tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1724178038676277752024-03-07T01:05:45.413-08:00The Center for Theological Studiesa site dedicated to the exploration, analysis, and evaluation of various theological systemsByronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11537490279115937176noreply@blogger.comBlogger523125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-2787511667226066692019-04-18T10:24:00.001-07:002019-04-18T10:31:21.340-07:00Richardson Hosts Free Kindle Book Giveaway at Amazon from April 18th-22nd<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is a blessing to be able to return to The Center for Theological Studies (CTS) to make yet another announcement.<br />
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I have partnered with Amazon to offer a free Kindle book giveaway on three of my four published books. The titles are as follows:<br />
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1) Lydia's Heart: The Case for Prevenient Grace (an informal Arminian theology that argues for resistible grace)<br />
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2) Doctrinal Deception: Responding to Carlton Pearson's The Gospel of Inclusion<br />
3) More Doctrinal Deception: Bishop Carlton Pearson's Inclusion, Further Examined<br />
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Remember, as I said above, only Kindle Books on the above three titles are free. As for paperback versions of these books, I have discounted the books to "at cost" -- meaning I'll make next to nothing on the sales. Amazon will get the profit. I get the satisfaction of seeing folks pick up copies of books to aid them on their Christian journey. Lydia's Heart: The Case for Prevenient Grace, a book I published on December 15, 2018, has been discounted from $22.50 to $14.50. Of the new discounted cost on the book, I'll only see a profit of 50 cents. Literally. I'm THAT determined to get books into the hands of those who've been wanting the titles but are paralyzed financially right now and have bigger financial problems to worry about.<br />
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The Amazon free book giveaway starts today, April 18th, and goes through SonRise Sunday (April 21st, known to many as Easter) to Monday, April 22nd. The giveaway lasts only 5 days, so don't put off tomorrow what you can pick up today.<br />
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Write back and let me know if you've picked up any of these three books, and the titles you downloaded on Kindle. If you decide to purchase the paperbacks, let me know which titles.<br />
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I look forward to hearing about your purchased titles. If I can be of service, please feel free to let me know.<br />
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In Him, Deidre<br />
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<br />Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-29640158372328968122019-01-03T11:38:00.000-08:002019-01-03T12:07:41.086-08:00Essential Church Pastor makes the case for Prevenient Grace in New Book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Prevenient grace is a topic that seems to be relegated to the field of scholastics with regard to theology. It isn’t taught, preached, or pondered much these days in typical bible studies and church discussions, but that could soon change.<br />
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Pastor D.M. Richardson, the shepherd of internet-connected The Essential Church and author of books Short-Sighted Faith: Once Saved, Always Saved (OSAS) and the Doctrine of Perseverance, <a href="https://essentialchurch.net/2018/05/12/new-book-on-the-gospel-of-inclusion-by-essential-church-pastor-takes-on-former-pentecostal-bishop/">Doctrinal Deception: Responding to Carlton Pearson’s The Gospel of Inclusion, and More Doctrinal Deception: Bishop Carlton Pearson’s Inclusion, Further Examined</a>, is back with a book regarding prevenient grace. Titled Lydia’s Heart: The Case for Prevenient Grace, the book uses well-known biblical doctrines to assert that the grace of God that goes before faith (as taught in Ephesians 2:8-9) is resistible in nature, not irresistible. While prevenient grace isn’t a term one finds in the Scriptures, it can be inferred. For example, the word Trinity isn’t found in Scripture either, but it is inferred based upon Scripture’s mention of “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit.” Grace is mentioned, but “prevenient” is an inference (“prevenient” means that it goes before something; grace goes before faith).<br />
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Richardson draws from a number of well-known biblical doctrines that Baptists, in particular, would find encouraging, such as the idea of infant grace (that is, every infant is born in a state of grace). Infants have “angels in Heaven,” Jesus says in the Gospels, a statement that doesn’t set aside some infants for salvation and others for damnation (a statement John Calvin held in high regard). A chapter titled “The Good News About Hell” shows that Hell is a choice for humans, who were not created for Hell. Hell exists only for the Devil and his angels, though humans can choose to enter this dreadful place through rebellion against God and sheer unbelief. Hell wasn’t created for a single human person, meaning that Calvin’s Doctrine of Reprobation is not only distasteful but also highly unbiblical. Richardson also tackles the Doctrine of Atonement regarding God’s universal love for the world as a whole, not just some in it.<br />
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The main heroine of the book happens to be Lydia, the God-fearer and worshipper whose heart and mind was opened to the revelation of Jesus Christ in the gospel message, preached by the apostle Paul. This is the center of the book, and Richardson saves the best for last — with the title chapter as the last chapter (chapter 7).<br />
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Richardson says that she has written such a book because of Calvinism claims that prevenient grace doesn’t exist but is an Arminian concoction to bolster the Arminian view of human depravity. “There aren’t different views of human depravity in Calvinism and Arminianism,” Richardson says. “All depravity is the same. Calvinists and Arminians led by James Arminius, the founder of Arminianism, both believe that man can do nothing meritorious of himself and is incapable to do any good apart from the aid of divine grace. The notion of prevenient grace within Arminianism is an acknowledgment, not a denial, that man needs God’s grace to respond in faith. It’s grace-enabled responsibility at its finest.”<br />
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Pastor D.M. Richardson, apart from being Founder and Pastor of The Essential Church, is also an undergraduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, having received baccalaureate degrees in History (Modern Europe) and Music (Performance) in 2006. Since then, Richardson has gone on to graduate with a Master of Divinity degree in Christian Apologetics from Southeastern Seminary in 2011. She entered the seminary’s postgraduate, Master of Theology (ThM) program for four years after receiving her MDiv, studying under the Seminary’s Dean of the Faculty and Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach author, Dr. Kenneth Keathley.<br />
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You can pick up your copy of Lydia’s Heart over at Amazon.com. Both Kindle (digital) and Paperback versions are currently selling at the low price of $15 through January 15, 2018. You can preview the book at the link below.<br />
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Richardson has more work in store for 2019: among it, a groundwork theology and an introduction to theological systems in salvation (soteriology).<br />
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<br />Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-54535733771293751742018-05-12T09:32:00.001-07:002018-05-12T09:32:33.620-07:00New Book on the Gospel of Inclusion Takes On Former Pentecostal Bishop<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Gospel of Inclusion, known by other names such as “inclusion,” “inclusivism,” “universalism,” “universal reconciliation,” or “ultimate reconciliation,” is nothing new in church history. Certain church fathers endorsed the view, and the early church ultimately took a turn in its theology where the fire of Hell was viewed as “purgatorial” or “transformative” in nature (out of which, the doctrines of Purgatory and Annihilation were born).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Today, however, the Gospel of Inclusion, universalism by another name, is making inroads into the church once more. Pastor D.M. Richardson, Founder of internet-connected The Essential Church, has taken up the mantle to respond to this controversial doctrine. In her work, Doctrinal Deception: Responding to Carlton Pearson’s The Gospel of Inclusion, Richardson tackles certain claims made by the Bishop that are contrary to sound doctrine. Pearson makes claims such as 1) the idea of a personal God or Jesus as one’s personal Savior is foreign to Scripture, 2) one can be saved yet “not know it,” 3) The idea of original sin is unscriptural, 4) and the idea of Hell as a place of eternal torment is “a divine torture chamber” whose God has “an anger management problem.”<br /><br /><br />Pearson also says that all religions and beliefs are equally valid manifestations of God and that the true God can’t be fully known in any one faith. Not even atheist Bertrand Russell agreed with Pearson (and Russell was a staunch atheist with little regard for Christianity). Pearson was disowned by his Pentecostal denomination when he started preaching from the pulpit that “everyone goes through Hell, but nobody goes to Hell.”<br /><br /><br />Richardson’s new book is part of a two-book series that seeks to provide a biblically faithful and theologically robust Christian response to Pearson’s decade-old book, The Gospel of Inclusion: Reaching Beyond Religious Fundamentalism to the True Love of God and Self. The fourth-generation, Classical Pentecostal preacher and Bishop has emerged again in the news in recent days due to a new biographical movie about him at Netflix titled “Come Sunday.” The movie arrived on Netflix last month.<br /><br /><br />Though this is Richardson’s first book on the Gospel of Inclusion, The Essential Church Founder and Pastor is no stranger to the false doctrine. While attending seminary for her Master of Divinity degree in Christian Apologetics, she studied the doctrine under the Seminary’s Dean of the Faculty, Dr. Kenneth Keathley, author of Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach. Keathley mentored Richardson in her subsequent post-graduate, Master of Theology degree, where she concentrated in the area of Theology of Religions while studying the historical Filioque Controversy.<br /><br /><br />The Filioque Controversy is a historical church debate that engages the Trinity to answer questions about the procession of the Holy Spirit (“Does the Spirit proceed from the Father, or the Father and the Son?”). Filioque is a Latin term, meaning “and the Son.”<br /><br /><br />Book 1 of Doctrinal Deception is on sale at Amazon in both digital (Kindle) and paperback versions for $9.99 (Kindle) and $20 (paperback). Book 2 of Doctrinal Deception will arrive on Amazon next week. In it, Richardson answers deeper theological questions pertaining to the Doctrine of Reconciliation and whether or not the appropriation of the atonement is automatic.<br /><br /><br />To pick up your copy of Doctrinal Deception, head on over to Amazon by way of the orange "Doctrinal Deception" link below.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Doctrinal-Deception-Responding-Pearsons-Inclusion/dp/1981011021/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1526125070&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Doctrinal Deception</a></span></div>
Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-82286760628010057932017-08-01T10:38:00.002-07:002017-08-01T10:38:57.683-07:00New Book on Perseverance and Apostasy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let me say first, how grateful to the Lord I am to be able to share this news with you all. I'm thankful to return to the blog and see some small growth (some growth is often better than none at all), so thank you for your love, support, and prayers. There are so many blogs in the blogosphere today with so much to say that I often think my labor of love here leaves much to be desired. But the Lord has a unique way of taking what we think is nothing and transforming it for His glory. And that's what the Lord has done here at The Center for Theological Studies. And I'm blessed to share this blog with each of you, that you have joined me for the biblical ride of a lifetime. </div>
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Today, I'm back to share some news that has me beaming inside and out: by the Lord's grace, I have published a book. Titled <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Short-Sighted-Faith-Always-Doctrine-Perseverance-ebook/dp/B074DL4YPS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501608976&sr=8-2&keywords=short-sighted+faith%3A+once+saved%2C+always+saved" target="_blank">Short-Sighted Faith: Once Saved, Always Saved (OSAS) and the Doctrine of Perseverance</a></i>, the book is devoted to examining OSAS as a doctrine and showing why it is unbiblical. Yes, (gasp), I disagree with the notion of Once Saved, Always Saved. If you've been keeping afloat of the blog, I often critique Calvinist theologians and their claims because of my view that Scripture is against them. They can't explain multiple passages in Scripture, which makes me distrust their conclusions. So, prepare to see in this book the results of my 9 years of leisure pursuit of Calvinism, Arminianism, and a few years of Molinism. </div>
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Just to give some details about the work, the price of the book is $9.99 for the Kindle Edition. For those wondering about a paperback version, that too, is available. Since August is my birthday month (I turn 33, Lord willing, on August 21st), I am running a special sale on the paperback version of my new book. Between today, August 1st, and the end of the month, August 31st, those who purchase the book can expect a price tag of $10.00 for the paperback copy. Now, the change to the paperback price have yet to take effect, so don't be surprised if you can't purchase it at that price today. Give the changes 3 days or so to take effect, and feel free to check in at Amazon sooner (you might see it appear within 12 hours or so). </div>
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As always, I'd like to give honor to the Lord and His Son, Jesus Christ, who have made this all possible. I consider myself to be a servant of the Lord, doing what I believe to be the work of God in going and making disciples. Some of us evangelize the world by preaching on foreign soil; others do it by writing books that travel worldwide. I have been blessed to do the latter, and I pray that Christ is exalted and that you, my readership, will be edified and inspired to continue running the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, as Hebrews 12:1-2 says. </div>
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This book is the first of, Lord willing, many to come. It has been my dream to write and publish since I could remember, and I pray that my love for the work of God shines through. </div>
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And, as for the question pressing on everyone's minds, "Did I enjoy the process?," well, let's just say that when I finished editing the manuscript, my spirit said, "I want to do it all over again."</div>
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God bless. </div>
Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-70237615861739939522017-03-15T06:11:00.002-07:002017-03-15T20:48:08.431-07:00False Professions and The Danger of Prooftexting: "I Never Knew You" And The Parable of the Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">To my readers, let me first say that I'm thankful the Lord has let our paths cross once more. I've been busy in the work of the Lord, as I'm sure you have, and am back to indulge the Word of the Lord with you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I noticed this morning that I had a copy of R.C. Sproul's booklet titled "Can I Lose My Salvation?," a booklet that tackles some interesting passages that I've studied at length regarding the doctrines of salvation and apostasy (yes, if you read 1 Timothy 4, the Doctrine of Apostasy, Falling Away, or The Great Divorce (to use a familiar title from C.S. Lewis's book that bears the same name). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I've only been able to read the beginning so far, but what I've read already troubles me because it proceeds down a path that so many believers tread down. And I think the interpretation made is short-sighted and does not do justice to the whole counsel of God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">R.C. Sproul mentions passages such as Hebrews 6, 1 Corinthians 10:14, 1 Timothy 1:18-20, and 1 Corinthians 9:27, but eventually goes on to argue that these warnings, as serious as they may be, are not suggesting that genuine believers can fall; rather, these are designed to wake up false believers who have professed Christ but do not possess Him: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"While some will return after a serious fall, some will not, because they never actually had faith. They made a false profession of faith; they did not possess what they professed" (R.C. Sproul, <i>Can I Lose My Salvation? (Crucial Questions) Book No. 22. </i>Reformation Trust Publishing, August 2015, page 15).</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the end, though, Sproul appeals to 1 John 2:19 and Matthew 7:21-23 to state his belief that the issue is false professions of faith and not genuine ones that go awry due to what Hebrews says is an issue of hardening one's heart against the deceitfulness of sin (see Hebrews 3:13). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let's examine Matthew 7. Jesus has just taught about false prophets and that their fruit, whether or not their sayings come true, will tell you the true nature of the prophet (whether he or she is genuine and has the Spirit of God or is a devil and lacks the Spirit of God). "So then, you will know them by their fruits," Jesus says in Matthew 7:20, NASB). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In verse 21, Jesus begins with the statement that "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter" (v. 21). In verse 22, those who are rejected come and tell the Lord of the things they've done: prophesied, cast out demons, and performed miracles, all actions that appear to make these persons saved. And yet, Jesus tells them "I never knew you" in verse 23, which says that they were never saved to begin with. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, Sproul and I agree here: these individuals, though doing some amazing miracles in the name of Jesus, were never saved. Try to wrap your head around the fact that these persons performed miracles by the Spirit of God but were never saved. Some things in Scripture are mysteries, but I fear that a system called Calvinism and its adherents claim the word "mystery" for many teachings that are biblically faithful but challenge their own interpretations of Scripture. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But Sproul claims that genuine believers cannot fall away from Christ because of Matthew 7. The only problem with this is that one must consult the words of Jesus as a whole, in every place possible, to arrive at a conclusion either way. True, he can't tackle every verse in his book, but he's too quick to dismiss truths in passages like Hebrews 6 by saying, in essence, that Matthew 7:21-23 cancels out the concept of genuine believers falling away and apostatizing from the faith. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In actuality, though, Sproul would be wrong, terribly, terribly wrong. Matthew 7:21-23 does exist, and its truth is genuine: there are some who will "fake salvation" and are never of the Lord's people though they may assemble in church and go through the rituals of saved persons (they may even deceive genuine believers). However, where I disagree with Sproul is that Matthew 7 cannot be used to refer to all believers who fall away because, if it does, then it contradicts other passages of Scripture such as the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In Matthew 25, there are five wise and five foolish virgins. Five virgins have oil in flasks to accompany their lamps but five are foolish and bring their lamps (with oil in them) but do not bring along an additional flask to refill their lamps. Both the wise and foolish virgins sleep, waiting for the Bridegroom. At midnight, the cry goes out to go meet the bridegroom for the marriage feast, but only five are ready. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The five foolish virgins, those whose oil has depleted from their lamps, ask the wise virgins for some of their oil. This is where we see the wisdom of the Wise Virgins: they tell the Foolish to "go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves" (Matt. 25:9). While the Foolish are buying oil, the Wise have gone to the chamber to meet the bridegroom and the door is shut. The Foolish come in late, but the Bridegroom refuses to open up to them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, this shorthanded version of the parable is not meant to dishonor it but to conserve space and time for the point of emphasis. What is the emphasis? That this Parable tells us, to first be brief and then descriptive, that there are those who have the expectation of heaven but will not reach final salvation because they live their lives in Christ unprepared. Simply put, one can be a believer and end up on the outside of glory looking in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let's examine what I mean. First, let's remember that these are virgins and that the parable pertains to "the kingdom of heaven" (25:1). Virgins are pure, spotless, and undefiled, so it can't be said that these persons are unbelievers. They are wearing white, a symbol of purity, that they've been "washed" and cleansed from their former sins, and are part of the Lord's people (John 13:8; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Revelation 7:14).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Next, the five foolish virgins, who were cleansed, saved, and had an expectation of heaven (that comes to all who confess and believe) missed the marriage feast because they were unprepared. The oil was running out of their lamps and they did not have additional oil with which to refill their lamps (v.8). When these five foolish virgins, who had their lamps and had expected to meet Christ, came to the door after it had been shut, they cried for the Lord to open to them but He did not. He says "I do not know you" (Matt. 25:12), not "I never knew you," as the Lord had said to some in Matthew 7:23. The Lord's words that "I do not know you" is present tense; unlike the word "never," it does not assume that the Lord never knew the foolish virgins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I hope you're starting to see the problem with Sproul's interpretation: it overlooks the fact that some individuals were never saved and are never joined to Christ, but others can be joined to Christ and fall away from faith because of sin. Sproul can explain Jesus' words in Matthew 7, but how can one explain away the virgins, the spotless bride of Christ, that miss heaven in Matthew 25? