(considering) 8:28

Implications of the Sovereignty of God

recent posts

  • Funny how no one wants it.

    Being single as a 33 year old Christian man is usually a good gig. The Lord blesses me greatly in giving me good solid prayer time, and the ability to study scripture and read, and to have friendships with few restrictions. I’m available to people at a level that most men my age simply can’t be, because I have no family to take care of. I wouldn’t often be able to blog at midnight were a wife expecting me to come to bed, or if I had a child who wasn’t yet sleeping through the night (as I’d be grasping sleep wherever I could).

    Often, when I think about it, I enjoy my life as a single poverty-stricken pastoral wannabe. That doesn’t mean I don’t keep my eyes out for Christian women who might be good marriage potential, but it’s not the controlling factor in my life.

    I have to say that because the Christian climate is often hostile to being a single Christian guy, especially when I date selectively (I only ask out people who I believe would be good wives and mothers, and for whom I would be a positive part of their lives… the last time I even asked someone for a date was a year or so ago). But the story I get from around me is that men my age should be married. People point to the overwhelming preponderance of women in the church, and how I have no reason to be single. I’ve even had people tell me how I should find a wife soon. And I would, but I really don’t know anyone who’d meet my expectations who is also single. Additionally there’s the fact that I want to be a pastor, and most Churches see a single pastor guy as a danger of sexual sin, so my chances of work are actually diminished by the fact that I’m not married.

    If all that weren’t enough, many single Christian women seem scared I’m going to get interested in them and ask them out. It makes some uncomfortable, and others go so far as to preventively tell me they aren’t interested, whether there’s any danger of me actually asking them out or not. I try to offset this by self-depricating humor about my understanding that women aren’t interested in me, but then people worry that I’m sitting in a corner at night bewailing the fact I’m not yet wed.

    And then there’s the fact that I have parents who like to wonder when I’m going to “settle down”, and start producing grandkids for them.

    All of this is before we add in the sexually charged culture, and the fact that I do sometimes succumb to the pressure and talk about my own singularity.

    I don’t think my bride is around the corner (if indeed I ever marry), but I don’t think the pressures on me from both within and outside the Church are going to let up either.

    Yet singleness is a gift, and a valuable one. The Lord has provided me a time to think and pray for others, to study his word, and to put to death the deeds of the flesh in my own life without worrying that the shrapnel of my spiritual battles will harm my family. And I know that whatever reason God has for not putting a wife into my life, it’s a good one.

    Because in the end, contrary to some people’s thinking, my life isn’t about the propagation of the species, but about glorifying God. I pray that the Lord will strengthen me to glorify Him more, whether single or married.

    G’night and God bless!

  • The Strength of an Argument

    A friend in commenting on my argument about the objective beauty of people asked whether the argument would be all that convincing to somebody who honestly believed they were ugly.

    To be honest, I’d have to say no. When it comes to the strength of an argument, the objective truth of the argument does not determine a person’s ability to believe it. There are a number of things that interrupt a person’s ability to believe something.

    1) Trauma – People sometimes have mental blocks created by past hurts or present addictions. So, for example, telling someone with a low self concept that they are beautiful won’t work.

    2) Desires – Sometimes people don’t want something to be true, and so choose not to believe it if they at all can. In normal situations that’s why some people refuse to see when their boyfriend or girlfriend (or even spouse) is bad for them. The reprecussions are too extreme, and so they simply do not want to believe it.

    As an aside, most atheists claim that this is the reason people like me believe that there is a god. Though I’m not sure about this, as if there is no god, I can do whatever I can rationally convince myself is moral, and I’m trained to twist words, I can make a lot seem ethical.

    3) Paradigms. Sometimes people have a method of interpreting the world around them that simply cannot conceive of the truth of anything that is opposed to their point of view. The most common example is an overly self-centered person.  They can’t imagine the needs of other people simply because they are so centered on themselves. Where some choose to believe things in opposition to truth, some cannot even see the truth. The evidence contrary to what they believe simply does not register.

