temple.  Isaiah is recording this around 700 B.C., and Cyrus doesn’t issue his decree allowing the Jews to return until around 538 B.C.  Bam!  Super Bam!  Unless you are one of those 2nd and 3rd Isaiah guys, or just don’t believe the Bible, then this should put a serious dent in the whole God doesn’t know the future.  And, that is just one out of many.  Once again, the Bible reminds us that we aren’t as smart as we think we are.

So, what’s the big deal about hell?

Posted: January 21, 2012 in The Afterlife, Theology
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I thought I would start with a nice, light topic for my first blog entry on my site:  Hell!  It seems lately that hell is a big deal, so I thought I should start with something everyone and their mother has already blogged about.  The perception is that we all have Rob Bell and his recent book, “Love Wins” to thank for all this hell talk.  The truth is that Rob Bell merely added his voice to a larger discussion that has been happening in the church at large.  Way back in 1992 (ancient history for some people), even the Pope and the Catholic Church was weighing in on this discussion.  I believe that we are dealing with two main issues in talking about hell.

First, hell just isn’t postmodern.  Someone really needs to have a sit down with Satan and let him know this.  I would suggest Starbucks as a place for them to meet, but that could sound cruel and judgmental, and that just isn’t postmodern.  While Satan was stuck in his Milton’s “Paradise Lost” days, culture went and changed on him, and neither he nor his favorite hot spot are “in” anymore.  No, we are way too tolerant, loving, and non-judgmental to go around believing in hell and eternal punishment.  That’s almost as politically incorrect as believing in demons or using wooden pews.  Those intolerant, violent ways of our parents have now been laid aside, and we have “progressed” in our view of God and His love to know He would never send anyone to hell.

Second, hell doesn’t look good on a Gospel tract, nor is it fun to beat people over the head with hell until they repent and become Christians.  God knows it isn’t for a lack of trying that we as the church are ready to give up this evangelistic strategy.  From the days of “Sinners in Hands of an Angry God”, we have done our best to scare people into heaven.  Rob Bell tells us some of their stories in his book, and I have personally heard many myself.  The New Age church and many of the “emerging” churches are full of people who got tired of feeling guilty every Sunday.  How many cool coffee bar songs can you write about hell?  really?

So, where does this leave me as a Bible nerd?  With a huge problem.  The Bible talks about hell and judgment.  In both parts (Testaments that is).  More than once.  Like, quite a few times.  It would be really hard to be a serious Bible reader, and not understand that God makes it clear that He is a God of justice and that there is an eternal consequence for what we do and believe here on Earth.  Read a few of these Bible passages:  Matthew 10:28, Matthew 11:23, Matthew 13:40-43, 47-50, John 3:16-21, John 5:24-30, Daniel 12:2-3, Ezekiel 32:17-32, 2 Thessalonians 2:5-10, Revelation 20:11-15.  We also have to understand that the larger concept is eternal judgment and reward, not just one place called Hell (which is just the way we translate a few Greek words).  While I will grant that we needed to evaluate evangelistic strategies for our time, changing the Bible and Gospel message shouldn’t be on the table for discussion.  Bummer for me.  I just bought these really cool post modern glasses.  I am not bald yet, but I have that edgy, almost bald, short hair style.  I use words like “new reformation” and “missional”.  Unfortunately, my “old fashioned” and “outdated” views on hell make some people think of me as that guy ranting in the streets with a sandwich board on.  Oh well, that is the problem with reading the Bible.

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