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>John 15: Are there branches that were never joined to the Vine?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps Sproul would say that these individuals were never joined to Christ in the first place because, if they were, they would have been prepared. Well, this is problematic because, if we take Sproul at his word, Jesus made claims that were merely hypothetical and not true. First, Matthew 25 is problematic for Matthew 7's "I never knew you" being applied to all who Jesus will turn away in the end. Sure, it applies to </span><span style="font-size: large;">some</span><span style="font-size: large;">, but R.C. Sproul's desire to use Matthew 7's response as </span><span style="font-size: large;">a blanket claim for all unbelievers</span><span style="font-size: large;"> in the end is a hermeneutical stretch. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let's examine John 15. We can understand that Jesus stresses the importance of bearing fruit in the Christian life: "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (v.5); "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples" (v.8). These two verses tell us that the Christian life is about bearing fruit, that we glorify the Father when we bear fruit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And yet, John 15 poses problems for Sproul's claim that those who do not bear fruit were never saved. Here's what Jesus says that disagrees with Sproul's claim: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away" (John 15:2a). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned" (John 15:6). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">These verses are problematic for Sproul's claim that there are only true believers and fake believers; rather, there are not two but three types of individuals: 1) those who believe and bear fruit, 2) those who believe but do not bear fruit, and 3) those who never believed and thus, never bore any fruit. Remember, those who are in Jesus but do not bear fruit are branches severed from the vine that dry up and are tossed in the fire. What the Lord is saying here is that these temporary believers will experience eternal punishment and torment in Hell. However, their end does not negate their faith at the first or prove that their confession was inauthentic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The question before us is as follows: did Jesus state a mere hypothetical when He spoke of "every branch in Me that does not bear fruit"? If Sproul is right, then no such branches exist in Christ that don't bear fruit. And yet, Scripture says that these branches "He takes away" (John 15:2), meaning that Christ severs them from the Vine (Himself, as He states in verse 1). These branches, the ones that don't bear fruit, are "thrown away...and dry up" (v.6). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But, Sproul has said that there are no such branches in Christ. It appears as though, to protect his belief in the Doctrine of Eternal Security, he has had to part ways with alternative verses in the New Testament and only "prooftext" with two passages that lean heavily in his favor. Proper hermeneutics, however, requires us to make the most of not only the passages that agree with us, but those that don't - and Sproul's approach of the subject in these few pages I've read doesn't make much of anything out of the severe verses. Sproul simply says that "these verses pertain to those who were never saved." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If Jesus's words are to be believed, then there are those "in Me," in Jesus, that will not bear fruit. There are branches in Jesus that are connected to Him by faith that will bear fruit, but there are branches that will not bear fruit. Those who do not bear fruit in the Christian life are severed from the Vine (which seems to imply that these branches are disowned by the Vine, Jesus, and the farmer, the Father) and no longer can bear fruit. If the branch, the believer, were never saved to begin with, there would be no expectation of the branch bearing fruit. To believe the position we've discussed here, that all who fall away from the faith have false professions, means that we must believe the exact opposite of Jesus' teaching.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As I've iterated before, sure, there are those who are never saved, who masquerade as genuine Christians. But not everyone is masquerading as nothing more than a fake believer in disguise. Why would Jesus mandate branches to bear fruit if they're not in Him and lack the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies believers so that they produce the fruit of the Spirit?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Take care, and be blessed, until next time.</span></div>
Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-47146835333706266882017-02-10T18:08:00.004-08:002017-02-10T18:15:18.288-08:00In My Absence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am honored once more to return to The Center for Theological Studies (CTS), a blog that I cherish, a blog that I love and always desire to spend more time writing for than the demands of work life and family life will allow. At any rate, praise the Lord for His goodness, and thank God I have this small time tonight to return to CTS to update my readership.<br />
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I have been away from my blog for some time, but I've had a lot to keep me occupied (both good and bad, unfortunately). My mother died in 2009 from a three-year battle with breast cancer, lung cancer, and brain cancer (the brain cancer took her), and I have been heartbroken in a sense ever since. Despite such a mammoth loss in my life, I've had to soldier on and look to the Lord for comfort, for peace of mind, for my hope. Believers should always look to the Lord for these things, but it's amazing just how much greater the effort you must make to do this when you feel such immense grief that you'd rather walk the floor than sleep at night.<br />
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Atop of this, I have had to leave seminary for reasons due to my grandmother's declining health. She has a muscular disease called polymyelitis that progresses and diminishes capacity. The doctors are doing all they can for her (she's having to take chemotherapy medication to slow down the progression of the disease), but she cannot be home alone. At the same time the Lord was calling me to return home to my family, I had suffered a tough year of unemployment due to one lost job after another. That had an impact on my financial abilities, that and the fact that my mother's home just would not sell. It still hasn't sold, though there is a renter and hope that I will eventually be able to move forward from it.<br />
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Well, it's been a rough 8 years (mom died 8 years ago on February 3rd), but the Lord has truly been faithful. But I have been away for a long while and realize that, as my journey has taken me to different places, the same can be said of you, my readership. I want you to know that in my absence, the Lord has continued to draw me closer to Him, that I've never stopped loving Him, that I've not abandoned Him, neglected my salvation, or given up on my faith, and that I love His Word as much as I ever did (if not more). I've been in the blogosphere covering mobile technology, but I have also been working as a theological commentary writer. Yep, I've been writing commentary to build a site that I've been hired for. The Christian Bible site is where I put down my commentary on Scripture often.<br />
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I wanted to write this to provide some links to recent content that I've published on the Web so that you would know that I'm still writing (vigorously, even). The links below will take you to two lengthy articles that I've written that are published in my name that will provide as much commentary as I could've provided here in my long absence. Take a look and feel free to write back if you have any comments or questions or just want to say "hello."<br />
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Here are the links:<br />
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http://www.bible-knowledge.com/true-wisdom/<br />
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http://www.bible-knowledge.com/sabbath-rule-today/<br />
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Yes, I realize the Sabbath rule post is bound to be controversial in some respects, but I think it was fitting to make the statements that are made there. I look forward to hearing from you. If you haven't visited the site in a while and have a journey with the Lord of your own that has provided some unique experiences, feel free to let me know in the comments below. You can find me writing over at Bible Knowledge on a regular basis, and I'd love to read a response or two from those of you who keep me in your prayers and think of me often. The Center for Theological Studies is always in my heart and mind, even when I'm away.<br />
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I love you all. May the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon, be gracious to you, and give you peace.Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-87707511181461235862015-04-13T09:00:00.000-07:002015-04-13T09:00:01.108-07:00Back to the Basics: Building Blocks for a Sound Theodicy, Pt. 4: What Genesis Teaches Us<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">We’ve spent the last few
posts covering divine sovereignty and human responsibility, and how these two
elements are essential building blocks for a sound theodicy. In other words,
you can’t defend the righteousness of God in a theodicy if you don’t take into
account divine sovereignty and human responsibility.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In this post, I’m back to
put Genesis chapters 1-3 into perspective for us, as we proceed with our
discussion. What can Genesis chapters 1-3 teach us about the concepts of divine
sovereignty and human responsibility? How can we appropriate these chapters
into a sound theodicy – which then makes its way into a sound theology? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">We can learn a few things
from Genesis 3 about divine sovereignty and human responsibility: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">God’s sovereignty remains intact</span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> – the Lord, as sovereign, comes to the scene of the sin and
punishes all parties involved (Adam, Eve, and the serpent). At the same time,
however, He proclaims hope in that, despite the sin and stain upon humanity and
creation, the seed of the woman (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent
(Satan), Gen. 3:15. Notice that the Lord refers to “He” when discussing the
seed of the woman and the “you” and “your” when referring to the serpent.
Scripture tells us that Satan is “that serpent of old” (Rev. 12:9). The seed of
the woman refers to Christ, “The God of peace” who will “crush Satan under your
feet” (Romans 16:20). God’s sovereignty can also be seen through the fact that
He expels man and woman from the Garden and places a cherubim angel with a
flaming sword to guard the Garden. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Man’s responsibility remains intact</span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> – despite man’s sin, he must still cultivate the ground, even
after he is expelled from the Garden (Gen. 3:17-19, 23). Man does gain the
knowledge of good and evil in the encounter, but he must now encounter evil –
something that hadn’t happened prior to Genesis 3. All the consequences that
occurred in the Fall were bad, and man must now live with these consequences
while still having to work the ground, produce childbirth, and live in
marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Man is the author of Sin</span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> – Sin enters the world and stains creation because of man.
Although Satan was in the Garden that day, it is not Satan (the serpent) who is
blamed for the Fall; rather, the ground is cursed “because of you,” which was
God’s response in making Adam responsible for it (Gen. 3:17). In addition, the
Lord tells Adam that he disobeyed the divine command: “because you have
listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I
commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’” (Genesis 3:17) God’s
statement to Adam shows that the Lord is absolved of guilt because He
forewarned Adam about disobeying Him, and Adam listened to the voice of his
wife against the word of God (which makes Adam guilty all on his own). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Divine sovereignty comes back in full force, even
after human responsibility fails</span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> – If Open
Theists were right, God would have claimed ignorance after Adam and Eve sin in
the Garden. Instead, the Lord tells the serpent that, not only will he crawl on
his belly for the rest of his life, but that his head will be crushed by the
seed of the woman. We know from progressive revelation that this refers to the
cosmic battle of the Lord over Satan and his demons (cf. Luke 10:18; Romans
16:20). In the end, the Lord will rule over all, and He would claim the victory
over Satan through His death and resurrection on the cross (Colossians 2:13-15).
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Death enters the human family</span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> – It’s a sad thought indeed, but Adam and Eve’s sin brings
death into the human family. The Lord had forewarned Adam of death (“the wages
of sin is death,” Paul said in Romans 6:23), but Adam decided to disobey God in
the face of the divine warning. The sentence for not just Adam, but all of
mankind, is death (Romans 5). I mentioned in the last post that the Lord
forewarns of death despite the fact that death didn’t exist with mankind prior
to the Fall, but it reminds us that the Lord, while being the Giver of Life in
Genesis, always had the power to take life, too. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The environment is cursed because of the fall of man</span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> – “Cursed is the ground because of you,” the Lord says to Adam
in Genesis 3. Adam’s decision to sin affected not only Adam and Eve, but also
their descendants (Romans 5:12) as well as creation, including the ground
(Romans 8:19-22). In other words, we see the implications of the Lord making
Adam and Eve to “rule over the earth”: their sin would result in the curse of
all creation, not just themselves and humanity. Adam and Eve could not have
foreseen that their sin would impact their children (Cain and Abel), as well as
the remainder of humanity. By the time of the Flood, sin had so pervaded
humanity that the writer could say “the wickedness of man was great on the
earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually” (Gen. 6:5). In response to the evil, the Lord could say, “The end
of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because
of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:13).
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Even Noah’s name was linked
to the curse of the ground: “Now he [Lamech] called his name Noah, saying,
‘This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands
arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed’” (Gen. 5:29). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">When Jesus dies on the
cross, Matthew notes that creation responds to the Lord who made it: first,
darkness falls upon the land (Matthew 27:45); then, the earth shakes and the
rocks split (Matt. 27:51). This was to show that the Lord of creation was dying
on the cross and that the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection would have an
impact on creation.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">These lessons gleaned from
Genesis show us that Adam and Eve’s decision to sin had far-reaching impacts
that the couple could never have foreseen in Genesis 3. Man’s rule over the
earth plunged the earth into the curse when man disobeyed God. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">I’ve gone through
some basics of divine sovereignty and human responsibility as provided in
Genesis, but we’re not done with basic building blocks for a sound theodicy
just yet. Next on the list is omniscience, and I’ll start my investigation of
this component of a sound theodicy in my next post. Stay tuned.</span></b><!--EndFragment-->
Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-45977060777762514892015-04-11T20:36:00.000-07:002015-04-11T20:36:08.778-07:00Back to the Basics: Building Blocks for a Sound Theodicy, Pt. 3-B: Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, Continued<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7T4QLqC36IS6i8F_l4L0snor2hXXZ54MKTnqKtjCZmzNOY_rzXYMHk3_G1_IQL5IU98Tay26DyH32l-o1tMDkCP5v0sHhg0hPwDV1xAHeO3aorWu5VMo74wo-Uqqb0jaKFw1y66GEPgy/s1600/Salvation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7T4QLqC36IS6i8F_l4L0snor2hXXZ54MKTnqKtjCZmzNOY_rzXYMHk3_G1_IQL5IU98Tay26DyH32l-o1tMDkCP5v0sHhg0hPwDV1xAHeO3aorWu5VMo74wo-Uqqb0jaKFw1y66GEPgy/s1600/Salvation.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In my last post, I started
an examination of Genesis and what the first biblical book tells us about
divine sovereignty and human responsibility. We see that, in the beginning, the
sovereign Lord who creates the world also makes man and gives him “dominion” or
“rule” over the animal kingdom and the earth itself. We know this to be true
because of what happens in the Fall.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">And the Fall happens to be
the background for today’s post: that divine sovereignty and human responsibility
meet sin in the narrative. How does the Lord handle sin? What role do Adam and
Eve play in the sin committed? You likely know the narrative, but we’ll cover
it because it shows us in no uncertain terms that sin doesn’t negate God’s
sovereignty (contra Open Theism) nor does it negate man’s responsibility. Even
Calvinists struggle to reconcile how their theology posits that evil is
foreordained by God while still attributing evil to man. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Yes, I am aware of the
“primary” and “secondary causes” language that is philosophical in nature; even
Arminius used these terms in his three-volume theology (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Works of Arminius</i>, or simply, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Works</i>), but even if you posit man is the primary cause of an evil
action, you’re still stuck with God as the secondary cause. Any agent in our
world today that “drives the getaway car” from a murder of the scene of a crime
is still guilty, even if he or she never even touched the trigger of the gun or
the dagger that killed the victim. And, if the Lord never approved of aiding
and abetting the wrongdoer, why would He not care about being free of evil
Himself? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">God as secondary cause is still not enough to free the Lord of the
crime of committing evil. And, if the Lord is the primary agent of a noble
action, then He must do so in a way that is non-coercive. The Lord does this in
the salvation process, when His Holy Spirit convicts a man of his sin and need
for Jesus but does not force the individual in any way to make a choice to
either receive or reject the gospel. The same happened in the account of the
rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-27).</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<h1>
Commands, freedom, and warning</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The end of Genesis chapter 2
shows us divine sovereignty and human responsibility in yet another beautiful
display of the two concepts. First, we see the Lord, in His sovereignty, gives
Adam the responsibility and freedom of naming the animals in the animal kingdom.
The Lord creates the animals (sovereignty and divine freedom), and then the
Lord allows Adam to name them (again, another display of divine sovereignty).
The text even tells us that Adam got free reign over what to name the animals: “and
[He] brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the
man called a living creature, that was its name” (Genesis 2:19, NASB; cf. Gen.
2:20). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Naming the animals was
another responsibility the Lord gave to Adam in creation, along with
cultivating the ground and upkeeping it. These were responsibilities, but they
were also privileges from the Creator of the universe. Even responsibility is a
freedom and a privilege. I need to remember this when I’m paying my bills each
month (you know you want to laugh here </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Adam even gets the unique
privilege of naming his companion: “She shall be called woman, because she was
taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23). In the same way that the Lord names the sun,
moon, stars, and day and night, He now allows man, bearing His image and
likeness, to name some of creation himself – the animals and the human female.
We find out that Adam names the gender, but he also gives the woman a specific
name: Eve (Gen. 3:20), or “Zoe” in the greek (“Zoe,” Grk., means “living”). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">As Genesis 2 shows us here,
the “rule over the earth” becomes a bit more fleshed out for us to see exactly
what ruling over the earth entailed. By Adam working to cultivate the ground,
and naming the animals and his mate, Adam was “taking responsibility” for them.
And, despite the Lord’s having created everything, he would make Adam “lord”
(lowercase, not capital) of the earth. This will play a large role in the Lord’s
punishment to Adam in Genesis 3. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In Genesis 2:16-17, we see
that the Lord warns Adam that if he eats from the forbidden fruit of the Tree
of Knowledge of Good and Evil, “in the day that you eat from it you will surely
die.” God speaks about death here, something that, from the text alone, doesn’t
seem to have ever existed in the creation narrative until the Lord mentions it
here. At the same time, however, God is aware of the concept of death – which
explains why He gives this warning to Adam and uses death as a punishment to
deter Adam from disobeying His command. And the fact that Eve mentions death to
the serpent shows that she is aware of how terrible a consequence the couple
would endure if they disobeyed God (Genesis 3:3).</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<h1>
The Fall and Its Consequences</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">We won’t cover the Fall here
except to point out the Lord’s warning to Adam in Genesis 2 and the Lord’s
response to sin. Adam and Eve believe the serpent’s lie that on the day they
ate the fruit, “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">They eat, and their eyes are
opened, and they realize they are naked. Once the Lord enters the Garden, Adam
and Eve hide because of the knowledge that they have sinned. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Lord confronts Adam and
Eve about their sin, but starts with the serpent since, “The serpent deceived
me and I ate,” Eve said (Gen. 3:13). The Lord tells the serpent that he will be
“cursed...more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field. On your
belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life” (Genesis
3:14). In other words, the serpent’s days are numbered and he will be the most
humiliated creature on earth. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The woman is sentenced to
painful childbirth (“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth,” Gen.