    All of this is important to remember when in argument, as the person you’re talking to may actually be more knowledgable than you even if you know that they’re wrong in some way, or conversely they may actually see things more clearly than you do, despite the fact you have more knowledge than they do.

  • Online Reading (November 5, 2007)

    Books: John Polkinghorne reviews some books on atheism.

    Emergent Church: John Stackhouse refutes some claims about him in a book by D.A. Carson.

    Theology: Is Charismatic doctrine the reason for some of the nuttiness in the movement?

    Polytheism: Though Albert Mohler reports that some think all the “religion” problems are only because of monotheism.

  • Online Reading (November 1, 2007)

    Weather: Looks like rain…..Darn, and I was hoping for a BBQ this weekend….

    Travel: Sex is discouraged on Singapore Airlines in the new full sized beds.

    Fundamentalism: John Piper thanks God for Fundamentalists, even after they censure him. (note: from this story, it seems I’m not a fundamentalist. Who knew?)

    Books: Gary Shavey interviews Alister McGrath on his new book, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution – A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First.

  • Why Do People Go to Hell?

    Okay, most people reading this blog for any period of time know that I believe in hell. I think that people who do not come to faith in Jesus Christ continue in their sin, and so must bear the punishment of sin themselves.

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    Now this leads to a slight problem when talking to nonbelievers. Most famously, I’ve heard it attributed to Christopher Hitchens and one of my favorite political bloggers (who writes for hotair.com). The objection simply asks why Christians keep saying to atheists that God loves them, yet also claims that this same loving God will send them to hell simply for not believing in Jesus.

    Needless to say, if they’re correct, Christianity is a very crazy religion, and is more than a little psychotic. That is true, though I fear they have underestimated the coherence of Christianity.

    For a Christian, God is above all else good and Holy. Both those terms, as they are used by Christians, are explained in the Bible (and anybody wishing to buy me a Smithwicks and a plate of Nachos can talk to me about it).  Being also very intelligent and discerning, God values things based on how valuable they actually are. For this reason, humans are not the primary object of his affections. God himself is

    This is not the same as human vanity, as God really is deserving of being the object of affection. Indeed, He’s also the best object of affection for we humans.

    This causes a problem for humans. Dr. House is quite correct when he says that humans are generally bad creatures, capable of good acts now and then, but still mostly bad. The problem isn’t those actions, it’s that we are basically bad creatures.

    So now we have a problem. God is good, and we are bad. If God were to be fully consistent at this point, he’d destroy us all. In fact, given how bad evil is, he’d actually start punishing us now. This is the extension of the problem of evil most people are unwilling to note. We are actually evil too, and part of the fact that evil exists is that we exist.

    That’s not the whole story for Christians though. The Bible tells us (in Genesis 1) that we were created in the image of God. We are created to give glory to God, yet we fell into sin, making us evil. Now God has two options for justice. Either wipe us out and send us all to hell, or make some way of saving some of us. He chose the latter, and that is the reason for Christ. Faith in Christ for a Christian is roughly equivalent to a rope thrown to a drowning man. If you don’t take hold of the rope, you drown.

    Similarly, if you don’t take hold of Christ, you get destroyed by God’s justice. Similarly, contrary to the above noted objection, God does not send you to hell solely for refusing Christ any more than you are damned to drowning because you refuse a rope. You drown because you are in the ocean and have no gills, and you are damned because you’re evil.

    Thus the question is not one of getting “punished” for refusing Christ alone, but also being punished for being evil. Christ is grace, He is a rescuer, That’s why Christians call him “Saviour”. If the universe is fundamentally just, well, we’re in trouble and need a Saviour.  God grants that in Christ. He is the only way to heaven.

    As a famous pastor once said; All sin is punished. Either Christ takes the punishment  you deserve on the cross, or you take the punishment you deserve in Hell.

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    Your choice.