It Would Take a Miracle...

A while back I was talking to a Catholic friend of mine. I didn't know he was Catholic; actually, when I first met him, he was Agnostic.

But we were talking for a while, I mainly about how weird it was to me that he wasn't Agnostic anymore, since I had known him for years as one. He explained to me his story (which involved a miracle about snow which I don't perfectly remember, but it was interesting). He concluded by saying he knew I believed his story because it would take a miracle for him to believe in God.

Tonight I found myself thinking about those words, and I realized how absolutely brilliant they are.

I mean, think about it. We're fallen, wicked human beings. We don't want to believe in God. What? Some almighty being wants to intrude on my life, be my lord and master? Save me? Hah! I can do all that myself.

Everyone is like that at some point. But for some people, that song changes. At some point it doesn't seem so far-fetched. It might actually be possible. Maybe we really do need a Savior. Maybe we need some perfect being to be the ruler of our lives. Maybe we can't do it on our own.

Why does that change? It's because God calls out to his children. He opens their hearts and minds to receive him, something we absolutely cannot do on our own. In other words, it's a miracle.

It takes a miracle for anyone to believe in God. Thankfully, God works that miracle out for us because we can't perform miracles. We're human beings. Only God can do miracles.

It would take a miracle for us to even be in the presence of God without dying. But thankfully, that miracle has already happened; Jesus died, took our sin and gave us his perfect righteousness, then rose from the dead "so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV).

Why I Love Scripture

I've fallen in love with Scripture. I can't really explain it, but it's awesome. The words that God has spoken to us to give us life, teaching, correction, and everything we need are truly some of the most precious treasures man can have, along with the salvation that comes through God-given faith and the fact that we're adopted into the family of God.

In fact, one of my favorite passages in Scripture is precisely because it's about Scripture. That passage is 2 Timothy 3:14-17:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (ESV)

Pastor and theologian Dr. R.C. Sproul wrote a book titled Knowing Scripture, which exegetes this passage. I won't go into all the detail, but it basically says this passage describes how the Scripture is all-sufficient for us to be equipped and wise in accordance to Biblical wisdom, which begins with "the fear of the Lord" (Prov. 1:7). It is how we learn of and teach salvation. It has the standards of Christian living. It has the commands of God, breathed-out by his very mouth. It trains us to be righteous. And every time we open it up, the Holy Spirit is there to help us understand it. What's not to love?

"And they will all be taught by God" (John 6:45).

New Blog Name?

So you're probably wondering why I changed my blog's name. Or not. Either way I'm gonna tell you.

I realized that this blog really isn't so much of a "story" per se. It's more a place where I post my thoughts and hope and try really hard to not be the 1 Timothy 1:6-7 guy.

Thus, a new blog name! I think it's appropriate too, because worshiping our Sovereign Lord is something I want to do every day, something I have to remind myself of every day, and absolutely essential for any Christian.

I also want to say that by "worship," I don't just mean music. Sure, music is one form of worship. But by worship, I mean our entire lives must be devoted to God! This is something I struggle with every day, so don't think I'm saying I've accomplished that. I don't think anyone in history except Jesus ever fully accomplished that. But yeah.

Also, for those of you who have this blog bookmarked (all 0 of you), you'll need to fix that. I changed the URL to reflect the new name and the old one doesn't work anymore.

http://worshippingasovereignlord.blogspot.com

A Brief Theology Lesson

I was talking about theology to Sarrah earlier tonight. Well, sort of. We both realized that we are different kinds of leaders in a church setting. Sarrah is more of an administrative, organized person who really cares about individual people and issues. While I think those are very important, I naturally tend to gravitate toward the theology side of things, the Bible study and interconnecting of Scripture.

What I realized at the end of that conversation was that a lot of Christians have a very incorrect view of what theology really is. Most people tend to think theology is all that weird stuff with the big words like "ecclesiology," "eschatology" and "penal substitutionary atonement." And, while it can include those things, it's a lot simpler than people make it out to be. And by people, I mean those who delve really deeply into those things and know all those weird words as well as those who don't care to know what "soteriology" means. Heck, I don't even know what that means; I just pulled that word off of Wikipedia.

"Theo" means "god." "-logy" basically means "study of." The study of God. What does that come down to? Bible study. Going to church and listening to the pastor preach. Reading the Bible. All of that is what theology really is. It's the study of God.

