Sovereignty

A friend wanted me to make a statement on how the sovereignty of God would allow for free will. What follows may or may not get at the answer his question.

I must begin by saying that I do not believe that God's sovereignty and human freedom are mutually exclusive ideas. Scripture can be found to support both. My question for those who doubt this would be, how does the sovereignty of God hinder free will?

I do not think that one can deny the sovereignty of God and still claim to be Christian.

In my opinion: In order for God to be God, then God must be sovereign. In order for human to be human, then humanity must be free.

I believe that I am supported by the great theologian John Wesley in the 11th section of the sermon The General Spread of the Gospel when he said:

"You know how God wrought in your own soul, when he first enabled you to say, 'The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.' He did not take away your understanding; but enlightened and strengthened it. He did not destroy any of your affections; rather they were more vigorous than before. Least of all did he take away your liberty; your power of choosing good or evil: He did not force you; but, being assisted by his grace, you, like Mary, chose the better part. Just so has he assisted five in one house to make that happy choice; fifty or five hundred in one city; and many thousands in a nation; -- without depriving any of them of that liberty which is essential to a moral agent."

Without God's grace we cannot be saved. Without human participation, God's grace will not save. Human participation is grace-empowered and not coerced.

The grace and sovereignty of God enables human responsibility; it does not override human responsibility.

The main problem that I have with reformed theology is that in their empasis on predestination (whether that be single or double) is their apparent denial of human responsiblity.

I believe that instead of spending time debating the issue of predestination versus free will that we should live our lives for Christ. We need to live lives that bring glory to God in all that we do.

Whether or not we are predestined to salvation/damnation or have free will to choose/reject Christ we are morally responsible for our actions.

"so others may live"

I just watched The Guardian and I have to admit that despite the presence of Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner it is a decent movie. It was definately worth volunteering at the theater for a free viewing (with soda and popcorn thrown in as well).

Several statements about sacrificing one's own life for the life of a stranger (or any other person) and the motto "so others may live" that they put on the screen at the end of the movie got me thinking. They stole that motto from the church.

Or, I should say, the church was originally based on self-sacrificing love and giving up our comforts for the strangers among us.

The modern church and the christians that compose this church need to be willing to give up their comfortable lives to help others. We need to give up our need for high tech buildings and fancy programs (that we claim to be using to draw in new people but are more often using to keep the ones we got) and give away more than we spend.

We need to start living the life that Jesus commanded us to live. We need to be willing to live our lives "so that others may live".

Speaking my mind

I recently spent some time with a good friend that told me that I need to speak up more.

Even though I think she may have been talking about something totally different and that I am taking the suggestion completely out of context, I agree that I need to open up more with my opinions.

Unfortunately I don't know where to start, so I am going to open it up to the few that may stumble across this blog to offer up ideas for me to address.

I will try to address what I can with what little free time I have available.

Suffrage

I know that many people have fought over the years to get the right to vote extended to all people regardless of gender, race, religion, and other reasons.

I am told that it is supposedly "un-American" to not utilize the right to vote and have a say about who will lead the varying levels of government.

I know that we do not live in a Christian nation, but that I am to pray for those in leadership and submit to their authority.

I know politics is a major dividing factor in both our country as a whole and in the Christian church on a smaller scale. This should not be!

I know that politicians must compromise their convictions to truly represent the people that they have been elected to represent.

I believe that Christians are called and commissioned to preach the gospel and to reach out to help their brothers/sisters (the rest of humanity) in need.

Involvement in politics can be at the expense of those who have yet to hear the gospel. I would hate to have somebody reject the gospel because the presenter of the message happened to belong to the "wrong" political party.

Christians are to be in the world but not of the world. Christians are to set their eyes on things above and not on things of this world.

James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Is this possible to accomplish without partaking in the voting process?

Can we truly impact our world for Christ and work towards transforming this world without getting involved in politics?

Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to God and God alone.

God is the father and source of all that exists.

God is the son and salvation for all of humanity.

God is the spirit and sanctifier of the Christian community.

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Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters. I cannot pledge my allegiance to both God and country (especially not a piece of cloth said to represent a country).