3:16), but she will still sexually desire her husband – even if it brings more
and more children, and multiple painful childbirths. The husband will rule over
her as a consequence of her “leading” her husband into sin. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">As for the man, Adam, the
Lord sentences him to 1) hard, sweaty labor (v.19), 2) physical death – “till
you return to the ground” and “to dust you shall return,” Gen. 3:19). The Lord
finally announces death for the human family, but notice that he doesn’t
institute death for the animal kingdom. He simply tells the serpent about “all
the days of his life,” a claim that some could use to make the case that animal
death existed prior to the death sentence upon humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Last but not least, the Lord
tells Adam that “the ground is cursed because of you,” or, as some translations
of Scripture read, “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Gen. 3:17). The Lord
is even more descriptive of the ground’s curse when He says that “both thorns
and thistles it shall grow for you” (v.18).” This statement tells us that the
ground’s crop and food will be hard to come by because thistles and thorns
(weeds) will also grow on the ground. Adam will now have to work by the sweat
of his brow because of the intensity of labor required to bypass the weeds and
see that a crop grows to fruition. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">In my next post, I
will tackle some important lessons we can learn from Genesis 3, and use the
lessons learned to propel us into further discussion regarding divine
sovereignty, omniscience, human responsibility, and evil. God bless.</span></b><!--EndFragment-->
Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-11039679921579056692015-04-08T09:00:00.000-07:002015-04-08T09:00:13.476-07:00Back to the Basics: Building Blocks for a Sound Theodicy, Pt. 3: The Sovereignty of God and Human Responsibility<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7T4QLqC36IS6i8F_l4L0snor2hXXZ54MKTnqKtjCZmzNOY_rzXYMHk3_G1_IQL5IU98Tay26DyH32l-o1tMDkCP5v0sHhg0hPwDV1xAHeO3aorWu5VMo74wo-Uqqb0jaKFw1y66GEPgy/s1600/Salvation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7T4QLqC36IS6i8F_l4L0snor2hXXZ54MKTnqKtjCZmzNOY_rzXYMHk3_G1_IQL5IU98Tay26DyH32l-o1tMDkCP5v0sHhg0hPwDV1xAHeO3aorWu5VMo74wo-Uqqb0jaKFw1y66GEPgy/s1600/Salvation.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">You will note throughout
this mini-series that I intend to use the terms “divine sovereignty” and “the
sovereignty of God” interchangeably. If I do use them in this manner throughout
my writing, do know that they are excellent equivalents.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I’m back to begin my work on
the building blocks for a sound theodicy. First on the list is divine sovereignty,
the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign, in control of all things, and the
biblical record bears witness to this. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I’m about to provide
scriptural proof, but I want you to understand that this series will not
attempt to cover every verse in Scripture about the sovereignty of God.
Instead, I intend to cover the basics surrounding this topic – from Genesis,
the beginning of the biblical history as we’re told. Genesis is the beginning
of it all for our revelation from God, so I intend to cover Genesis as it
relates to our discussion. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">This post covers the idea
that God is in control, He’s the Lord of all creation, the God of the universe,
and everything He does is out of His own free will. The Lord doesn’t have to do
anything outside of 1) exist and 2) remain true to Himself (cf. 2 Timothy 2:13;
Hebrews 6:18). Human responsibility is a direct result of the sovereignty and free will of God -- and God's will can't conflict with His sovereignty. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">So, with that said, let’s
take a look at God’s power and the divine will. Genesis 1:1 tells us that He
created the universe. In Genesis 1:3 the Lord says, “Let there be light,” with
the word “let” implying voluntarism. God decides to create the world <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because He wants to</i>. It seemed right to
Him. He was under no impulse to create the world. In every place in chapter 1
where we see “let,” we can rest assured that the Lord creates out of His own
free will – with no one or thing forcing Him to do so.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In Genesis 1:26, we see God
decides to create man: “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky...” We
see that the Triune Godhead, the Trinity, God in three persons, makes man,
gives man His image, and then allows him to “rule over...every creeping thing
that creeps on the earth” (v.26). This “man,” however, refers to both men and
women (Gen. 1:27). In verse 28, God says the same thing to them again for
emphasis: “rule over...every living thing that moves on the earth.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">God creates the sun, moon,
stars, and even vegetation and animal kingdom, but He also has sovereignty over
man, too – after all, He creates man and gives Him dominion over the earth. How
could a God lacking in sovereignty do that? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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When Sovereignty Meets Responsibility: God and Man in Relationship in
Creation<o:p></o:p></h1>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt;">What happens when God and
man meet in creation? We’ve seen that God creates man in His image, after His
likeness, and lets male and female (both genders) rule over the earth as agents
made to bear the image of God. Now, however, we’re going to take a look at what
happens when God creates man. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt;">If you read works such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Most Moved Mover</i> by Clark Pinnock, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The God Who Risks: A Theology of Divine
Providence</i> by John Sanders, you’ll find the statement “God limits His
almightiness.” This phrase may seem harmless if one is talking about the fact
that God doesn’t treat humans like robots and “order them around.”
Unfortunately, Pinnock and Sanders do not refer to this idea when using the
phrase “God limits His almightiness”; instead, these authors mean that God
chooses to throw off His ability to foreknow man’s choices – thereby throwing
off His foreknowledge and omniscience. Now, to be fair to the Open Theist
position that these authors advocate, they do say that God does know the
“possibilities of choices” you will make; it’s just that He doesn’t know which
possibility you’ll choose. In their understanding, then, God foreknew that Adam
and Eve could either 1) eat from the fruit or 2) not eat from the fruit, but He
didn’t know whether they’d choose #1 or #2. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt;">If God didn’t foreknow their
exact choice, however, how could God have chosen us in Christ before the
foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4)? To choose us in Christ implies that
Christ was the only solution to reconcile us back to God; and, if God had a plan
to reconcile mankind back to God, then God had to foreknow that man would sin
and thus separate himself from God. After all, where there is no separation,
there is no need for reconciliation. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt;">What happens after God makes
man? We see that man rules over the earth, a derived rule that comes with God’s
permission and blessing (Genesis 1:28). Does the free agency of man negate or
conflict with God’s sovereignty? Does the divine sovereignty fall in the face
of human responsibility? No; in fact, the presence of divine sovereignty is the
foundation for human responsibility (Genesis 1:28-30). God tells man in Genesis
1:28-30 that “I have given you every plant...and every tree,” after he tells
man and woman to “fill the earth,” “subdue it,” and “rule over” all of the
animal and plant kingdoms. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt;">If you read Genesis 1,
you’ll be struck by the Lord’s imperatives in verse 28: “be fruitful,”
“multiply,” “fill the earth,” “subdue it” (the earth), “and rule over.”
Imperatives, as we’ve learned by way of the English language, are commands. And
commands only come from a superior – in this case, God. So, the divine
sovereignty remains after He creates rational man in that God commands the man
to do certain things that He, God, wants him to do (rule over the earth). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<h1>
A word regarding human responsibility<o:p></o:p></h1>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt;">If we were to stop here,
we’d be giving the Calvinists too much room in theology and their theodicy –
and declaring them the winner. The problem with the Calvinist is that he or she
only sees one side of the coin, that is, the divine perspective (God commanding
man). He doesn’t stop much to consider the other side: that is, what God’s
commands mean for man. This is where Open Theists and Process Theists would
applaud.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt;">What are the implications of
God commanding man to do certain things? First off, we know from Genesis that
man is not a robot or an automaton: rather, man is able to make choices because
God commands. Why would God command man to do anything if man had no say in the
matter? Why would God tell man to “rule over the earth” if man could only lift
a finger because God lifted it for him? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The sheer fact that God
tells man what to do with his freedom lets us know that man is not autonomous,
nor an automaton. In Genesis 1:28, as I’ve said, the Lord tells man to “be fruitful,”
“multiply,” and “rule over” the earth. In Genesis chapter 2, God places man and
woman in the garden “to cultivate it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). In other
words, man has freedom but, contrary to the views of Open Theists, man’s
freedom is not autonomous. First, man has limited freedom in that he can’t be
God, he can’t choose not to answer to God (he must answer to God, necessarily
so, as the commands illustrate), and he can’t get away with wrongdoing – as
Genesis chapter 3 shows us. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">For now, this
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Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-81031784874998874072015-04-07T09:00:00.000-07:002015-04-07T09:00:11.140-07:00Back to the Basics: Building Blocks for a Sound Theodicy, Pt. 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7T4QLqC36IS6i8F_l4L0snor2hXXZ54MKTnqKtjCZmzNOY_rzXYMHk3_G1_IQL5IU98Tay26DyH32l-o1tMDkCP5v0sHhg0hPwDV1xAHeO3aorWu5VMo74wo-Uqqb0jaKFw1y66GEPgy/s1600/Salvation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs7T4QLqC36IS6i8F_l4L0snor2hXXZ54MKTnqKtjCZmzNOY_rzXYMHk3_G1_IQL5IU98Tay26DyH32l-o1tMDkCP5v0sHhg0hPwDV1xAHeO3aorWu5VMo74wo-Uqqb0jaKFw1y66GEPgy/s1600/Salvation.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In my last post, I tackled
Luke Timothy Johnson’s work on process and liberation theology. I specifically
focused on process theology because it’s a theology that I’ve had some amount
of curiosity in (as is evidenced by the number of books from Clark Pinnock,
Greg Boyd, John Sanders, and Amos Yong on my bookshelf!).</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Johnson disagrees with
process theology and liberation theology (rightfully so), but he attacks the
general intentions of such theologians as trying to undermine the “mystery and
majesty” of God. I said it in my last post but I’ll repeat it here: theologians
who work at making sense of the God of Scripture are not undermining God’s
majesty and mystery, but declaring it and making it known. God has already
revealed it in His Word, but it’s up to us to make sense of the divine
revelation. I’d disagree with Johnson by saying that if we don’t do the
intellectual legwork mandatory to make sense of the Scriptures, then we’re
neglecting our human responsibility. I don’t hold a Calvinist view of divine
sovereignty, so I’m going to say that, as an agent of change and choice in the
world, God’s not gonna implant understanding into my mind if I choose not to study
and comb the Scriptures. Those who seek Him will find Him, Jesus says – and
that’s just as true when it comes to the living, breathing, Word of God. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In today’s post, I’m gonna
take a step back from examining quotes from Johnson and focus on an issue that
is near and dear to my heart: building a sound theodicy. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">A theodicy is a defense of
the righteousness of God (“theodicy” comes from the Greek word “theodike,”
meaning “righteousness” (dike, dikaios) and “theos” (God), and each theodicy
postulated in theology and academia attempts to defend God’s goodness in light
of the presence of evil, tragedy, and suffering. Evil is in contrast to God,
who is light and has no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5), so the presence of evil
demands a response from those who seek to defend the goodness of God.
Christians should be (if they aren’t) at the forefront of this discussion. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">And in many ways, Christians
are. The problem comes in when many Christians hold a pious view regarding a
theodicy that says that it’s all speculation and that God doesn’t need
defending because He’s God – end of story. This view may stand for many a
Christian, but atheists and agnostics don’t see this view as relevant in the
slightest. In fact, many of the opposing camp to Christians see Christians as
anti-intellectual when they say things such as the above statement. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Should the Christian have an
answer to defend God’s goodness? Yes. At the same time, however, the theodicy
discussion is one that has run amok because a number of individuals have
differing views of sovereignty and human responsibility. In fact, there are a
number of compatibilist views have arisen that claim to make God’s sovereignty
and human responsibility compatible but do nothing more than shroud Calvinism
in language that may be more “palatable” than views espoused by James White,
R.C. Sproul, Jr., and other Calvinists and hyper-Calvinists. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">With that said, I want to
clarify something on the front of compatibilism before I go into theodicies. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<h1>
Most Christians are compatibilists </h1>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">This may be a shocker for
some Christians, but I’ll say it anyway: most Christians are compatibilists! In
other words, most Christians believe that there is a way (even those who
believe the answer will never be found here) to reconcile divine sovereignty
and human responsibility. So, with the label of “compatibilist,” certain
theological systems or theories aren’t named very well. “Compatibilist” is a
general term that should never be named for a view that attempts to reconcile
divine sovereignty and human responsibility. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Calvinism, for example, is a
“compatibilist” view – since it seeks to place “evil” under the umbrella of
divine sovereignty and proclaim that God uses the evil to “bring about a
greater good” (hence, the Greater Good theodicy). Molinism is a compatibilist
view (my mentor would say it’s a soft compatibilist view) that seeks to
recognize true human choice but gives God sovereignty by saying that “we freely
choose what God has predetermined.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The words “freely choose”
and “predetermined” aren’t necessarily contradictions, a statement I’ve said a
time or two here at the blog. In actuality, “predetermined” is a vague term
that calls for qualification: does the “predetermined” used here refer to God
deciding what choices you and I will make? Or, does the word “predetermined”
refer to God determining that you and I would make choices (the right to
choose, not the individual choices themselves? It seems that, in Molinism,
however, God decides what choices will actualize in the world – which seems to
be nothing more than Shakespeare’s statement that “all the world’s a stage, and
all the people in it are players.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Classical or Reformed
Arminianism suggests that divine sovereignty and human responsibility are
compatible because the Lord God, in His sovereignty, granted free will to men.