"-logy" also descends from the Greek "-logue," which has to do with discourses. Communication, whether it is spoken or written. Something written about God...sound familiar? In other words, your Bible is a big book of theology.

In fact, all those weird words and terms that people use for whatever reason all boil down to the Bible. Theology, as most people understand it, gets muddied up by all these big words and terms. All they are are words that define specific fields of study in the Bible, like who the Church is and what its relationship is to Christ (ecclesiology) or the study of the person and work of Christ (Christology). There's no actual need for these words though. One could simply say he's studying the church as it's presented in the Bible. Or, and this is what I like to do, one could just read the Bible and see all these fancy-shmancy topics in the context God put them in.

I think I tend to fall into the trap of thinking theology involves all these complex words and topics. It really doesn't have to. It certainly can, and maybe for some people it's extremely important that it does. But reading about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a colt and seeing in the same passage that it fulfilled a prophecy in Isaiah is as much theology as learning what penal substitutionary atonement actually means and finding out whether or not Jesus went to Heaven or Hell for the three days he was dead.

Es-ka-tuh-logical

I frequently get asked, "Hey Adam, what are your beliefs on the end times?"

Okay, that's not entirely true.

...Actually, it's not true at all. But that's beside the point.

Don't worry, this isn't going to be another post about how the end is near and we all have to be ready. I just felt like sharing my views on the end times. That's what blogs are for: idiots like me who want to share their opinions.

So, end times theology. In theological terms, this is called "eschatology." Basically, for a Christian, this is about how Jesus will return at the end of time, remake and renew everything and rule on a perfect earth in bodily form. It's in the Bible, so that much is sure. What people often don't agree on is the means through which this will happen.

There are a lot of views on this, mainly all centered around what is called "the millennium." If you've ever read Revelation, or at least the last few chapters, there's a point where it talks about a thousand years when Jesus will lock Satan up and rule the earth. Is this literal? That's the question, one for which there are four views at least.

Postmillennialism. Big word there. This is the view I know least about. But if I know correctly (and any postmillenialists out there, please help me out if I get this wrong), they believe that what will happen is that the church will succeed in its mission so greatly that there will be a long period of peace, which may or may not be a thousand years. Jesus doesn't literally live on earth at this time, but will come afterward to judge the world and remake it.

Amillennialism. This is the view that we are already in the millennium. The millennium is seen here as a symbol for the church age (the time between Jesus' first and second comings). Now, what about Satan being locked up for a thousand years? I think a verse the amillennialist will reference is Jude 1:6: "And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day." So at the end there will not be a period of peace before Jesus' rule. Jesus will just come, judge, and renew.

Premillennialism. Here's where we have some fun. This is the third and fourth view. One of these views is the most popular and widespread view in the church today, but I'll get to that in a minute. These two views agree that there will be a seven-year period known as the Great Tribulation before the millennium that Jesus will rule. The millennium is a literal thousand years. Where they divide is on this thing called the rapture. Premillennialists are the only ones who believe in this, citing this verse: "Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord" (1 Thes. 4:17 ESV). What gives us two views here is when (if) this rapture will occur.

• Classical premillennialism. Now we're getting really technical. We'll call this "post-trib." This group believes that the rapture will happen after the Great Tribulation, if at all. Those who don't believe in a rapture will say the previous verse "may be symbolism." They cite the fact that the rapture wasn't explicitly taught about until the 19th century.
• Pretribulational premillennialism. Holy crap those are big words. We'll refer to this as "pre-trib." This school of thought believes that Jesus will secretly rapture all the church before the Great Tribulation. They cite verses such as 1 Thessalonians 5:9: "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ."

So where do I stand? If you had asked me a few years back, I would've told you I was pre-trib. The reason behind that was the same reason as my previous Arminianisn: I thought it was the only way to go, that the Bible explicitly taught it and all other views were ridiculous because they weren't in the Bible. But Arminianism and Calvinism is another post entirely that I'll probably never write.

Nowadays, I fall into the category of "yes."

I believe that Jesus will return in bodily form to judge the world, renew it and make it perfect, and rule with His people forever and ever on the earth. Beyond that, I have absolutely no idea what will happen. The view that persuades me most these days is post-trib, with or without a rapture. But I'm not convinced enough to say that that's the view I hold. I don't know that it matters when Jesus will return, just that He will. And He will be, and already is, victorious.