(considering) 8:28

Implications of the Sovereignty of God

recent posts

  • 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.

  • Online Reading (October 31, 2007)

    Education: The University of Delaware takes the lead in “moral education”……to seemingly Orwellian extremes.

    Wiccan School: A small town deals with a school for witches.

    Love as Property?: A man in Miss. is suing over “alienation of affection” (or accusing a man of stealing his wife’s love).

    Humbug: A British think tank (the favorite of Labour) calls on the government to “downgrade Christmas“, because it would be too hard to expunge entirely.

  • Online Reading (October 30, 2007)

    Family: Al Mohler reports on a sociologist who believes that the family is a central basis for democracy.

    Statistics: Interesting numbers about Americans and their opinions on Evangelicals.

    Legalities: Apparently, trying to ship motor oil on an airplane is a very serious offense. Even for poor missionaries helping war orphans in Sudan.

    Safety: Car seats, not just for cars anymore.

  • Regaining Sight

    After several months without glasses (I lost my last pair in Labrador, and haven’t had the money to replace them since), I was actually beginning to believe I could do without them. The cost of a new pair was quite high (from my perspective) and the money could be used to purchase me a new ipod.

    It was then that my loving parents offered to pay for the eye exam and the new glasses (as long as I got a cheaper pair of frames). Well, I still thought it would be better spent replacing my dead nano, but they were adamant that it be spent on eyewear, so what was I to do?

    It’s been several weeks since I actually got my new glasses back, and the newness of my ability to see has begun to sink in. When I got my compound lenses for nearsightedness and astigmatism, I was surprised to find out how much I could read that I thought was impossible, and how much my love of reading (and writing) had been hampered by my degrading sense of sight. I’m finding levels of “discipline” I never thougt I had, because simply, I can now see the words on a page without squinting.

    What freaks me out, though, is that I hadn’t noticed the slide. Over the months, my reading had been slowing down to an eventual near stop (by my old standards), and I hadn’t really noticed. One of the central joys of my life (reading) had been slowing, and I didn’t even notice. If it hadn’t been for the demand that I get glasses, I might not have known, and if Mom didn’t expect to see me in glasses, I might even have bought glasses and deigned not to wear them.

    There is a spiritual lesson to be learned here. At a few times, I have found my own ability to see and understand things God does hampered by the fact that I’ve been operating without glasses. Instead of seeing things in my own life through the revelation of scripture, I have used my own understanding of things, and when my understanding didn’t help much I found myself despairing. Sometimes I would even think that my own understanding had scriptural warrant, but didn’t (which I didn’t know as I wasn’t coming to scripture to learn, but to validate my own beliefs…. like leaving “unneeded” glasses on a shelf). Then, I placed myself under the authority of God, and over time, surprise, found that I had been wrong, and that I could see more clearly.

    As some great saint once said, I believe in Christianity in the same way that I believe that the sun has risen, not simply because I see it, but that I can see things by it.

  • Changing things

    If you actually read this blog, you’ll notice some changes. Let me know what you think