Recommended Book - Against Calvinism by Roger Olson

I cannot recommend Against Calvinism highly enough. Calvinism is a pervasive thought in our times, especially in the community I pastor in. With the new resurgence of Calvinism, Calvinists try to set themselves up as the only intellectual/theological approach to being a Christian. Many young people are bamboozled by this. They want an alternative to the empty Christianity their youth ministries are giving them, and Calvinism seems to be the answer. This just isn't the case. Roger Olson does the best job I have ever seen making the case against this approach to Christianity.

Who would believe that a teacher who withholds the information students need to pass a course merely permitted them to fail? What if that teacher, when called on the carpet by parents and school officials, said, "I didn't cause them to fail. They did it on their own"? Would anyone accept that explanation or would they accuse the teacher of not merely permitting the students to fail but also of actually causing them to fail? And what if the teacher argued that he or she actually planned and rendered the students' failure certain for a good reason--to uphold academic standards and show what a great teacher he or she is by demonstrating how necessary his or her information is for students to pass? Would not these admissions only deepen everyone's conviction that the teacher is morally and professionally wrong? (85)

Bad Thoughts - Theology That Leads Us Astray

I hate the phrase, "Well, if it is God's will, it will happen." A phrase like that would mean that the growth of Islam was God's will. Mormonism, God's will. Constant war, God's will. The shootings in Connecticut, God's will. The list could go on and on. How asinine. Saying that what has happened and what is happening is God's will ignores the Bible, ignores our reality, and is really a device that will cause us to ignore God.

Two weeks ago, Tim Tebow, who was signed by the New York Jets in the offseason, was leapfrogged for the starting quarterback job. He had been waiting behind Mark Sanchez all year to get a start. The coach decided to not start Sanchez, but he also decided to start the third-stringer instead of Tebow. So Tebow is still the backup. Unfortunately for him, he became the backup to the guy who was his backup.

Tebow said, "I don't have regrets. I believe everything happens for a reason, and it's a learning opportunity for me and there's a lot I've learned, good and bad."

"Everything happens for a reason." That sounds all good and spiritual. It's nice that he has a good attitude, but the bad theology drives me nuts. True, everything happens for a reason, but when that is uttered in spiritual circles it usually implies that everything happens as a result of God. He's the "reason" they are implying. Lots of things happen due to reasons that are terrible. A kid gets killed in a drunk driving accident, not because God wanted that, but because we live in a fallen world and a person decided to be stupid, drink too much, and decide to drive. Kids get shot in a school, not because God wanted that, but, again, because we live in a fallen world and something went terribly wrong in a young man's head. God is not a puppet master, and we are not His puppets. God will use everything for His glory, but that does not mean that everything happens as a result of a God reason. Every day, things happen that are not what God wants to happen. Outside of His will. Outside of His plan.

I want to propose another phrase today. It's not as catchy as "everything happens for a reason" or "if it's God's will, it will happen," but it contains more truth than those two statements. "If God wills it, then we need to join in and make it happen. Or it won't." He is the solution. He has a plan for humanity and each one of our lives. But we, the church and His people, are the delivery method of that solution and are given the privilege to bring his plan into our reality.

We are free will beings. Just like the coach of the Jets could have chosen to start Tebow. Just like a drunk driver could have chosen to call a taxi. Just like the shooter could have chosen to not be a monster. They weren't being micromanaged by God. He's not in the micromanagement business. Well, at least not all of the time. He's in the prompting business.

We need to be careful to never let those words - that "everything happens for a reason" or " if it's God's will, it will happen" - ever exit our mouths or control the way we live. Try not to even think them. Those thoughts disempower. They belittle our importance as free will beings. They cripple our prayer lives. They stifle evangelism.

God doesn't need us to be puppets for Him to be great. He's already great. He's amazing in the way that He is patient and waits for faithful followers to bring about His will. And we don't need to be forced to be faithful. We need grace to be right with God; our own works cannot do that. But that grace is available to everyone. Each one of us needs to acknowledge that God knows the solution, the best plan for our lives, and He is waiting for us to be faithful. We have the choice to respond to His plan for our lives by surrendering to His will, loving Him, and loving others. God will use everything to bring about His will. But He is patient. If God wills it, then we need to join in and make it happen. Or it won't.

God knows our passions and our desires. He didn't create us to be a puppets, but to listen to Him and be a doer of His will. I once talked with a friend who is a talented artist and involved in church. I asked him, "So have you ever used your art skills for your church?" And he had never thought about it. That broke my heart. Somewhere we strayed off course and designed a church that didn't have room for each individual's creativity, passions, and dreams. Molded into bringing glory to God, of course. Every gift, every blessing, every talent is an opportunity to be used by God. Don't let the thought that you are a puppet prevent you from dreaming and doing what is on your heart from God. You aren't a puppet. You are a loved creation that has been blessed with passions and abilities.