The freedom granted, however, is not autonomous. If it were, 1) we would not be
accountable to God for our choices, which goes against the biblical record (2
Corinthians 5:10), and 2) we could reach divinity or Godhood – which didn’t go
so well when Adam and Eve tried it the first time (see Genesis 3). Also, if we
had autonomous freedom, God would never have promised that the seed of the
woman would crush the head of the serpent, referring to Jesus Christ who would
be born of the virgin Mary (Genesis 3:15; Romans 16:20). The fact that God had
already planned to send Jesus down the line through humanity shows that God
foreknew of Adam and Eve’s sin and planned a solution “before the foundation of
the world” (Ephesians 1:4). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">I’ve gotten out my
thoughts here on compatibilism. In the next post, we’ll start to examine the
building blocks of a sound theodicy. For now, however, it’s clear that many
Christians are compatibilists. Those who believe that there is no earthly
solution to the answer of the co-existence of divine sovereignty and human evil
are “incompatibilists,” those who believe that the two concepts are
incompatible. Atheists stand in this camp and argue that due to this
incompatibility, God doesn’t exist. Unfortunately, some Christians stand in
this camp, who believe that “we’re bringing God down to our level to make sense
of Scripture’s words regarding these two concepts.” Do the two concepts of divine
sovereignty and human responsibility exist in Scripture? Yes. If they do, then
it is our responsibility to read God’s revelation to us to know just what God
has said concerning them. God bless.</span></b><!--EndFragment-->
Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-63227841824629888462015-04-06T09:00:00.000-07:002015-04-06T23:19:59.554-07:00Back to the Basics: Building Blocks for a Sound Theodicy, Pt. 1<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlc6m_FIFYVRI6ELcitu4k2kGsHD0-HXjaA52LWAh_tGJwOeV1HiwInSUWC_yF7aef5jL6TaAjR5PLCS1DuHcuJMS761p5FEfv8-dVbJqAuhSBl3zxTDnplaZoFyOKPo9f_yISkAbUqMw/s1600/_ZdGcuI9YbCcEFUzPOxH_A5pbISMLDLaTy3InQTJZ4U.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlc6m_FIFYVRI6ELcitu4k2kGsHD0-HXjaA52LWAh_tGJwOeV1HiwInSUWC_yF7aef5jL6TaAjR5PLCS1DuHcuJMS761p5FEfv8-dVbJqAuhSBl3zxTDnplaZoFyOKPo9f_yISkAbUqMw/s1600/_ZdGcuI9YbCcEFUzPOxH_A5pbISMLDLaTy3InQTJZ4U.png" height="320" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Not everyone accepts Paul’s
answer [Romans 11:33-36). As we saw a few pages ago, many humanistic atheists
protest morally against a God who causes or allows evil and relieves humans of
the burden of freedom. If an all-powerful God ‘co-works’ all things – no matter
what humans choose – what does it matter if they can choose? And if an
all-powerful God works for the good, why is there so much evil in the world? If
humans are truly free, then God is not all-powerful. But a God who is
benevolent yet powerless hardly seems worth rejecting. In brief, if we are to
retain belief in an all-powerful God, then we must conclude that God colludes
in evil, and if we are to retain belief in an all-loving God, then we must
conclude that God is less than all powerful” (Luke Timothy Johnson, “The Creed:
What Christians Believe and Why It Matters,” page 88). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I’m back at this point to
address the divine sovereignty/human responsibility debate that has been a never-ending
one in the church (even to this day). Much ink has been spilled over the
subject, with many theologians and Christians writing their comments on the
subject. I’m honored to have read Luke Timothy Johnson’s words on the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed because the sovereignty/responsibility
discussion he brings up when discussing “God is all-powerful” was a pleasant
surprise for me. I love the discussion surrounding a topic that, for many,
seems to be controversial. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Before I get into my
thoughts on the matter, I want to bring us up to speed with Johnson’s statement
above. The divine sovereignty and human responsibility debate always comes down
to addressing 1) the sovereignty of God (hence, divine sovereignty) and 2) the
responsibility of man. This becomes a particularly interesting discussion when
someone brings up the existence of evil as a way to refute the notion of divine
sovereignty. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I’ve written much on the
subject here at the Center for Theological Studies, so I won’t address those
thoughts in detail (I’ll aim for brevity). At this point, however, let me say
that, Johnson’s statement above seems to be what many believe about God: that
is, if they want a sovereign God, they must abandon free will (hence,
Calvinism). And, if they want to affirm genuine free will, many feel as if they
must abandon the sovereignty of God (hence, process theology and openness
theology). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">If you’ve heard of
Calvinists and Open Theists, you can insert them in the argument: Calvinists
emphasize the sovereignty of God to such an extent that God is responsible for
evil, and Open Theists and Process Theists emphasize the responsibility of man
to such an extent that God’s omniscience is no longer exhaustive (but
substantial) and God is absolved of responsibility for evil because He didn’t
foreknow what the individual(s) would do. Johnson puts process theists in the
argument here, but open theists operate under many of the same points as
process theologians and adherents. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I do agree with Johnson when
he attacks both process theology and liberation theology in their attempts to
reconcile divine sovereignty and the presence of evil: “The process and
liberation understanding of God is both philosophically and religiously
deficient. It is philosophically unsatisfying because the notion of God’s
‘coming into being with the world’ seems the most basic contradiction of the
principle <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ex nihilo nihil fit</i> (‘out
of nothing, nothing can come’). God is as unnecessary and as dependent as the
world to which God is related. It is difficult to see how the absolute can
arise out of the relative, the necessary out of the contingent, the eternal out
of the temporal. It is religiously unsatisfying because it removes the need to
pray and worship. How can we pray that God’s will be done, if God is no more
powerful than we are? How can we worship a God in the process of becoming – and
needing our help?” (Johnson, page 90). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Process theology says that
“God is in process,” that He’s “becoming God” in the sense that He’s learning
as we learn. Along these lines, process theists and open theists would also say
that God has a “dynamic” omniscience, which is ever changing, in contrast with
a static omniscience which is exhaustive and foreknows everything. In other
words, in process and openness theology, God has to give up some portion or all
of his foreknowledge and exhaustive omniscience to be acquitted of any
responsibility for evil. The process/openness view of God is an attempt to
build a theodicy, a word that means “righteousness of God.” A theodicy attempts
to show why God is righteous in the face of evil, suffering, and tragedy. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Should we attempt to build a theodicy?<o:p></o:p></h1>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">At the same time, however,
Johnson seems to write, rather boldly, that we should not try to bring God down
to our level in order to “contain” Him: “By reducing the mystery of God’s power
and knowledge to the level of a problem, by insisting also that the ‘problem’
of free will and the ‘problem’ of evil must be understood within the frame of
ordinary human understanding, such theologies diminish both the majesty and
mystery of God, and diminish both the tragedy and hope of human existence”
(pages 88-90). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">According to Luke Timothy
Johnson, process theologians and liberation theologians are treading on a path
that they cannot travel. They are attempting to “diminish the majesty and
mystery of God” by wrestling with the sovereignty of God and the existence of
evil. Is this necessarily so?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Well, yes and no. If process
theists, in particular, diminish anything, then they’re guilty of diminishing Scriptural
teaching. For instance, their desire to diminish God’s omniscience and
foreknowledge goes against Scriptural teaching. Where I disagree with Johnson
is that I don’t think that theologians are trying to diminish the majesty and
mystery of God by trying to put the knowledge of God from the Scriptures into
perspective. After all, the Lord did reveal Himself in the Scriptures; why
would He reveal Himself if He didn’t want us to make sense of those same
Scriptures? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">We can’t just sit back and
say, “Although God gave us the Scriptures to know who He is and what He stands
for, we can’t seek to know what the Scriptures tell us, because, if we do, we’ll
ruin the mystery and majesty of God.” No; the Scriptures REVEAL the mystery and
majesty of God, and by studying them, we come to learn more and more that God’s
ways are not our own. If anything, learning more about God’s sovereignty in the
face of evil will result in greater praise and worship from believers to the
King of Kings than before. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Do the Scriptures
attest to God’s sovereignty in the face of evil? Yes, they do. With that said
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next post.</span></b><!--EndFragment-->
Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-4713680121821604882015-04-05T15:25:00.002-07:002015-04-05T15:37:05.397-07:00The Virgin Birth: Too Vital to Sit Aside<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc8AIH5upKv4q9zEopcwFAhAhdY3Vd6_RZqW0DsYw47r4JQ-eFEdu8iwqVFhuYJ_QHFpBlz-MDcaVxz9ITD6B23BvpCJ56vSTjGKAxIg63m2umlVXTRk-wgZRmeYr1IeSAt1vaPxXi543U/s1600/Upper-Stanislaus-River.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc8AIH5upKv4q9zEopcwFAhAhdY3Vd6_RZqW0DsYw47r4JQ-eFEdu8iwqVFhuYJ_QHFpBlz-MDcaVxz9ITD6B23BvpCJ56vSTjGKAxIg63m2umlVXTRk-wgZRmeYr1IeSAt1vaPxXi543U/s1600/Upper-Stanislaus-River.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Happy Easter to everyone!
Today is Resurrection Sunday, and, as I type this, I’m in my apartment watching
a movie about Matthew’s Gospel regarding the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. I’ve been so blessed this weekend to engage in reading on the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. While the Creed contains so much information
on the Trinity and includes the “Filioque” clause (the subject of my thesis project
in the Master of Theology program here at seminary), it’s also provided a means
to study the life of Jesus and be reminded of my Lord – who He is, how He came
to take on flesh, how He lived, how He died, and His resurrection by God the
Father. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today’s discussion pertains
to the Virgin Birth. The Virgin Birth has a strong hold in the minds of most
Christians who believe that it’s one of the many things that separates the
birth of Jesus from the birth of so many others who claim or have claimed
divinity, deity, or godhood. At the same time, however, there is a debate
between conservatives who hold strongly to the Virgin Birth and “progressive”
Christians (as they call themselves) who seem to think that the Virgin Birth
is, on the face of it, ludicrous and more symbolic than literal. Luke Timothy
Johnson brings up this controversy but then seeks to point out the errors in
both positions: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“For ‘biblical Christians,’
the virgin birth is listed as one of the fundamental doctrines at the same
level as the divinity of Christ as a test of a wholehearted obedience to the
‘inspired word of God’ (another of the fundamentals), no matter how hard
to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>understand or accept for the modern
mind. For ‘progressive Christians,’ an equally vehement rejection of a literal
virgin birth has become the test of a ‘reasonable’ Christianity, as opposed to
a pre-Darwinian obscurantist fanaticism passing itself off as Christianity”
(Luke Timothy Johnson, “The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters,”
Kindle Edition. Doubleday: September 2004, pages 156-157). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Next, Johnson goes on to
point out the errors of Christians who interpret the Virgin Birth literally:
“Those claiming an absolute fidelity to Scripture prove to be typically
selective, <u>ignoring (or explaining away) those passages of the New Testament
that speak plainly about Jesus having brothers and sisters (see Mark 6:3),
including an important leader of the early church, James</u>, ‘the brother of
the Lord’…the conservative’s defense of the virgin birth does not really celebrate
God’s capacity to work wonders in creation but instead limits that capacity.
How absurd to think that the God who is able to create all things through the
Word cannot enter humanity through the Word and through the processes of
sexuality that God has created as good! What Matthew has Jesus say to the
Sadducees on the matter of the resurrection life can be said equally to both
sides of this sad disputation: ‘You are wrong because you know neither the
scriptures nor the power of God’ (Matt 22:29)” (Johnson, page 157). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">To be fair to Johnson, he
does attack progressives, claiming that they downplay the Virgin Birth because
they shun the supernatural. He’s not just pointing out conservatives, but the
statement above is used here because this is the crux of the problem with
Johnson’s argument: he assumes that the existence of brothers and sisters in
the biblical text means that Jesus could have been conceived naturally by Mary
and Joseph. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In short, Jesus wasn’t
conceived by a human man, but by the Holy Spirit. When it comes to sound
theology, the Bible serves as our guide – and nowhere in the text is it ever
implied that Jesus could have been conceived by normal, human, reproductive
means. There are a few clues that bring us to this conclusion. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">First, the existence of
brothers and sisters means little when stacked up against the argument of the
Virgin Birth. We’re not talking about Virgin BIRTHS (plural), but instead, one
single virgin birth! In other words, Jesus could have been conceived by the
Holy Spirit, with other children coming along after Jesus’ birth. This seems to
fit the biblical evidence, which states that Joseph “kept her a virgin until
she gave birth to a Son; and he called his name Jesus” (Matthew 1:25, NASB). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Next, Matthew 1:25 is not
the only text that upholds the Virgin Birth; other biblical evidence confirms
that Jesus’ birth came about by the Holy Spirit, not human means: 1) the
angel’s words to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 1:20), and 2) the Isaiah prophecy
from the Old Testament (Matthew 1:23; cf. Isaiah 7:14). This doesn’t take into
account Joseph’s “about face” from wanting to quietly divorce her to following
through with the marriage (Matt. 1:19, 24). And this evidence doesn’t consider
Mary’s own words to the angel in Luke 1:34, where Mary asks, “how can this be,
since I am a virgin?” Translated using the Greek text, Mary asks, “how is this,
since I don’t know a man?” The Greek word “ginosko” is the Greek counterpart of
the Hebrew word “yada” in the Old Testament. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">It’s true that we don’t know
exactly what the “overshadowing” of the Holy Spirit is all about, but we know
that the Lord was responsible for the birth of Jesus because Joseph and Mary
did not have intimate relations until some months after the birth of Jesus. The
Bible refers to Jesus as “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners”
(Hebrews 9:26) and that, had Christ been conceived by the intimate union of
Joseph and Mary, He, too, would be condemned by the law and unable to be the
spotless, unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Even
without being the product of the intimate union of two humans, Jesus still took
on flesh (Hebrews 2: 14-16) but remained “begotten” by God the Father (Hebrews
1:5, quoting Psalm 2:7; Hebrews 5:5, John 1:14,18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9).<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The Virgin Birth is
too vital of a Christian doctrine to sit aside. For Christians who want to eliminate the Virgin Birth doctrine out of a sense of common logic, please understand that
common logic would also lead one to do away with the idea that the Trinity can
be “God in three persons,” (modalism may seem more logical, in this sense) or
that the Triune Godhead created the world. In the end, no Christian wants to
match the intellectual unbelief of the atheist or agnostic. </span></b><!--EndFragment-->Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-20111138582655279982014-02-03T14:05:00.000-08:002014-02-03T14:49:41.561-08:00Death, The Last Defeat: In Memory of Teressa A. Richardson (June 28, 1956 -- Feb. 3, 2009)<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZWvHN1U49WmnmMEEMmfjPSe7m3J0CHTAMCK1mzyJDGJY1JDAyRqZNLPzWiXSfLMgLeGLwnnC4ZyzFUmbjm3JkpJR0_23hNUWp01tzDzBwiwv1hFm2rpiQUmILg5cPVU1b1zi04ZzVOg0x/s1600/My+family.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZWvHN1U49WmnmMEEMmfjPSe7m3J0CHTAMCK1mzyJDGJY1JDAyRqZNLPzWiXSfLMgLeGLwnnC4ZyzFUmbjm3JkpJR0_23hNUWp01tzDzBwiwv1hFm2rpiQUmILg5cPVU1b1zi04ZzVOg0x/s1600/My+family.bmp" height="255" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit
incorruption.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Behold, I tell you a
mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and
the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">So when this corruptible has
put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">‘O Death, where is your
sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the law. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">But thanks be to God, who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:50-58,
NKJV). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today at the Center for
Theological Studies, I’d like to honor the woman that was my mother, a godly
example, who showed me what a selfless, sacrificing, Christ-like life should
be; a woman who still continues to touch and influence my life, five years to
the day since the Lord took her from this life; a woman whose integrity was
seen by all those around her who knew her, worked with her, attended church
with her, and loved her. This woman, whose life is a testimony in and of
itself, is my mother, Teressa Ann Alston Richardson. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I could not let the day pass
without taking time to honor the godly mother the Lord placed into my life.
Without mom’s influence, I can’t imagine what my life would be like, nor where
I would have gone in these past 29 years. It was because my mother did the work
of the Lord in raising me “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” that I am
what I am in the Lord today. She took her parenting ministry seriously, and is
an example for all of us in how we raise our children (whether in the present
or in the future). Mom, I love you dearly and miss you constantly. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">If she were here, she’d want
the Word to be emphasized – so I won’t take another minute to commend her.
Let’s get to what excited her most, the living, breathing, miracle-working Word
of God. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">If you read the context of 1
Corinthians 15, the issue at hand concerned the resurrection. There were some
who were saying that there was no resurrection, which prompted the Apostle
Paul’s question, “Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the
dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1
Cor. 15:12)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">It seems that the gospel,
preached among the Corinthians, was being denied by false doctrine. Paul
exhorts the Corinthians to consider two positions: (1) that the Lord was not
raised from the dead, and (2) that Christ was raised from the dead. He says, if
you believe Christ was raised, but He didn’t really rise, then your faith is
“worthless” or “in vain,” “useless.” In short, believing means little if Christ
did not rise from the dead. Mere faith is not enough to make something true,
unless it is already true in origin. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In verse 20, Paul testifies
boldly that “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the
firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by
Man also came the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20-21). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paul makes it clear here
that the “Man” (capital “M,” referring to the man Christ Jesus) brought forth
the resurrection. Remember the requirement: since the wage of sin is death (cf.
Romans 6:23), man who committed the sin had to die. So, Christ was the
solution: a man who could die for the sins of the world but could also return
from the dead. He was the perfect choice, the perfect Lamb of God who was sacrified
for the sins of the world (John 1:29). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The message is clear: Christ
died for the sins of the world and rose for our justification, so that we could
be justified by our faith in the work of Christ on the Cross. He wasn’t hanging
there for Himself, but was “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for
our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5-6). He died for our sins. We owe a debt we can
never repay. The least we can do is offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom.
12:1-2). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Now, as Christ has died and
was raised from the dead, so too will we – those who believe in the Lord, that
is. Those who accept Christ as both Lord and Savior (not either/or, but
both/and) will rise as Christ rose from the dead. However, we cannot enter
heaven in our current, mortal state. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mother could not enter
heaven with her earthly body. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Why? Because it’s wracked
with sin, and stained with ungodliness. If you don’t believe this to be true,
ask yourself: why did Paul tell the Roman church “do not let sin reign in your
mortal body” (Rom. 6:12)? And we, being sons and daughters of Adam and Eve,
struggle with sin as did they, as did the men and women of Scripture, as did
the earliest churches of the New Testament. Each person born of Adamite blood
struggles with sin. “There is none righteous, no not one,” Paul states clearly
(Romans 3:10).<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">So, how then, can we enter
heaven? Paul states it clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:50ff: “flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” In order for us to inherit the kingdom, we
have to put on not only faith, but immortality. And we can only get that by
dying a mortal death. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I cringe whenever I read the
Lord’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat
bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you
are, and to dust you shall return.” These words haunt me in the strangest way,
seeing that I, too, realize my mortality. Although I am 29 and feel as if I’m
in the prime of my life, I too, fall under the Lord’s death sentence to
humanity. It is something that, in light of my mother’s early death at 52 years
old, is always at the forefront of my mind. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">And yet, death is the last
enemy to be defeated. Death is the last mountain we have to climb, the last
river we have to swim, the last boundary we have to pass through, the last
obstacle we have to encounter. Despite all of our blessings here, this present
world is not our home; we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. As Paul says in 1
Corinthians 15:35-36,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“But someone will say, ‘How
are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’ Foolish one, what you
sow is not made alive unless it dies.” Interestingly enough, Jesus said similar
words in John 12:24 (“unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies,
it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain”). In order for us to
put on immortality, we must drop this mortal flesh that is stained with sin. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">It is in verse 51 that Paul
says, “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” The word “sleep”
here is a euphemism for the word “died,” so Paul is saying, in essence, that
there will be many who will be alive when the Lord returns. Not all will die,
but all who believe in the Lord (whether dead or alive) will put on
immortality, an everlasting body that cannot hunger, thirst, tire, grow old, or
die. I like the sound of this!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In verse 52, Paul says that
this transformation will take place “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”
As fast as you can blink, the change will take place. Notice that there will be
trumpets at this grand event. Since Paul mentions “the last trumpet” here, we
can be assured that there will likely be more than one trumpet to announce the
Lord’s return to earth. The last trumpet, however, is Paul’s focus: when the last
trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ (those who died believing in the Lord) will
be transformed, and those of us living on the earth will be transformed, too.
