Deep questions deserve honest reflection. These posts wrestle with theology, interpretation, and the intellectual tensions of belief—because loving God with your mind is part of the journey too.
While proponents of predestiny would say the difference between offered to all and accepted by some is because God predetermined who would accept – does that not mean God / Jesus lied when they said the offer was for all?
The problem of predestiny More
Someone asked a while back on one of the posts if I believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. The implication was that no reasonable person could possibly believe such a thing. After all – who could possibly believe that the earth was created in six literal days? Or that people walked with dinosaurs? My
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Jesus added “with all your mind”. That wasn’t in the Old Testament. Was that an error? A mistake? Or did Jesus add the mind for a reason?
The problem of – With all your mind. Or not? More
The concern here is that when we say things like we “know” certain things because the Bible says so, we run the risk of turning people off to the message we are trying to give. Something that was meant to be caring and loving can be construed as something that sounds uncaring and insensitive. I think we need to remember that we believe God meets us where we are, and so when we talk with others who faith isn’t as strong as our or maybe have no faith at all, we also need to meet them where they are – not where we are.
The problem of faith, hope, belief and knowing More
Many people take one side of an issue. It’s an either – or thing. .But what of there’s another possibility?
No – not a third option, but the possibility that “either” and “or” are both correct.
Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? Especially when people are so passionate (stubborn?) about the issue.
The problem of Either/Or: Free Will vs Predestiny More
By now – hopefully the Christians who weren’t already aware of what these passages meant have now learned something. Something very hopeful, especially in times of trouble. For the non-Christians – I pray you have also learned something, and that this will help to change your view of what you maybe thought was a heartless God.
The problem of a “pleasing aroma” to God More
Free will means there’s responsibility attached to our choices. If there’s a price to pay for a given choice, the bill comes to us. Free will means that when we mess up, we are at least partly at fault. It’s hard to blame someone else for choices that we made. It’s much “nicer” to be able to say, “I was made that way”, or “It’s so-and-so’s” fault. We can absolve ourselves of all responsibility.
The problem of not knowing.
“Not knowing what you believe (especially on a matter as essential to Christianity as the gospel) is by definition a kind of unbelief.
The problem of not knowing More
In a world that’s so filled with applications – therefore the image at the top – why do we seem to be so quick to forget application when it comes to truth?
The problem of imperfect knowledge: Someone is murdered. Someone else wonders – “where was God when … was murdered?”
The problem of imperfect knowledge More
