Remission of sin and falling of grace

How can man truly have remission of sin if they are continually falling from grace?
Men do not fall from grace like that, not with EVERY SIN.
They are either saved or not.

Yes a saint could sin and still be a saint.
But a saint does not lose salvation every time they sin.

The doctrine on remission of sin makes it clear that we are forgiven of all of our sins when we confess Christ Jesus as Lord. We are made right by Christ’s blood for ALL of our sin. It is separated as far as east is from west. We are forgiven. We are NEW.

A saint chooses to disobey and is still saved or was never really saved at all.

What do Arminius really think about remission of sin?

Tension: one of the reasons I love studying theology

I recently read a well thought out post by a Calvinistic friend who’s posts I read often about Calvinism relating to unconditional election. He explained how Arminians try to solve tension. Arminians’ quest to solve tension is one of their main problems/mistakes. There are a lot of tensions in Scripture and in theology. We do not have to solve these tensions. For example the Trinity, it does not make sense, but we do not find reason to resolve the tension created. The Trinity is not Irrational but it is difficult. Yet we understand that there is a certain amount of mystery involved in theology. Somethings that we humans cannot quite understand fully. One of the main points in Micheal’s post is that Calvinists and Arminians take a different perspective. Both see that God is Sovereign, but in different ways. They both believe in predestination but the difference is in the basis of predestining.

“The Calvinist says that God’s predestination has no founding in the predestined in any sense. God did not choose people based on any merit, intrinsic or foreseen. This is called unconditional predestination because there are no conditions in man that need to be met. It does not mean that God did not have any reason for choosing some and not others, but that the reason is not found in us.

The Arminian says that God’s predestination has a founding in the faith of the predestined. In other words, God looks ahead in time and discovers who will believe and who will not and chooses people based on their prior free-will choice of him.”

Michael brought a real interesting argument to the table. It is a good read and I suggest you take a look for yourself.

Scripture teaches both of God’s Sovereignty and Man’s responsibility. The Arminians found a solution to the conflict. Calvinists are left wanting more.
“To the Calvinists, man is fully responsible for his choice, yet God’s election is unconditional. Therefore, there is a tension that is created between human responsibility and God’s election.”

Man may not know how to understand how it works. The balance and tension of man’s responsibility and God’s unconditional election…it is amazing to think about. It is amazing how God lets it all happen but yet is in control either way. It is great stuff.

This post really was great for me because of my stance on unconditional election and predestination. The more I study it the more I feel like I have no idea what I am talking about. But I do not feel satisfied with the extreme arguments of the two sides, in the false dichotomy of Calvinism and Arminianism.

It was refreshing to see others alongside of Michael in the comments section of his post reflecting on it and realizing that there is a tension and mystery to some issues like this topic. And there is a balance to the arguments. And that the truth is ultimately in God’s hands.

Well anyways, thanks Michael for getting me exciting about theology again. This is one of the main reasons I love studying it…some of these things that I cannot get my brain around are fun to think about. The tension and mystery is like an adrenaline rush and a puzzle to piece all at the same time.

Thoughts on God’s sovereignty

In “The Miracle” post
I shared how in nature things follow laws that we expect to come true all the time
but we as Christians understand that all of science is controlled by God, an intelligent being.
I told a story about how an intelligent person, me, always gets my coffee a certain way. My friend verified that I “ALWAYS” (in his own words)get dark coffee. One day I choose to change it up and I order a latte. My friend Tom is really excite, because he loves lattes and he never expected me to order a latte. It was a miracle for Tom.
I wanted to relate this concept to God’s Sovereignty.

While God is in control of all things and God, he being an intelligent being chooses to allow human being to have some power, some persuasion, some choice at certain times in history.

If you recall Pharaoh hardened his heart, Nebuchadnezzar choose not to obey, Moses “changed God’s mind,” Jeremiah prayed and God listened!

I know this is sketchy ground and my argument is very underdeveloped. I am merely blogging ideas as they come.

I have always thought that in the argument between free will/Arminius and Sovereignty/Calvinism that both sides have something correct, but both sides are lacking. When you think about a middle ground, have a healthy perspective, things start to connect. Maybe I am wrong, but I think this analogy helps. what do you think?

Predestination

My friend asked me to do a post on the topic of Predestination.
This is a big and broad topic. So we will see how far I go into this post and decide on where I am going with it next.
With that said, I think my friend was referring to the Calvinistic idea of predestination in TULIP beyond mere overall Sovereignty.

I personally believe that God is no doubt Sovereign over all things. The questions really come into play when we get into the details of how it all works out. God, being all knowing and beyond ANY boundary (such as time and physical location) that all humans are trapped by, allows ALL things to happen. Some attribute free will and others attribute it all to God and his sovereign. The discussion can go all over the place from here. It gets messy!

Free Will versus Sovereignty

Where do I stand? Well honestly, I am still studying these things and have not settled in on ONE particular theory. I do not really agree with all the points of Calvinism and I am not completely against them either. There is a lot of gray area. I could go into the TULIP discussion and my analysis on that, but not today. (At least not in this post.)

I want to stick to the original topic of predestination and not delve into TULIP.