Verse 53 reiterates Paul’s point earlier that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the Kingdom of God. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In verses 54-57, we see Paul
using theology to praise the Lord God, the one that “theo-logy” (the study of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">theos</i>, God) is all about. After we are
transformed and put on immortality, the words of the Old Testament will come to
pass: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Currently, death is all
around us. Any day of the week, one can take a look at the news, read the
paper, or read on the Internet and find death is all around us. It places
uncertainty in our hearts; as much as we like to think of life as being
forever, the deaths of others are subtle reminders that one day, death will
come to us all. In the midst of this sadness, however, we have hope in Christ
Jesus. Death may reign in our lives now, our loved ones may die and leave us
brokenhearted, but death is the last enemy to defeat. As verse 26 tells us, “the
last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Did you read that? Death is
the LAST enemy to be destroyed. Christ set the victory in place at Calvary, and
this will be realized in our lives on an individual basis when we breathe our
last. What power can death have, what sting, when death is defeated? What
victory can the grave boast of when, having died and entered into it, we are
then raised to live eternally? In the final analysis, the grave, sin, and
death, three enemies in our mortal lives, will be conquered forever. We’ve
always believed as Christians that “death has no more dominion over us”, but
how apparent will it be in the Resurrection? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Have you ever seen C.S.
Lewis’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Voyage of the Dawn Treader</i>
at the movies? I will never forget the last scene of it, in which Reepicheep
asks Aslan whether or not he can enter his country. Aslan bids him permission,
and Reepicheep (a fearless, warrior mouse, by the way) greets his friends
before placing his sword in the sand to paddle to Aslan’s country. We all are
like Reepicheep: as long as we’re in this world, we fight to survive, fight to
defend and protect ourselves, to look out for our safety and protection. We
fight against aging, medical conditions, medicine, doctors, bosses, companies,
employment and unemployment, strained marriages, unhappy times in our
marriages, and so on. It seems as if we fight all the time – and we get so
consumed by the fight that we can’t believe it when the fight is over and we
get to “cross over to Aslan’s Country,” that is, glory. Yet and still, the time
comes when the Lord, who is faithful, grants His faithful ones eternal rest. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Yes, the last enemy to be
defeated is death; and when it is, we will, like Reepicheep, put down our sword
and cross over. Mother laid her sword down in the sand and crossed over to
glory to study war no more. One day, that will be you. And one day, that will
be me. While death is still a raging enemy, it won’t last forever. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">If mother were here
today, she’d leave you with this message: the next time you’re staring death in
the face, be it over a loved one in the nursing home or a loved one given less
than 6 months to live in the hospital with a deadly cancer diagnosis, look
death in the face and say, “you’re the last enemy to be defeated, and you won’t
reign forever.” Death will only last for a short time. These words have
comforted me every day for the past five years since my mother died. She had to
pass through Death’s tunnel, but it’s not forever. One day, when the Lord
cracks the clouds, mom will be raised to immortality. And, whether I’m alive or
asleep, I too, will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Death
wants us to focus on how they suffer here, but Death is only a tunnel to
victory for the believer. May God bless you all.</span></b><!--EndFragment-->
Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-82122780292331989312013-02-03T06:47:00.000-08:002013-02-03T06:47:16.896-08:00"The Security of Trusting in the Lord": In Memory of Teressa A. Richardson (June 28, 1956--February 3, 2009)
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> "The Security of Trusting in the Lord"</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Scripture: Psalm 91:1-4</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“He who dwells in the
shelter of the Most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will
say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!’ For it
is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly
pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may
seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark” (Psalm 91:1-4, New King
James Version).</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I am honored and privileged
by the Lord yet again to write these words for the people of God. Today marks
the four-year anniversary of my mother’s death. Teressa Ann Alston Richardson
was my mother and my best friend. She was my Bible teacher at home, my Sunday
School teacher at church, and my encourager and prayer warrior, someone who
prayed with me and for me through all the hard times in my life. She was one
who found delight in meditating on the things of God, the Word of the Lord. After
a three-year battle with breast, lung, and brain cancer, the Lord took His
servant home to her eternal rest – where she is no longer in any pain, torment,
or worry. She is in a place of peace and rest, looking forward to meeting her
family and friends as we arrive in glory. Today, I take time at the blog to
honor the woman who impacted my life in so many ways. If I have touched
anyone’s life on this earth, it is because of the lifetime impact of my mother.
You may have never met her, but to know me is to know her: I am like her in so
many ways. I look like her, talk like her, and even have her laugh and
mannerisms. She really left her “mark” on me!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">If my mother could speak on
earth this day, she would say that there is security in trusting in the Lord. One
of her favorite passages of Scripture was Psalm 91, a passage that my deceased
Pastor, Luther Alston Jr., also loved. The Lord has since taken my Pastor of 17
years home to be with Him as well. This morning, I heard my mother and my
Pastor reading this passage in my thoughts. It was the Lord’s way of telling me
that this Word needs to be said, it needs to be proclaimed. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">We live in a world today
that is concerned about security. We are told to buy car insurance so that we
are “covered” in case of a car accident, health insurance so that we will be
“covered” in the event of sickness, property insurance to “cover” us in the
event that our property is damaged, burned down by fire, or destroyed by
natural disaster. All these “insurances” are sold and purchased to “cover” us
in case of a life disaster – whether to our selves or our property. Many
consider that purchasing these things will make us “safe.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">But the “covering” the
writer of Psalm 91 discusses today is not the covering of insurance regarding
possessions: rather, it is the covering of your life, your protection,
physically, emotionally, spiritually, from destruction, from the deception of
Satan and the wicked man who dwells on the earth. Regardless of the number of
those who oppose the people of God, Christians have a strength in the Lord that
defeats them all.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In verse 1, the writer
(presumed to be Moses, who wrote Psalm 90) uses an analogy that he will develop
further into the Psalm: that is, that the Lord’s protection is similar to a
mother bird who covers her children with her wings. Thus, he is saying that
those who abide with the Lord, who stay with the Lord, will find a place of
refuge, similar to the bird that finds protection by staying under its mother’s
wings. Birds use their wings to protect their young; in a similar way, the Lord
uses the union of Christ and Christian to protect His child (the believer) from
all sorts of physical and spiritual harm. Paul writes to the Thessalonians of
his desire to protect them when he says, “But we proved to be gentle among you,
as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7).
Both birds and humans care for their young. If they care for their young, and
the Lord is greater than them all, does not the Lord care for His children? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In verse 1, Moses says that
those who abide with the Lord, who trust in the Lord, will find the Lord’s
protection. Trusting in the Lord is more than just a one-time trust, however:
it is a daily trusting, a daily guidance and reliance upon the One who knows
all things, who knows the future, who has laid out His plans for your life. It
is a daily relinquishing of your own control and a turning to Him for
direction. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In verse 2, the writer tells
the Lord that the Lord is “my refuge and fortress, my God, in whom I trust!”.
Do you tell the Lord this on a daily basis? In the same way that the Lord wants
us to pray and talk to Him, He wants to hear us call Him “my God,” “my refuge,”
and “my fortress.” Why is the Lord a refuge? He is a place of escape when
troubles come, He is a safe hiding place, a place of assurance and protection
from the troubles of life. From the word “refuge” comes the word “refugee.” A
refugee is one who has escaped famine and war in another country. A refugee is,
in general, someone who escapes harsh conditions of any kind. Therefore, a
Christian who abides with the Lord is one who can turn to the Lord of heaven
and earth when the conditions of life take a turn for the worst. When life
around us is harsh and cold and chaotic, we can turn to the Lord in whom we
trust to find stability, comfort, peace, and joy – no matter how long the
trials last. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Moses does not go without
pointing the way to the Lord. In verse 3 he says, “for IT IS HE who delivers
you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.” It is the
Lord who rescues us from all kinds of danger, whether the “trap” of a hunter or
a deadly disease. By using the specific situations of a hunter and a disease,
Moses is asserting that the Lord guards us against all kinds of traps that are
set for us, whether by individuals or sickness and disease. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In verse 4, we read more of
Moses’ analogy between the protection of the Lord and that of the mother bird:
“He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge.” The
word “pinion” refers to the outer part of a bird’s wings, so the Lord will
protect you from all outside harm – in the same way that a mother bird protects
her young with the outside of her wings from outside danger. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“His faithfulness is a
shield and bulwark” means that, as a shield protects a soldier from getting
wounded, so does the Lord’s constant protection prevents believers from the death
and destruction of Satan. Moses uses a simile here, a way to compare unrelated
things (the Lord’s faithfulness, a shield, and a large structure). Since the
Lord is faithful, you will have the protection that a bulwark provides. A
bulwark is a large towering structure that was used in ancient days to keep
enemies and invaders out of a territory or land. Whenever an enemy would invade
a territory, the soldiers had to climb walls in order to invade. The wall was
used to keep the enemy out. Although nations tried to prevent invasion, their
walls were simply not strong enough. With the Lord, however, His faithfulness,
His constant presence and strength, will protect you at all times. You need not
worry about invasion or destruction by Satan and his agents when you have the Lord’s
protection. His protection is fireproof and destruction-resistant!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I cannot do justice to this
entire Psalm here, but I can say that Moses intended this passage to be an encouragement,
a blessing to those who read its words. The passage mentions things like not
getting sicknesses and diseases, and many Christians still battle these things.
Yes, it is true that, as a result of the sin of man and the fall in Genesis 3,
that even Christians battle sickness and disease. Yet and still, there are so
many things that the Lord protects even the sick from, other things that would
have come without the Lord’s protection. Even for those who are sick in body,
this passage still rings true in so many ways that we cannot see. One day, we
will get to ask the Lord, “What things did you prevent me from experiencing?”;
and once we see those things, we will glorify the Lord all the more. One day,
our faith in this passage will become sight. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mother battled cancer for
three years, and it could not have come to a more godly person than mom. Yet
and still, she realized that trouble comes to us all. Trouble came to Job, and
he was called “blameless and upright” by the Lord (Job 1:8). Trouble will come,
but the Lord’s faithfulness, as Moses says, is a shield and bulwark. Mother,
even facing cancer, found the Lord’s faithfulness to be her protection. If she
were here today, she would quote the words of Psalm 91 and tell fellow saints
to continue abiding under the Lord’s protection. Stay with the Lord, continue
to trust Him and look to Him for all things, even your next breath and step.
And when you don’t understand, ask the Lord to provide understanding. He will
be faithful to you, no matter the situation or circumstance. Her life is a
living testimony of that. God bless. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-45288747562569337912012-10-15T21:06:00.000-07:002012-10-16T10:53:28.321-07:00Death and Moral Responsibility: An Examination of the John Fletcher Analogy<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhrZ8XvHlY9Tp3DnPgOXotIJfjKYHrrTqojd3pQmdOOVL_NRa9V3EPRlk3gIcJzOH9vu3xtB5K9xG-4pBHI8IVlgk8lxeqtcNpQgtm7swuxQXPb0at4eX4KvT4kw4OjoO3wq3GbCnFeRyh/s1600/Purgatory.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhrZ8XvHlY9Tp3DnPgOXotIJfjKYHrrTqojd3pQmdOOVL_NRa9V3EPRlk3gIcJzOH9vu3xtB5K9xG-4pBHI8IVlgk8lxeqtcNpQgtm7swuxQXPb0at4eX4KvT4kw4OjoO3wq3GbCnFeRyh/s1600/Purgatory.gif" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I realize that it has been a
while since I returned to the Center for Theological Studies. You may have
assumed that I would never return, but God’s grace has granted me some time to
return to a study of the Word of God and those who try to demolish it. While my
network server was down last night, the Spirit laid it upon my heart to pick up
Dr. Jerry Walls’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory: The Logic of
Total Transformation</i> and continue to plow through his philosophical
contemplation of the Doctrine of Purgatory as well as the place (Purgatory)
itself.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the chapter I am in
(chapter 2, called “Protestant Objections and Alternatives to Purgatory”),
Walls addresses Protestant disagreement with Purgatory head-on and does not
attempt to dismiss it. I applaud him for this; and I even agree that Purgatory,
when contemplated <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> as a
philosophical doctrine, could very well be a rather logical doctrine for not
just Roman Catholics, but Protestants as a whole. Where I disagree with Dr.
Walls, however, concerns his placement of the philosophical discussion above
that of the theological discussion concerning Purgatory and the eternal
destinations of both the saved and the unsaved. I have obtained a Master of
Divinity degree in Christian Apologetics, and have pondered the questions of
the existence of evil and the existence of God, evidences for the Christian
faith, how Christian faith can lead the way in the societal arts, and so on
(thank you so much, Dr. Bruce Alva Little, for pouring into my life). At the
same time, I am not so learned or educated that I would ever place philosophy
above the Word of God. The same God whose Word I read on a daily basis is the
same God who has said in His Holy Scriptures, “Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do not lean on your own
understanding</i>” (Proverbs 3:5, NASB). When philosophy comes before the God
that makes logic possible, there is a problem with the individual rather than
the text of Scripture itself. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">To see this truth, let us
consider Walls’ use of John Fletcher in his work. In chapter 2, Walls takes the
time to consider the views of Jonathan Edwards (a conservative, Calvinist
theologian) as well as John Wesley, a conservative Anglican theologian known
today for the theological position we call “Wesleyanism” or “Wesleyan
Arminianism.” He examines the views of these two theologians (along with John
Fletcher, Wesley’s dear friend) in order to show that strong, assumed
“conservative” theologians argue that holiness and a transformed life must
exist in any individual that desires to enter into heaven upon the end of life.
As I read his analysis of Jonathan Edwards, my mind went back to Edwards’
famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God.” Although I consider
myself to be distant from Calvinism (whether hyper or not), I have great
respect for Calvinists like Jonathan Edwards who held to human responsibility
in salvation and the need for true repentance and confession of sin. Holiness
should be not only the word of piety on the lips of theologians, but also an
act that demonstrates faith in the life of every Christian. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">John Fletcher provides an
analogy of older men and women who still long to sin as they did in their youth
to show that dead men and women still desire to sin: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“When old drunkards and
fornicators are as unable to indulge their sensual appetites as if they
actually ranked among corpses, do they not betray the same inclinations which
they showed when the strong tide of their youthful blood joined with the rapid
stream of their vicious habit? Is this not a demonstration that <u>no decay of
the body, --no, not that complete decay which we call <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">death</i>, has any necessary tendency to alter our moral habits</u>?” (John
Fletcher, “A Polemical Essay on the Twin Doctrines of Christian Imperfection
and a Death Purgatory,” from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Checks to
Antinomianism</i>; Dr. Jerry Walls, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory:
The Logic of Total Transformation</i>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012,
pg. 50. Underline mine.)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Fletcher uses the example of
elderly men and women to make the case that the dead, like elderly men and
women, lack the ability to indulge in sin to the desired extent (although both
want to do so). It seems as if Fletcher says here, “Are not elderly and the
dead the same?” I would argue that at best, Fletcher’s analogy points to a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">similarity</i>, though not an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">equivalency</i>, between the two. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Elderly men and women are
unable to do many things they did when they were young and in the prime of
their lives. I have heard my grandparents speak many times of what they would
do if they could go back and be “25” or “16” again. I am now 28 years old, and
I even contemplate how I would have made better use of my free time in college
“if I could go back”. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">However – and this is where
the line is drawn – the elderly and dead are not the same in every way. An
elderly person, though unable to do many things, can still walk, talk, speak,
eat, drink, sleep, awake, move, and so on; a dead person, however, can do none
of these things. He or she will “sleep” until the resurrection, but cannot
arise from the grave each morning and greet the morning sun as it rises in the
East – or watch the sun set in the West at sundown. In this regard, the elderly
and the dead are not alike. While the elderly are unable to do many things, the
dead are unable to do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anything</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">What about John Fletcher’s
argument? Is there any truth to it? No. One such example that the apostle Paul
offers up in Romans 7 concerns the marriage bond. Paul states: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Or do you not know,
brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has
jurisdiction over a person <u>as long as he lives</u>? For the married woman is
bound by law to her husband <u>while he is living</u>; but if her husband dies,
she is released from the law concerning her husband. So then, <u>if while her
husband is living</u> she is joined to another man, she shall be called an
adulteress; but <u>if her husband dies</u>, she is free from the law, so that
she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man” (Romans 7: 1-3,
NASB). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Did you notice the phrases
“as long as he lives,” “while he is living,” and “if while her husband is
living”? These phrases place a condition upon the truths affirmed in them. That
is, “as long as he lives,” he is to remain married to his wife (and she to
him). Upon his death, however, “she is not an adulteress though she is joined
to another man.” Paul says that the marriage bond is broken in the death of one
spouse, freeing the other to take another spouse in the bonds of marriage. If
you do not believe this is true, why is it that when couples marry, part of
their vows consists of the phrase “Til death due us part”? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">What happens at death that
nullifies the marriage contract, the idea of paying bills and taxes, the action
of voting, reporting to work, working to provide for one’s family, and so on?
Death is a separation between an individual and his or her loved ones and
friends. Death, as the Old Testament says it best, is a “cutting off” of an
individual’s life, a time when believers such as King David “sleep with their
fathers” (cf. 1Kings 2:10; 11:21, 43; 14:20, 31; 15:8, 24, etc.) and identify with
those who have died and gone on to their eternal reward (“the church
triumphant”) rather than those who remain on the earth (“the church militant). Jesus
says that, whereas living individuals marry, deceased persons do not (cf. Luke
20:34). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">This notion of marriage,
however, seems to disagree with Fletcher’s notion. If, as Fletcher says (and
Walls quotes him in agreement), the dead still have sinful inclinations as
though they were alive, is it not the case that the dead still want to marry
despite their buried state? Yet and still, however, Jesus says that the
afterlife does not consist of marriage, but that humans are as the “sons of
God,” or the angels. Do angels marry on a certain basis? If Jesus’ words in
Luke 20:34, Matthew 22:30, and Mark 12:25 are true, then angels do not marry
and humans in the afterlife will not, as well. Why do deceased individuals not
marry, if they want to marry? They do not marry because they do not need to.