If God wills it, then we need to join in and make it happen. Or it won't. And I don't want to live in a family, a community, a church, or a world where His will isn't happening. It starts with us. In the morning, when we rise, do we decide that we are going to live this day to bring about God's plan or are we going to spend investing in a plan that will eventually turn to dust, our plan. The choice is ours.

Bible Study on God's Call, Choice, and Man

God calls all people, so our response starts with His call. Each one of us has been destined to be conformed to the image of his Son, but many of us fight against our destiny. God's destiny is never forced on us.

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.  John 12:32 (ESV)

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:2 (ESV)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:29-30 (ESV)

We should never be prideful in our response to God or be haughty toward those who do not yet believe because our belief started with God.

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 (ESV)

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Phil 2:13 (ESV)

But we must respond to that love. God chose us, but we also must choose Him. Are we willing to do what He has called us to do?

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:21 (ESV)

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23 (ESV)

We now play a part in the redemption of the world. Our part is meaningless without the sacrifice of Jesus, but His sacrifice gains meaning to those around us by our faithfulness to his call on our lives:

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20 (ESV)

Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matt 5:16 (ESV)

Finally, each one of us is perfect at birth yet born into a fallen world where we eventually choose to sin, which separates us from God. We are all in the Lamb's book of life. Some are, unfortunately, blotted out. Names written before the foundation of the world are blotted out. Tragic. We must become and remain faithful.

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. Rev 3:5 (ESV)

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. Heb 6:4-6 (ESV)

God Does Not Know The Future

I have been hesitant to post this one because some people take this issue as one of salvation, of which they would decide that I am out of.  I share my views here because I find this stance to be extremely liberating and profoundly life-transforming.

I believe that God does not know the future.

In theological circles, this is a belief called Open Theism. The idea is that those events that have not happened yet have not happened even to the eyes of God. God might know everything; however, he cannot know that which has not happened and cannot be known. He knows the infinite possibilities and their likelihoods, but God is going along in time with us. This view stems from the verses in the Bible where God changed his mind (Jonah 3:9-10, Exodus 32:14).  It is not an attack on God's sovereignty; it is just an admission that the future has not yet happened.

For some, this view gets hung up by the prophecies of Scripture. How can a God that does not see the future know events in the future? An open theist explains this problem by saying that anything God prophesied is more like a promise.  This actually emphasizes his sovereignty more by saying that if God wants to have an event occur, he has all of the power to make it happen.  Prophecies are not fulfilled because he has seen it happen but because he knows that he is going to make it happen. Open theism emphasizes the omnipotence of God while limiting the traditional view of omniscience, although he would still be all-knowing.

The opposite view to open theism is called closed theism. It depends on a philosophical construct that God exists outside of time and space. Please note that this is not a biblical construct; it is completely extrabiblical yet people make it an essential issue. The idea is that God exists in a place where our time can be viewed like a time-line that can be hung on a bulletin board in a classroom.  The past and future is all laid out and completed in God's eyes. He can peer in at any point on the finished time-line and see any point of time at any time. It is all finished for him. This view emphasizes that God knows the future. They claim this is revealed through the prophecies about the future which then came true, but we have already pointed out how open theists deal with that argument.

Closed Theism runs into serious problems when dealing with the Scriptures where God changed his mind. Many will argue that God did not really change his mind. This interpretation is a disservice to the Scriptures. A well-thought out explanation would argue that those explanations of God are just a form of anthropomorphism, describing God in human terms so that he can be understood. At that point, open and closed theists would just be arguing about what they believe is most logical rather than what the Bible says because they both know God is described in Scripture in a way that highlights that he does not know the future.

While an open theists wrestles with how prophecy works in a system where God does not know the future. A closed theist has to wrestle with something much more dangerous: How to define clear teachings of Scripture away from what they clearly say.

Many reside in some area between closed theism and open theism. They would argue that God sometimes knows the future and sometimes does not.  In this view, there would be varying degrees of foreknowledge. Those who reside in that gray area between closed and open theism would argue about how much of the future God knows, when God knows the future, and even argue that knowing whether God knows the future is something that we just do not know.

As for me, it seems more honest in dealing with the Scriptures to state that God does not know the future and is going through time with us. What really matters is that we all get our beliefs from Scripture and not from church traditions, the sentiments of the world around us, or from just not wanting to think about it too much.

You may also be interested in Does God Change His Mind and Change Brings Change but There is an Idea that Keeps Us Chained.