The more I have studied this and dwell on it, the more I find myself in that gray area. I think both sides (Calvinists, Arminists) both have great points and use the Bible (sometimes out of context) to support themselves.
I have gone through periods of wrestling over these things. Take the topic of election for instance:

One day I might say, “God ‘s choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world was based upon His foreseeing that they would respond to His call.”
Then the next day I would wake up and be like, “no that does not make much sense, because it gives human way too much response and responsibility. It almost puts man and man’s choice ahead of God and His plan. I don’t like that.” It must be “God ‘s choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world rested solely in His own sovereign will.”
Then the next day I say to myself, “but what about faith, obedience what about when Moses or Jeremiah ‘changed God’s mind’ by praying for their people?”

There is a balance. There is an area that is hard to understand. There is something more than just Calvinist all out Sovereign will of God and the complete Free Will of human choice.

Btw, if you think about it, there is still Sovereignty in The Arminius approach (whether they admit it or not)…notice how both arguments start with “God ‘s choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world…”

You think about it long enough, (and throw the fact that God allowed us to discuss it), it is more and more amazing how God is ultimately in control. And He uses both man and things beyond man to control man. WOW.

In just the basic idea of predestination:

tells us, “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” and 11 declare, “He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.…In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.” Many people have a strong hostility to the doctrine of predestination. However, predestination is a biblical doctrine. The key is understanding what predestination means, biblically. The Greek word proorizo, which carries the meaning of “to determine beforehand,” “to ordain,” “to decide upon ahead of time.”

If God is choosing who is saved, does not that undermine our free will to chose and believe in Christ? The Bible says that we have the freewill choice – all we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ and we will be saved (; ). The Bible never describes God rejecting anyone who believes in Him or turning away anyone who was seeking Him (). Somehow, in the mystery of God, predestination works hand in hand with a person being drawn by God () and believing unto salvation (). God predestines who will be saved, and we must choose Christ in order to be saved. Both facts are equally true. proclaims, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!”

This post, I realize is just scratching the surface of the itch.

Social justice…and politics

How does this relate to Dominion theology and what are the concerns (pros and cons?)
How does this relate to our political stance?
Should a conservative and/or liberal Christian work together for social justice?
How does fighting for social justice relate to post-modern society?

So if we are Christians fighting for social justice, does that make us extremists?
Do people have a reason for concern when they call us out for believing in Dominion theology?
Should we be followers of Dominion Theology?

I believe that we do not have to be extremists. I believe that we should not take an incredibly extreme belief in Dominion theology. Sure at one level we do have a responsibility to take care of the earth. God has in fact put man at the highest level and given us that responsibility.
But we do not have to try to rule the world through politics and we do not have to follow New World Order Conspiracies. We should not put all our eggs in one basket, especially if you are basing the own Dominion theology around one verse of the Bible. There is a healthy responsibility God has placed on man to rule over the earth and take care of it, but not necessarily force everyone into Christianity.

If we are fighting for social justice will we come across as liberal Christians? should we join the democratic party in order to get some of these social justices?

Forget politics. This should not be about politics. If you are conservative, liberal ,Democratic, or Republican – you can agree that we have a duty to fight for social justice, it is Biblical, not politial. We will not come across as ‘liberal’ Christians, if we are fighting for the right things and doing what is the right thing. For example, if we are fighting poverty, yes we give money and food to the poor, but (this is key) we also have the oppurtunity to share God’s love and the Gospel message with the people we are ministering to. If we are “making the Main thing, the main thing,” then we will not be fighting social injustice to fight social injustice, but we will be showing and telling God’s love. Iti s about sharing the Gospel and fighting injustice. Not just one or the other. And the amazing thinkg is that we can work together on this! Calvinist, Arministist, Obama, McCain, anyone who truely claims to be a Christian! It is time to stop fighting about petty in0-church doctrines and truely live it out in the real world, with people who have never heard any doctrine!

How does this relate to our post-modern world?

Agian, we have to keep the Main Thing (Jesus Christ) the main thing. In a society of relativism, it seems likely that people will want us to join their campaigns for justice. And outsiders of Christianity might want to join our campaign for justice. Both of these situations are great. We can and should work with non-Christians in our fight for justice. But we cannot loose sight of what is most important, the Gospel. We as Christians do have a doctrine that we cannot forget about, that is the message of Christ’s love for us at Calvary. We need to be clear that we believe in doing what is just but we also have to be clear about why we are doing it! That is to show God’s love, to be God’s light. Present the Gospel as well as minister for justice!

Free will or Soverign God in relation to righteous Prophets

In the Prophets there is a point at which God says “no more! That is it! I am going to punish you…I gave you the chance!”

There are times where the faithful and righteous followers of God intervened through prayer and God listened…God gave his people another chance.

Then there are times when God refuses to listen to even the righteous when the his people have broken the “threshold” (if it where). Then it is all God, no matter what the righteous followers do or say.

Of course the argument could go for or against either side…ultimately a Sovereign God is going to punish them eventually or ultimately the people were going to choice to sin and life a lifestyle of disobedience.

But I want to look at both sides of the argument and say that in the Sovereignty of God and in the responsibility of man –there is a balance! Through-out Scripture and in real life…

Sure Calvinists and Arminists can fight all they want but I want to look deeper and see that both sides have a point. Look at Scripture and see the balance.