The human longing for companionship is an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">earthly</i>
lust that does not exist or pose a problem for Christians who are in eternity
with Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">We see the singleness idea
as transcending the marriage state in the Scriptures. Not only do we have
Jesus’ words that singleness prevails in heaven (which will last “for ever,” as
compared to the small amount of time that life on earth will last), we also
have the words of Jesus to the disciples in the context of divorce: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“<u>Not all men can accept
this statement [“it is better not to marry,” Matt. 19:10], but only those to
whom it has been given.</u> For there are eunuchs who were born that way from
their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and
then there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:11-12). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Jesus says that there are “those
to whom it has been given” to refrain from marriage and remain single. This
statement directly opposes the “there is someone for each of us” statement that
many families speak to their single relatives. In line with Christ, the apostle
Paul offers his words of wisdom to the Corinthian congregation: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“So then both he who gives
his own virgin daughter in marriage does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">well</i>,
and he who does not give her in marriage will do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">better</i>” (1 Corinthians 7:38). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In other words, marriage
(the desired state for many) is a gift, but so is singleness. In the words of Paul,
singleness is the better gift because it “is appropriate and to secure
undistracted devotion to the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:36). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">There are those here who are
“eunuchs,” whether deemed so by God at birth, a result of the sinfulness and
wickedness of the world, or of their own choice. Jesus does not condemn these
reasons for why an individual remains celibate for a lifetime; instead, He
tells the disciples that those who are called to be single are to live a life
of singleness. Even in his discussion, He does not condemn those who choose to
live the married life. Unlike many statements about singleness that have been
made by many believers, I will not “rub in” Paul’s words about the exalted
state of singleness. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Fletcher’s statement (and
Walls’s) is that deceased individuals have the same sinful desires as those who
are alive; but to presume this is to forget that such sinful inclinations are
the actions of living, human beings. Humans are hungry when they are alive; they
are thirsty when they are alive; they are tired when they are alive. As they
near the time of death, however, they begin to put away the earthly necessities
of food and drink. I saw this with my own mother; three days before she
breathed her last, she slept. She did not eat food nor consume any drink. For
her, the human inclinations of hunger and thirst belonged to humans who
expected to live another day. She, however, knew her time on earth was coming
to an end. Neglecting to eat and drink (and knowing that to do so was a
cognizant choice to die) was mom’s way of accepting the end that was soon to come.
In the same way, my sister Danielle and I chose to not resuscitate mom, should
she stop breathing on her own. We did so not because we wanted her to die; our
choice to not resuscitate was our way of surrendering to the will of God, a
will that we acknowledged as greater than our own. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I will continue with more on
Jerry Walls’s work on Purgatory in my next post. God bless...<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-83703281275514770582012-04-04T09:00:00.002-07:002012-04-04T09:00:01.351-07:00The Last Hour: Jesus' Words About the End of Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb38_Vxm4HHEuLkus45vu1ytUA3YU0jsT5IiSgNTXl1evQJrKnQlsnUmFu3qpHMiGjxrCrKCDOXzMwq3ikBqnRPH2vHqh4wVeQ4EjfOuTY20nQSfIkmKxEsu7p6a6IYBEELZObZ9tifAbu/s1600/Purgatory.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb38_Vxm4HHEuLkus45vu1ytUA3YU0jsT5IiSgNTXl1evQJrKnQlsnUmFu3qpHMiGjxrCrKCDOXzMwq3ikBqnRPH2vHqh4wVeQ4EjfOuTY20nQSfIkmKxEsu7p6a6IYBEELZObZ9tifAbu/s1600/Purgatory.gif" /></a></div><br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">First off, let me wish a blessed month of April to everyone! The Lord’s goodness has propelled us into the fourth month of 2012, and the Lord’s grace will get us through the remaining eight months. For now, though, I’m content with the month of April. The month of May will bring troubles of its own. One of the troubles for me during the month of May is to remember that the second Sunday is Mother’s Day, a day in which I am reminded that I had a wonderful mother---though she was taken from me all too soon. I will be brave now, however, and say that the April weather is making me more optimistic about the Lord’s goodness and reminding me of His grace daily. I need those reminders with me, all the time. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I’m back today at the Center for Theological Studies (CTS) to continue my discussion of what John Salza titles his book: “The Biblical Basis for Purgatory.” There are some of my Baptist brothers and sisters who do not discuss Purgatory, nor give any thought to it. “It’s not in the Bible,” they say...and they run off to debate other things, such as the “roles” of men and women in the church, Darwinism and Intelligent Design, and Reformed Epistemology versus Evidentialism. These are all good debates, and I have a special stake in all of them; at the same time, however, we must do everything we can to engage our Purgatory proponents (though there are Roman Catholics in this fight who are saved) and show them that it is good to be saved and know Christ; at the same time, however, we must strive to know Him “as He is,” not “as we have been taught,” or “as someone else has taught us,” or “as tradition dictates.” Though our purgatorial brothers and sisters (proponents of purgatory) are saved and believe on the Lord Jesus, the Lord desires that we “rightly [or “accurately”] divide the Word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). We cannot be content that individuals know the Lord Jesus, though they do not know the doctrines of the faith. We must also help them come to grips with the doctrines of the faith, and strive to teach them to everyone we meet. We should not rest until God’s soldiers are adequately prepared to do battle for Christ. How will we use “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17) if we do not know what the Word says?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today’s text, as have texts from last week, concerns Dr. Jerry Walls and his view of afterlife sanctification. For him, the idea that God makes believers holy in an instant is simply too much to stomach. As I have recorded as a quote at the blog several times in the last week, Dr. Walls believes in a term I have coined as “afterlife sanctification”; that is, those who believe on Christ but are not completely holy in this life must complete more sanctification in purgatory before they are holy enough to enter heaven. I have examined texts such as 2 Timothy 4 (Paul’s testimony), Romans 7 to discuss the lack of marriage sanctification in eternity, and Philippians 1:6 to discuss the idea that the work of the Spirit continues until the day Jesus returns for His Bride, the Church. Paul has given his testimony of the afterlife, but in today’s post, Jesus will provide a glimpse into the afterlife and combat Dr. Walls’ notion of afterlife sanctification. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">The passage is Matthew 20:1-16, a parable Jesus tells about workers in a vineyard. Jesus (the Master) goes to the marketplace (the place where the crowds are gathered) and hires workers. He tells them, “You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you” (Matt. 20:4, New American Standard Bible). He does this the third, sixth, and ninth hours. In the eleventh hour (last hour) Jesus goes and hires more workers. For each worker that agrees to go into the vineyard and work, Jesus pays them a denarius, the full amount for a day’s wages. The first ones to be paid are the workers who started in the last hour---each receives a denarius. The workers who started in the first hours expect to get more than the workers who started in the last hour; to their surprise, however, they receive exactly what the last workers receive. Instead of being grateful for what they receive, they complain instead:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“‘These last men have worked only one hour, and <u>you have made them equal to us</u> who have borne the burden and scorching heat of the day’” (Matt. 20:12, NASB).<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">The most offensive thing about the work and pay in the vineyard was not so much that the last-hour workers received a denarius, as it was that they received <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the same amount of pay</i> as the first-hour workers. If the last workers had received a hundred denarii (and the first workers, too), the first workers would have been outraged still. “You have made them equal to us” pinpoints the problem at hand. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">What does Jesus say in response to this accusation?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but <u>I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own</u>? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’” (Matt. 20:13-15)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Jesus, as Sovereign Master, agreed with them on His own terms. He decided to give the last man the same amount as the first workers. God’s sovereignty is such that God can choose to do this. The complaining worker (or workers) was not in a position to tell Jesus what He could and could not do. Sovereignty is such that no human can tell God what He could and should not do in salvation. Salvation is His gift to give---and it is given by grace. Since grace is the motive behind Christ’s gift of salvation, no individual can complain when someone else receives salvation---whether the person was saved for three hours, one hour, thirty minutes, or 50-60 years. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">The point of Jesus’ parable is exciting because it reminds us that salvation cannot be earned. As much as works-salvation is inherent within all human beings, we cannot merit our salvation---no matter how great, or famous, or renown our deeds are. The first worker or workers forgot this simple fact and decided that they deserved more pay than the workers in the last hour. But how could they reason this way, particularly when they did not know what agreement the Master had with the last-hour workers? They could not know. And yet, they turned on the Master because His pay scale didn’t match theirs. While trying to earn their pay, they forgot about the Sovereignty of the Master or their inability to earn what they longed for. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">How does this pertain to the Doctrine of Purgatory, one may ask? The answer is simple. If the last-hour workers received the same reward as the first workers, then how could the first workers complain (when God was Sovereign to do this)? In the same way, Dr. Jerry Walls (nor any other Christian, whether holding to purgatory or not) cannot complain that a thief on a Cross (Lk. 23) can be saved in his last hour and granted eternal life <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">on equal footing</i> with someone who worked for 50 years in the Lord’s service. Thus, being saved for one hour places a person in the same position as being saved for 50 years. The person saved for one hour needs no extra time to “willingly cooperate” before he or she can enter heaven. This idea is in stark contrast to Dr. Walls’ own view, known as the fourth view in his section on sin and eternity:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Fourth, we may say that <u>the sanctification process continues after death with our willing cooperation</u> until the process is complete, and we are actually made holy through and through” (Dr. Jerry Walls, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation</i>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, page 6).<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Dr. Walls’ quote above, I’m afraid, agrees with the first workers: since many enter eternity without their sins intact (as did the cowboy in his example), they need purgatory to make them completely holy before they enter heaven. To the contrary, however, Jesus gives the last-hour workers what He gives the first ones. In other words, the last-hour workers share the same spiritual position as the first-hour workers: both are granted eternal life (since this parable is about the kingdom of heaven, see Matt. 20:1), without any distinction. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I will continue with more biblical evidence against the Doctrine of Purgatory in my next post. God bless.</span></b>Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-39830153852864260452012-03-30T10:04:00.000-07:002012-03-30T10:04:43.857-07:00Paul's Testimony About Purgatory: A Lesson for the End of Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPtcvmewDWHRB6Qvi6_XVQJOSBuOb5jgXUNowUhO57TWfmtPXpnxAGshcrCIWQyEr0N1jdj559QnSDkw9kuoZrLgfN1VgZETtv8hFtxeTqjD__g6T5hA6c8RLHhQUMywSC3fjoGIaw1dML/s1600/Purgatory.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPtcvmewDWHRB6Qvi6_XVQJOSBuOb5jgXUNowUhO57TWfmtPXpnxAGshcrCIWQyEr0N1jdj559QnSDkw9kuoZrLgfN1VgZETtv8hFtxeTqjD__g6T5hA6c8RLHhQUMywSC3fjoGIaw1dML/s1600/Purgatory.gif" /></a></div><div><br />
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</style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">"Fourth, we may say that the sanctification process continues after death with our willing cooperation until the process is complete, and we are actually made holy through and through" (Dr. Jerry Walls, <i>Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation</i>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, page 6). </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
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</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Before I get started, let me say that I welcome interaction with you, my readership. I know it seems as if most days, I post and then go my way---but your views and comments do matter to me. I am currently responding to a commenter’s responses on Annihilationism, a view I haven’t researched in some time. Let me say that even if you disagree with me, I still welcome comments that get me to stop and reconsider my own views on a subject. Don’t be afraid to comment here and ask me questions, or disagree with me. As “iron sharpens iron,” I want to be of aid to you---and desire that you would be of aid to me. We are all still growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and no one is at such a point that he or she cannot be challenged by another. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Yesterday’s post dealt with the confession of the repentant thief on the cross in Luke 23 and Jesus’ words to him about the very moment in which he believed. If Dr. Walls is correct, the thief had not ridden himself of the corruption and moral deficiencies in his heart and mind. Though he believed in Christ, “it is not enough that we be forgiven of our sins,” Walls has stated in his introduction (4). If we believe Dr. Walls, then the criminal needed purgatory for moral reform. However, Jesus’ words that the thief would be with Him “today” (Grk. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">semeron</i>) in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to paradeiso</i> (Grk. for “the paradise”) prove to the contrary. The word “today” means immediately, not far off in the future. If verbal-plenary inspiration (the very words of Scripture are inspired) means anything, Jesus’ word “today” means just that---today!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">It is a passage like Luke 23 that poses problems for the Doctrine of Purgatory, since Jesus required no afterlife sanctification of the common criminal. Today’s post, however, will provide Paul’s own testimony about purgatory. Paul was at the end of his life when he wrote this text, and I think he provides some valuable insight into this disputed doctrine to which we currently devote our time: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, <u>I have finished the course</u>, I have kept the faith; <u>in the future</u> there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing”(2 Timothy 4:6-8, New American Standard Bible). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Notice the verbs in Paul’s words: “fought,” “finished,” and “kept.” All of these verbs are past tense, referring to actions in the past. Paul is saying that the good fight he fought is now in the past; the course he had to run is now in the past; the faith he had to keep is now in the past. At this point, he is looking forward to the reward he will receive. The phrase “in the future” (rendered by the NASB) is the Greek term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">loipon</i>, meaning “remainder, henceforth,” and so on. The term comes from the noun <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">loipos</i>, meaning “remainder” or “that which remains.” When Paul says that the crown of righteousness is laid up for him, he is saying that his reward is all that remains for the journey to be complete. Does this sound like he believes there is a purgatory awaiting?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">No. Now, some (perhaps Dr. Walls) may think that Paul, having been saved for over 30 years, may have well worked out his sin in his life such that he could enter heaven upon death. The problem with this, however, is that Paul confesses to his constant battles with sin all throughout Scripture. In one place, he states his sin before his conversion, in the other his constant struggle with sin:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save <u>sinners, among whom I am foremost of all</u>” (1 Timothy 1:15, NASB). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want...I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For <u>I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body</u>, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:19, 21-23, NASB). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Paul served the law of God with his mind, but served the law of sin with his flesh (Rom. 7:25). This sounds as though he struggled in the Christian life, often enough that he hated how his flesh turned to sin---though he was saved by faith in the Lord Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Simply put, Paul did not consider himself to be one who had become completely holy in character such that he was ready to enter heaven; instead, he realized that he was a sinner saved by grace who was receiving a reward (“a crown of righteousness,” symbolic for eternal life, given to “all those that love His appearing,” which refers to all believers) that he did not deserve. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">For him, the course he had run in his life was coming to an end. Once he finished his course, there would be no future course to run or endure. It seems that Dr. Walls and fellow proponents of the Doctrine of Purgatory would find an ally here with the apostle---though, again, they do not. God bless.</span></b><!--EndFragment--> </div>Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-25131860155325029642012-03-29T08:45:00.001-07:002012-03-29T08:45:52.348-07:00Afterlife Sanctification? A Look at Scripture, Pt. 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPtcvmewDWHRB6Qvi6_XVQJOSBuOb5jgXUNowUhO57TWfmtPXpnxAGshcrCIWQyEr0N1jdj559QnSDkw9kuoZrLgfN1VgZETtv8hFtxeTqjD__g6T5hA6c8RLHhQUMywSC3fjoGIaw1dML/s1600/Purgatory.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPtcvmewDWHRB6Qvi6_XVQJOSBuOb5jgXUNowUhO57TWfmtPXpnxAGshcrCIWQyEr0N1jdj559QnSDkw9kuoZrLgfN1VgZETtv8hFtxeTqjD__g6T5hA6c8RLHhQUMywSC3fjoGIaw1dML/s1600/Purgatory.gif" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">For the last three days, I have examined the introduction to Dr. Jerry Walls’ book, titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation</i>. What very few individuals know about me is that I have a secret interest in a study of the Doctrine of Hell. When I entered my Master of Theology (ThM) program last Fall (2011), I wanted to study the Doctrine of Hell for my theology degree; however, I decided that Inclusivism and Theology of Religions was probably a better route (conversationally) to head into. This private interest of mine in the Doctrine of Hell is one of the reasons why I turned to Dr. Walls’ book when deciding to return to the Center for Theological Studies and blog once more. Let me just say, before I start the subject matter of this post, that it is a blessing that the Lord has favored me to return to the blog I love so much. I pray that you have been blessed by the work done in the last few days...and that you would continue to allow the Lord to challenge your theological views, day in and day out. This is still my prayer; Master of Theology students still need the Holy Spirit to teach them theological truth daily. Praise the Lord that He is patient and teaches us in all things!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today, I want us to continue to examine Dr. Jerry Walls’ quote about afterlife sanctification. The quote stems from a context in which Walls discusses four possible views on how sinful human beings (though believers) can enter the afterlife. The first view states that believers enter into heaven with their sin because it is not eliminated from them in this life. Walls dismisses this, and so do I. The second view says that no one enters heaven because all believers have sin---even up to the last moments of their lives. I disagree with this because of so many saints scripturally that are in glory with the Lord. Does the Roll Call of Faith in Hebrews 11 mean anything (cf. Heb. 11:13-16)?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">View three says that the Lord makes believers holy in an instant, a theory that I find plausible and commendable based on texts such as 1 Corinthians 15 that say the Lord will transform our bodies “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52). Dr. Walls, however, finds the fourth view the most plausible for his convictions:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Fourth, we may say that <u>the sanctification process continues after death with our willing cooperation</u> until the process is complete, and we are actually made holy through and through” (Dr. Jerry Walls, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation</i>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, page 6). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">In my last post, I stated that this poses problems for married spouses who were unfaithful to each other in life (and battled infidelity until death). If they need a portion of the afterlife in which to learn how to be better husbands and wives, they are out of luck---for the marriage bond ends at death, according to Romans 7:2-3. Additionally, men and women do not marry in eternity (cf. Matt. 22:30). If sanctification in marriage cannot exist in the afterlife, then neither can sanctification in any sense still exist in the afterlife. Sin is no longer an issue when one lays down his or her flesh. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">This was a rather indirect way to approach Dr. Walls’ proposition that there is such a thing as afterlife sanctification. In today’s post, I look to tackle Walls’ proposition based on direct references to the biblical text. That is, what do the Scriptures teach concerning purgatory, heaven, and hell?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">A classic text that I think is pivotal to a Protestant defense against Purgatory is the repentant thief on the cross, a unique passage to Luke 23:39-43:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, ‘Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!’ But the other answered, and rebuking him said, ‘Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he was saying, ‘<u>Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom</u>!’ And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, <u>today you shall be with Me in Paradise</u>’” (Luke 23:39-43, New American Standard Bible). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">There were two thieves at the crucifixion event: one that was only concerned about saving himself from mortal death, the other that only wanted to be saved from spiritual death. He did not ask to be spared from mortal death. Why? Because, as he told the selfish thief, <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong” (Lk. 23:41, NASB). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">There is information in the passage above from Luke 23 that specifically pertains to Dr. Walls’ fourth view of afterlife sanctification. Notice that the man knows some things about Christ: 1) His name is “Jesus”; 2) Jesus has a kingdom; 3) Jesus is innocent of the crime for which He has been charged and convicted; 4) Jesus will rise from the dead. The fourth piece of information is pivotal, since it seems the thief had heard Jesus’ preaching and teaching about Himself and His coming kingdom for a while. The thief on the cross may have been a thief, but he was also a man who had heard Christ’s teaching and believed His message. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the poignant moment between the repentant thief and Jesus, the thief asks Jesus to remember him. Jesus understands the request and says, “Today you shall be with Me in paradise.” What are we to make of this? Jesus did not tell the man, “You must first undergo the moral reformatory school of purgatory, since you have been a criminal for most of your life and you need sanctification in this matter before you can enter heaven...then, you will be with me in paradise.” No---Jesus’s words to the repentant thief were that, in that very day, at the thief’s last breath, he would be with Jesus in paradise, in glory. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">The repentant thief needed only repentance and faith to spend eternity with Christ. And it is no different for us, either. All we need is repentance and a confession of faith. If the repentant thief shows us anything, it is that afterlife sanctification is not necessary---for, the very day in which believers leave earth, we too, will be with Jesus in paradise. God bless.</span></b>Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-41015136146930152302012-03-28T08:23:00.001-07:002012-03-28T13:32:48.640-07:00Acquiring Actual Holiness, Pt. 3: The Fourth View and Its Problems<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2q0LPT7CPTF3boSDj8H-_b9qZTxY9ZFZdXkBcKig3CE5rfE1ewjbTpXqecKZP5p9NA_T7-i40xEHYVJNfl8ZFzMFoWgUQ8J8AZaemCKGiZAXjl1eW_zgvbVOgXharAT1DtCb468wgWpIv/s1600/Purgatory.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2q0LPT7CPTF3boSDj8H-_b9qZTxY9ZFZdXkBcKig3CE5rfE1ewjbTpXqecKZP5p9NA_T7-i40xEHYVJNfl8ZFzMFoWgUQ8J8AZaemCKGiZAXjl1eW_zgvbVOgXharAT1DtCb468wgWpIv/s1600/Purgatory.gif" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Indeed, <u>there are Christians of many stages of spiritual maturity and growth in holiness and many, probably most, die far short of perfection</u>... Faced with what seems to be <u>this obvious empirical reality</u>, the question remains about the fate of such persons. There are four broad possibilities. First, we might say that they go to heaven with their sins, imperfections, and the like intact, so heaven is not in fact essentially sinless. Second, we might think they will simply be lost and never make it to heaven if they die without actually becoming completely holy. <u>Third, we might say that at the moment of death, God makes people holy by an instantaneous, unilateral act, however imperfect, sinful, and immature in character they may be. Fourth, we may say that the sanctification process continues after death with our willing cooperation until the process is complete, and we are actually made holy through and through</u>” (Jerry Walls, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory: The Logic of Transformation</i>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, page 6).<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">In my last post, I examined the first three of Jerry Walls’ views on sin and eternity. The first one argues that Christians enter heaven with their sins intact---thus, heaven is sinful rather than sinless. I argued there that God, being light and having no darkness in Him (we are told from 1 John 1:5), cannot have sin enter into heaven. The apostle Paul goes so far as to say that flesh and blood cannot enter God’s kingdom (1 Cor. 15:50). Scripture refutes the first view. The second view is also refuted by Scripture because we know that the saints of God will spend eternity with Christ and reign with Him (Rev. 22:3, 5). Therefore, at least a multiple number of believers will go to Heaven. Although believers are imperfect on this earth, they enter Heaven by an act of God whereby they are made complete in an instant. Even 1 Corinthians 15 says that we are “changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52). I argued there that if God can give us new bodies in an instant, He can certainly make us holy in an instant. This is the third view, which most Protestants and I uphold, according to Dr. Walls. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today’s post will explore the fourth view. I will repeat it here for our understanding: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Fourth, we may say that <u>the sanctification process continues after death with our willing cooperation</u> until the process is complete, and we are actually made holy through and through” (Walls, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation</i>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, page 6). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">According to Dr. Walls, Protestants often disagree with Purgatory as a sufficient doctrine because they say, “It’s not found in the Bible.” Don’t get me wrong: Purgatory does not exist in the Bible, in any form. Even in the Greek translation of the New Testament (or the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament), we have no mention of “purgatoria” or any word similar to this one. It is not there in explicit terms---but many who argue for the doctrine believe it to be there implicitly. For them, it is there in principle, though not bearing the title we have come to place upon it. John Salza, in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Biblical Basis for Purgatory</i>, argues that the prison Jesus refers to in His teaching (about agreeing with the adversary quickly, see Matthew’s Gospel) refers to purgatory. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">However, there are other biblical ways for the Christian to combat Purgatory as a doctrine other than to say, “it’s not in the Bible.” Let’s assume Dr. Walls’ theory for a moment---that is, that sanctification continues after death. If we do, the Scriptures themselves pose problems for Dr. Walls and purgatory. Why? Because of the institution of marriage. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Let’s say that a man marries a woman, and a woman marries a man. Both married couples have trouble throughout their marriages: in each marriage, both partners struggle with faithfulness and fidelity toward their spouses. Each partner wonders what his or her life would be like if he or she decided to have an affair on the side. Each partner works late hours, so his or her spouse would never know otherwise, would never suspect cheating. Both partners in each marriage choose to cheat on one another with other married people, exacerbating the problem. In the last twenty years of their marriages, both sets of partners come to salvation in Christ and give up their unfaithful ways; they pledge to be faithful to one another and never eye another person, ever again. While they still struggle with fidelity, they have never had an affair against the other from the moment they came to faith in Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
After a scenario such as this, you would think that the two couples would be ready for heaven, correct? Dr. Walls would say that, while their hearts are inclined toward God, they may still need some sort of moral and spiritual transformation before entering glory: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“Now let us consider our unfortunate cowboy in light of this analysis...let us extend his story and assume he is a Christian believer, albeit one who is obviously rough around the edges, and clearly not very faithful at this point of his life. Let us assume, moreover, that <u>before he died he repented of his sin and sought forgiveness for his murder</u>, and even acknowledged that his desire for vengeance was wrong. <u>Even if we assume all this</u>, including that he was forgiven before he died, <u>it is doubtful that he had cultivated a love of God and a taste for the holy such that he would be fully ready to enjoy heaven</u>” (Walls, 6). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">In short, though the cowboy confessed his sin, repented, and let Jesus into his heart, he still would not be ready for Heaven. Why? Because Heaven can only be enjoyed by those who have hearts disciplined for it. The cowboy would not have a heart sown in righteousness, since he did not have time to work through his sin and grow in discipline and moral character. The question remains: How would the Lord teach an unfaithful, tending-to-stray husband or unfaithful wife how to remain faithful in his or her marriage? The answer? According to Dr. Walls, send the man or woman to Purgatory and help him or her work through the marriage. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I hope you’re smiling at this point and that you know where I’m headed. The problem with the man learning how to be better in his marriage (or the wife) is that there is no marriage in the afterlife. Marriage ends at death:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“For <u>the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband</u>. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but <u>if her husband dies, she is free from the law</u>, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man” (Romans 7:2-3, New American Standard Bible). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">A woman is bound to her marriage if the husband lives; if he dies, the marriage bond is broken and she is free to marry someone else. This is why marriage vows often end with, “Til death due us part.” At death, husband and wife “part ways” and the marriage bond is dissolved. Thus, a husband cannot become a better husband in the afterlife, nor a wife a better spouse for her husband. In the afterlife, sanctification (at least in marriage here) is not an issue because marriage no longer exists (Matt.22:30). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">If sanctification does not exist in the afterlife in marriage, how can sanctification exist in the afterlife for any other issue such as drug rehabilitation, or any other sexual immorality? How can the afterlife teach you how to resist drugs when you don’t enter the afterlife in human flesh?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Simply put, sanctification is an issue of the flesh, an issue of earthly life. It is why we have to “kill” or “mortify” our human body parts on the earth (Colossians 3:5-7), and “walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:7, 10, 13). There will be more on afterlife sanctification in my next post. God bless.</span></b>Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-19595331477080922092012-03-27T09:16:00.000-07:002012-03-27T09:16:25.793-07:00Acquiring Actual Holiness, Pt. 2: Four Views on Sin and Eternity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzxHNalRKfU5t71VddZmXUKz60_JUGBFUlVMUnWHNAxVswpuY_3N2pZDBbuAvcII3V8Smv5krIMB4BX9ZTbLF36edKSo2lo3rWnSruzrPCYoYy2csLMdr1SqZOZYBSPibdo8MjrVuGRzpD/s1600/Purgatory.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzxHNalRKfU5t71VddZmXUKz60_JUGBFUlVMUnWHNAxVswpuY_3N2pZDBbuAvcII3V8Smv5krIMB4BX9ZTbLF36edKSo2lo3rWnSruzrPCYoYy2csLMdr1SqZOZYBSPibdo8MjrVuGRzpD/s1600/Purgatory.gif" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In my last post, I introduced Jerry Walls’ book and pointed out some problems that I have with his view that purgatory actually exists. It is pretty easy to tell that someone believes strongly in purgatory, particularly when his or her introduction begins with the excerpt I covered yesterday. I pointed out yesterday that Philippians 1:6 seems to be confident about the Philippian believers, that God would complete what He started in their lives. This indicates to me that the Lord, having started their transformation by way of regeneration, is certain to complete it. As a result, I don’t think the proper response is to argue that we need a prison sentence in eternity called purgatory to become thoroughly holy and upright in character and spirit. For Paul, John the Revelator, and others, eternity would reap the fruits of both a trusting walk with Christ and a rebellious life against Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In today’s post, I’m back to examine Walls’ four views on sin and eternity. He provides four views in his book that combat questions about how sin exists in eternity, does it exist, and how are believers made completely holy. Walls writes: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“And the cowboy is far from alone in his predicament. Indeed, <u>there are Christians of many stages of spiritual maturity and growth in holiness and many, probably most, die far short of perfection</u>. In another sermon, Newman reflected on this reality, observing that there are many persons who may be sincere servants of God who are ‘dark and feeble’ in their religious state. Many others repent late in life, if not on their death bed, and leave few traces of Christian fruit in their lives. And beyond all such cases as these, he pointed out that there are many others who have made a good start and persevered, yet have hardly begun the process of sanctification ‘when death comes upon them;--many who have been in circumstances of especial difficulty, who have had fiercer temptations, more perplexing trials than the rest, and in consequence have been impeded in their course.’<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Faced with what seems to be <u>this obvious empirical reality</u>, the question remains about the fate of such persons. There are four broad possibilities. First, we might say that they go to heaven with their sins, imperfections, and the like intact, so heaven is not in fact essentially sinless. Second, we might think they will simply be lost and never make it to heaven if they die without actually becoming completely holy. <u>Third, we might say that at the moment of death, God makes people holy by an instantaneous, unilateral act, however imperfect, sinful, and immature in character they may be. Fourth, we may say that the sanctification process continues after death with our willing cooperation until the process is complete, and we are actually made holy through and through</u>” (Jerry Walls, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory: The Logic of Transformation</i>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, page 6).<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">While Walls presents four views, two are of the utmost attention. The first two can be discarded: heaven is a sinless place because God dwells there—and He has no sin, and in Him is no sin at all (1 John). Next, the idea that you must be completely holy to enter heaven would discard the entire human race. No one person is holy enough that at the end of their lives, they can enter heaven based on their actions. Until our dying breath, there are still things that we will want that are sinful and against God. If we must get to heaven on personal holiness, we will all fail and enter eternity in Hell. Hell is really all we deserve, had it not been for the atoning work of Jesus Christ. We deserve Hell; He is the one that has given us Heaven instead. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Views three and four are the two most interesting to examine. View three says that we enter Heaven because of a unilateral act of God whereby He makes us holy in an instant. This seems plausible and commendable as a theory. After all, are believers not changed “in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52)? 1 Corinthians 15 speaks of the end, when believers put on immortality. Read Paul’s words further: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of the sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:54-57, NASB). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">When is “death swallowed up in victory?” At the resurrection, when believers who died in Christ put on immortality---and those who are alive put on immortality. At this point, we are given immortal bodies, bodies that do not long or yearn for sin of any kind. In a moment, as fast as an eye can sparkle, believers will be made holy. This is a rather damaging truth to the fourth view Walls proposes. The fourth view is one in line with Walls’ conviction, and I will discuss it in my next post. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">If you take nothing else away from this post, take 1 Corinthians 15. Let it challenge you to begin thinking about whether or not a long time in purgatory matches 1 Corinthians 15 and its sanctified “transformation in the blink of an eye.” I have no qualms against Dr. Walls presenting a philosophically-appealing view; I do disagree, however, with his view when it contradicts what I see found in Scripture. God bless.</span></b><!--EndFragment-->Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-8900861526136535482012-03-26T16:08:00.004-07:002012-03-27T09:17:13.416-07:00Acquiring Actual Holiness: An Introductory Examination of Jerry Walls' Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb38_Vxm4HHEuLkus45vu1ytUA3YU0jsT5IiSgNTXl1evQJrKnQlsnUmFu3qpHMiGjxrCrKCDOXzMwq3ikBqnRPH2vHqh4wVeQ4EjfOuTY20nQSfIkmKxEsu7p6a6IYBEELZObZ9tifAbu/s1600/Purgatory.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb38_Vxm4HHEuLkus45vu1ytUA3YU0jsT5IiSgNTXl1evQJrKnQlsnUmFu3qpHMiGjxrCrKCDOXzMwq3ikBqnRPH2vHqh4wVeQ4EjfOuTY20nQSfIkmKxEsu7p6a6IYBEELZObZ9tifAbu/s1600/Purgatory.gif" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">I know that I have been rather absent from The Center of Theological Studies for the last several months now. I am thankful to the Lord Jesus that the work He graced me to publish here over the last two or three years is still bringing comments to the site, and visitors daily. The Lord continues to show me His grace and goodness in all that I do; for that, I am grateful beyond words. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Some of you have joined CTS in the last few months and have not so much as read a recent post written by me. I am sorry for my long absence. I have taken upon myself the responsibility of work and have had to spend gruesome hours online researching, writing articles, and crafting advertisements. I enjoy my work and take pride in what I do for a living; nevertheless, I have missed my theology blog and the joys that come with recording my convictions as I believe stem from the Word of God. Do not worry any longer; by God’s grace, I will be present at The Center for Theological Studies throughout the reading and blogging on Jerry Walls’ entire book. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today’s post is simply an introduction to get us to think about purgatory as a doctrine and a place. For those of you who rarely dive into discussions on purgatory, let me give you a brief definition of purgatory: purgatory is a place that people go to when they die in order to have some sort of afterlife moral reformatory process. The logic behind purgatory is that we need to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">completely transformed</i> in order to enter into heaven. Jerry Walls states his case here:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“The requirement that we must actually become holy and thoroughly upright in spirit and character is one of the foundation stones of the doctrine of purgatory, the subject of this book. <u>It is not enough that we be forgiven of our sins, or have righteousness imputed to us</u> in a legal or formal fashion. Nor is the initial work of salvation in regeneration sufficient to accomplish the complete transformation we require. <u>While regeneration begins this transformation, it does not entirely rectify our corruption or repair all our moral and spiritual deficiencies</u>. So we are left with the question of how we acquire the actual holiness that is essential for those who want to see the Lord, to know him in the deeply personal sense of enjoying a genuinely loving relationship with him” (Jerry Walls, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation</i>. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, page 4). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">First, Walls states that forgiveness of sins is not enough to inherit eternal life (“enter heaven”). According to the apostle Paul, sinners become saints by “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7). To be “redeemed” means to be bought again---thus, forgiveness of sins by Christ indicates that we are His children and have been freed from our bondage to sin. Righteousness must be imputed to us because we cannot merit the righteousness of God. As Romans 4 details, Abraham had to “believe God” (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3) in order to receive righteousness. Righteousness must be imputed to us because without it, we cannot see the kingdom of God. We cannot be looked upon with favor in God’s eyes until we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness. This is the problem with the Jewish nation, Paul states (Rom. 10:1-4). The Israelites sought to become righteous in their own eyes instead of seeking the righteousness of God. This explains why they believed circumcision and Law-keeping were the requirements for salvation. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Walls also goes on to say that regeneration “initiates” transformation but does not complete it. However, does this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> contradict the words of Paul in Philippians 1:6 that “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6, NASB)? If regeneration is the good work that Christ has begun in believers, does Paul not sound certain that Christ will complete it? And if so, does the phrase “the day of Christ Jesus” not complicate a view of purgatory that believes we must be transformed in the afterlife, post Christ’s second coming? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">If Philippians 1:6 has anything to say about regeneration, there are problems with Walls’ theory that regeneration only starts transformation but does not complete it. He seems to think that regeneration is a one-time act, instead of a process that occurs throughout the whole of the Christian life. The Bible tells us that regeneration is synonymous with salvation (John 3:3, 14-18). Thus, passages that use the word “salvation” are also talking about regeneration. It is in the spirit of this truth that 2 Thessalonians 2:13 argues against Walls’ notion that regeneration is not enough, and we need sanctification too. Sanctification is a component of the regeneration process---which occurs day by day, not in one moment of time. The Dutch Reformed theologian James Arminius writes, <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">“This sanctification is not completed in a single moment; but sin, from whose dominion we have been delivered through the cross and the death of Christ, is weakened more and more by daily [detrimenta] losses, and the inner man is day by day renewed more and more, while we carry about with us in our bodies the death of Christ, and the outward man is perishing” (James Arminius, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Works</i> II: 409-410). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Arminius seemed to believe that the sins of man would diminish daily until they would be no more. When would man completely be ridden of sin? When he stepped into eternity, at his last breath. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 13.5pt;">There is much more to say, but this will suffice for now. In my next post, I will discuss Jerry Walls’ four options for sin and eternity. God bless.</span></b>Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-55981688715435904202012-02-03T09:00:00.000-08:002012-02-03T09:00:03.293-08:00"Soaring Like an Eagle": In Memory of Teressa A. Richardson (June 28, 1956-February 3, 2009)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOxE0Hkyp3ONkOA4jh1nXHPakP_isludG_OEFmFCteo20LrViUC3YX_SQI_Ti0rnSOkaAJoDfNfJK0gFbnN-b-YnSI-u9e6FCwS8Cyx2ttoQQdGgQd4GhVP-1k2qXSz0VJvc91MvSG6-Ih/s1600/My+family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOxE0Hkyp3ONkOA4jh1nXHPakP_isludG_OEFmFCteo20LrViUC3YX_SQI_Ti0rnSOkaAJoDfNfJK0gFbnN-b-YnSI-u9e6FCwS8Cyx2ttoQQdGgQd4GhVP-1k2qXSz0VJvc91MvSG6-Ih/s1600/My+family.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“‘To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:25-31, New King James Version). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today at both The Center for Theological Studies (CTS) and Men and Women in the Church (MWC), the blogs are dedicated to a woman who touched my life in manifold ways. I could write a book about her and still continue to write long after it. There are not enough books, chapters, or pages in the world to contain all that she meant to me within them. She was my mother, teacher, best friend, and biggest fan—<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teressa A. Richardson.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Each year at this time, I give a short glimpse into life with my mother, my experiences with her, the kind of person she was, and the things she said and did. And it never grows old to think upon the things she taught me. I am blessed by God to provide yet another glimpse today into her life---and examine once more the lessons she taught me that it would do me good (and all believers) to never forget. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">As a recent graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, I often heard the questions in my apologetics classes regarding God and the existence of evil. “If God is a good God, how can evil and suffering occur in the world?” “If God is just, why has He done nothing about it?” “If God is good, why would He even allow it in the first place?” It seems that atheists never tire of posing questions that, in their minds, seem to be legitimate questions that supposedly “knock” God off His throne, put themselves in His place, and take His glory for their own. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">This past summer 2011, I did some Internet evangelism at the Amazon chat room with atheists. The whole forum was titled “The Existence of God.” From the outside, it seemed as if there were a large number of Christians at the forum. When I entered, however, there were very few. Except for me, there was only one other person who, as a Christian, wanted to win these troubled souls to Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I met a guy named Walter who, after a week of my witnessing attempts, disclosed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was in his 60s, and the doctors told him that he had (at most) 6 months to live. I got to share my mother’s story with him of how she battled breast, lung, and brain cancer for three years. He told me, “Your mother was a strong woman.” I responded, “No—it wasn’t her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">strength</i> that saw her through; It was her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God</i> that saw her through.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">The Book of Isaiah was one of mom’s most beloved books of the Bible. She loved all of the Scriptures, but Isaiah’s words had special meaning to her in her life and life’s circumstances. Through her cancer, she clung to the words of Isaiah 40 and it is my prayer that her story and life would inspire you by God’s grace to continue on the path that is set before you.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">In today’s text, the Lord asks Israel, “Why do you say, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God’?” (Isaiah 40:27) Israel got to a place where the nation felt as if God was unjust to them. It seemed that the Lord no longer cared for the people “who were called by His Name,” that the ones He loved, the ones He delivered out of Egypt, He no longer had compassion for. It seemed to the nation of Israel that God was no longer just. This is why the Lord asks Israel’s question: “Why do you say... ‘my just claim is passed over by my God’?”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Mother could have easily arrived at this same place. She was a woman who loved the Lord, served Him fervently, and raised her children to do the same. She had every reason (on the surface at least) to point her finger to heaven at God and say, “Lord, you no longer hear my cry. You no longer care for your servant. I have done everything to walk godly before you, and you no longer care about me or my condition.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">But that’s not what she did. No---mom didn’t do what many have done (and many contemplate doing). Instead, she simply quoted the words, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.” It is because of her faith in the Lord that she continued to pray to God, even when she didn’t understand all the answers.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Someone reading this post today feels like the nation of Israel in Isaiah 40. Wherever you are at this moment in your life, you thought you would be somewhere else. Maybe you thought you would be married, or at another job, or promoted in your current job, or in the prime of your life instead of struggling with a life-threatening illness. Perhaps you have been given those three words that could forever change your life: “It is cancer.” If this is where you are today, do not despair; God has not forgotten about you. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">What did the Lord tell Israel? “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary...He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isa. 40:28-29). The same God that gave strength to the nation of Israel is the same God that gave my mother strength during her battle with cancer. And the same God that gave her strength is no respecter of persons---He will give you strength as well.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">How did Mom renew her strength? She went to God in prayer, she talked to the Lord when it seemed as though God had deserted her. She always told me and my sister Danielle, “When you cannot see His hand, always trust His heart.” If she were here, she would say the same thing to you: When you cannot see His hand, always trust His heart. Trust Him and know that those who wait upon Him will see their strength renewed; they will soar like eagles. They will run and not be weary, and they will walk, and not faint. God bless.</span></b><!--EndFragment-->Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-33144494912153231452011-11-15T09:48:00.000-08:002011-11-15T09:48:35.335-08:00Confession and Belief: Confirmatory or Essential?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">It’s good once more to return to The Center for Theological Studies. I acknowledge that I haven’t posted in months and do apologize for this. A number of things have transpired this semester between work and school that have prevented this. All in all, it’s good to be back. I feel like this is a “Blog Reunion” of sorts </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I was submitting some work for one of my bosses today and got to thinking about Calvinism and Arminianism and the constant disagreement that goes on between these two soteriological camps. Of course, when you throw Molinism in the mix, it’s a battle of a time! <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Today, though, I wanna focus on salvation itself and talk about confession and belief, components of the Gospel. I tackle this question here today because a lot of Calvinists who hold to irresistible grace do so because of “the sovereignty of God,” they often say. First off, they act sometimes as if Classical Arminians such as myself have no notion of the sovereignty of God...and they often cannot distinguish between Classical Arminians and Open Theists. Even the late Dr. Clark Pinnock, most renown five-point-Calvinist-turned-Open Theist, could distinguish the two camps. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">So what happens in salvation, according to the Scriptures? More specifically, how does one become saved? What does the Bible specifically tell men and women to do in order to be saved? Calvinists believe that the Lord first regenerates a person, changes them from the inside out---and then, they confess and believe (as though confession and belief are merely confirmatory signs of a predetermined salvation that God has already done). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Let’s take a look at this, however: if the Calvinist <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ordo salutis</i> (order of salvation) is correct, then why must the individual confess and believe? The Calvinist notion of salvation is the same thing as saying that a person must first go buy a chainsaw in the store to work on their yard and then, the store owner will let them in to buy the chain saw! Does this make sense? Not at all! How can someone buy a chain saw if he doesn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">first</i> enter the store? If it is “necessary” to enter the store, how then, can entering the store be “merely confirmatory”? If something is confirmatory, it is significant but more optional than necessary. The words “necessary” and “optional” are opposites (not synonymous). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">If we apply this to salvation, the question we must ask ourselves is, “If confession and belief are required for salvation,” are they necessary? Yes they are. I’m sure that many Christians would not disagree with that statement. The problem, however, comes when you tie in the necessity of confession and belief with the sovereignty of God. Calvinists, in their attempts to focus on the sovereignty of God, minimize the very salvation process that God’s sovereignty created. They give with one hand what they take away with the other. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Can we not find a solution that equally holds to both the sovereignty of God and the necessity of confession and belief---without sidelining <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">either</i>? Calvinists show through their minimization of confession and belief that they cannot find a solution that fits with their notions of irresistible grace and unconditional election. And this explains why they often have to appeal to mystery or say, “It’s all in the mind of God” as a defense mechanism to cope with the problems and contradictions of their own system. Molinists battle the same problem: their notion of unconditional election forces them to say that the individual in question would have been saved, had he never confessed and believed (because these are conditions and election is “unconditional”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">“No, that’s not what Molinists would say!” some tell me. Molinists would say that confession and belief are necessary conditions for salvation; however, they would then turn around and say that God had already chosen the church (and those who make up the church) before the foundation of the world (appealing to Ephesians 1). How could God have chosen these individuals before they fulfilled the conditions? The Molinist answer would be that God foreknew who would choose Him (this is where they sound like a Classical Arminian)...but they would then veer left and say, “But God sovereignly chose the world in which these individuals ‘happened’ to choose Him”---and God foreknew all that would happen. This may suffice for the Christian who cares about his or her own election and takes no thought to the perishing and ungodly in the world; but this doesn’t suffice for me. I strongly believe in the sovereignty of God, such that God could have saved the entire world (and never granted freedom of choice to begin with). However---and this is where I draw the line---God did grant humans the freedom to choose to either be saved or be damned. God’s sovereignty is responsible for man’s freedom. I would say to any Calvinist that, if you think God’s sovereignty didn’t grant freedom, think again---it did!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Because God granted the freedom to choose whether one is saved or lost, the question becomes, “Why didn’t He choose that the entire world be saved?” What I mean by this is, if God is sovereign in the Calvinist sense (that He irresistibly saves whom He pleases), then God has an awful lot of explaining to do. Somewhere along the way, He only decided to save 18 people out of a pool of 50 people drowning (an example often used), while the other 32 perished. Why didn’t God save the others who were perishing? The answer? “Because God didn’t want to.” Now the question after this is: “If God didn’t want to save those other 32, who’s to say that God wants to save me?” I could be a member of the church and think I’m saved, but how do I know? What about if, in the end, I’m not one of the elect (due to some invisible election decree)? The sad reality is, if there is one person on earth that God does not want to save, who’s to say that God wants to save <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anybody</i>? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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Have any of us ever seen the invisible election decree? No. How then, can we believe God loves <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>, as opposed to the ungodly? This is where Calvinists would start to name things in their lives that have changed, their love for the things of God, how God is teaching them...experience then becomes the reason as to why they “know” God loves them. But this is a problem. Where does Ephesians 1 ever say anything about “God validating our election with experience” before the foundation of the world? Where does it say that the election decree will be confirmed by experience? Nowhere do the Scriptures teach this. If there is an invisible, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unconditional</i> election decree, then confession and belief are not needed for salvation---they are merely confirmatory signs of an eternal regeneration (that is, Christians were “born saved”). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 13.5pt;">I could go on, but I think Romans 10:9 can stand by itself. As I close, though, ask yourself: “What did Jesus spend the majority of His time teaching?” What pervaded Jesus’ gospel message while He was on earth? If you do the right kind of digging, you’ll find that He spent far more time on the conditions of confession and belief than He did the invisible election decree and irresistible grace. God bless. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><!--EndFragment-->Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-88989612160477211622011-11-01T09:00:00.000-07:002011-11-01T09:00:06.115-07:00November Update Dear CTS Readership,<br />
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It is your blog owner, Deidre here. I just wanted to write and give you an update about where I've been and what I've been up to for the entire month of October.<br />
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I did find work, and I have been publishing some stuff around the Web. For those of you who are curious as to what I've published, see the last post. I have published something this past month (October 2011) that you may find intriguing. It is another post at the "Residence Hall Linens" blog, titled "No Taxation With Education: Three Strategies in the Textbook Revolution You Should Join" (<a href="http://www.rhl.org/blog/blog/date/2011/10/page/3/">http://www.rhl.org/blog/blog/date/2011/10/page/3/</a>). It's the last post at the bottom of the page link. I actually liked the picture they provided. What I liked most, though, was the genius idea the Lord provided about textbooks. Somehow, I combined my history background in my undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill with my love of knowledge and being "in the know," and...VOILA! The article was born.<br />
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Other than publishing online content, I've been busy preparing my bibliography for the Master of Theology program. Annotating books late at night until 7am or 8am has not been fun, but looking at the books has reignited a spark in me to return to theological research and all the things I love about it. A few of the books I checked out from the seminary library are actually books that I've been wanting to buy for the longest time but forgot to. It's pretty awesome when you meet the books you crave on your bibliography!<br />
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This semester has been a semester off from blogging as usual, but I'm not done with this place. I intend to return and resume my defense of the Christian faith and all that such a defense entails. Whenever I get the chance, I will continue to return to CTS and update my readers as to my whereabouts. For those of you who desire to contact me, just send me a line here or look me up on facebook. If you contact me at facebook, let me know you're a follower in the e-mail when you attempt to facebook friend me. That way, I won't think you're a stalker or something (trust me: stalkers are on facebook these days!)<br />
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It sure feels good to come back here and write. Just so you know, I've missed CTS too! Life hasn't been the same with work and bibliographical research. However, I intend to make a full return here once the bibliography has been completed...so watch and see. If you have any questions, leave them here in the comments section. I pray that the Lord is doing amazing things in your lives and that you are living each day for His glory and His glory alone. Soli Deo Gloria, DeidreDeidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172417803867627775.post-78590922771771612682011-10-04T10:00:00.000-07:002011-10-04T10:00:50.548-07:00Update: My Whereabouts Dear Readership,<br />
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It has been an entire week today since I last made my way to The Center for Theological Studies! It feels good to check in on things here and to brief you about my whereabouts.<br />
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Just for the record, I have not given up blogging. I intend to return and blog on topics of interest when free time allows. I desire to continue my work on Edward Fudge's "The Fire that Consumes," so don't think it's over and done yet. There is more to cover, and I will cover it as time permits.<br />
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Having said that, I would like to announce that the Lord is faithful. I received the job as a theology writer with the international writing corporation I mentioned one week ago. I just wrote my first paper two days ago---and it was actually a paper comparing and contrasting two sculptures. I wrote the paper well and was awarded a nice little bonus from the corporation. Who knew that hard work could literally "pay" off? :-)<br />
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I have also been blessed to be named the Research Assistant of "What's Your Impact?" Magazine, an international magazine based in Montreal, Canada that is devoted to preventing global warming at all costs. My first project for the magazine will be to talk about gasoline cars vs. hybrid cars, as well as the negative effects of gasoline cars on the environment. I can't wait for hybrid cars to become more affordable so everyone can have a hybrid!<br />
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In addition to these jobs, I also took on a corporate writing job with a corporate writing firm. My boss, named Lisa, and I have a great working relationship. We talked on the phone for the first time some days ago, and she told me, "You have a lot of potential in this business." I sure pray so. My desire is to do great work for my boss (or bosses) and make a great income. I am depending on it in order to eat and live. In some ways, you can call me a "corporate businesswoman," to use my mother's terminology: I work for a corporate firm and I make corporate pay rates. Thank you Lord, for such blessing in my life...<br />
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I just wanted to write and update you all on the vast amount of work I've taken on myself. I know it's a lot, but I have a lot of bills that require money. Losing my mother was the hardest thing for me, but now, I've got to step in her place and afford the big bills. Still, though, I've gotten to write a bit. If you want to see some of the work I've done (though anonymously labeled), please see the following blog posts at the Campus Living blog on the Residence Hall Linens site (http://www.rhl.org/blog/):<br />
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(1) "Dorm Room Theft Prevention Tips"<br />
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(2) "The Best and Worst Study Places in College"<br />
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(3) "Don't Settle for Less: How to Make College Life Work for You"<br />
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This will do for now. Thanks again for tuning in to read about where I've been and what I've been up to. Pray much for me that I will please my employers and the Lord in my jobs. It is because I take these jobs that I can return to CTS and do what I really love: write theology to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless.Deidre Richardson, B.A., M.Div.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04415891901162852180noreply@blogger.com2