Doojie and Me On Romans

Go ahead Doojie!

A Conversation About Calvinism and Arminianism

Here is a discussion I had with a Roman Catholic about the differences between Calvinism and Arminianism. In this discussion the Catholic, or Nick, was the Arminian and I was the Calvinist. Now when I say he was Arminian I mean in the broad sense of Arminianism as it is equated with “synergism” or “semi-Pelagianism”. In other words, the notion that God’s grace is “prevenient”, or God is standing by waiting for an indifferent sinner to respond to God appropriately for salvation.

In fact, Roman Catholics are Arminian in this sense but are on the far left of the Arminian spectrum (close to Pelagianism) because a lot of cooperation with God is required for  salvation. Life long works and sacraments are required for the Catholic’s salvation. On the other hand, non-Calvinistic Protestants would be on the far right of the Arminian spectrum whereby almost nothing is required for salvation. In this case, one only needs to cooperate a little with God and conjure some mental or emotional faith in order to be saved.

But once you cross over into Calvinism (it’s just terminology, don’t freak out) nothing is required of man for his salvation (however much is required after salvation).

Here is a chart I made. Hopefully it helps shed light on an ever so dark subject matter.

Here is the respectful discussion:

Why Naturalistic Atheists Can’t Account for Morality

Here are a series of stupid atheist assumptions I’ve heard as to how morality can be accounted for, along with my rebuttals: (There are more to come)

1. “Majorities determine what is right and wrong.”

Rebuttal:

a. This assumes that majority opinion, or popular consensus, determines morality, yet just begs the question because we then need to know by what standard majorities get to determine anything. In other words, what determines that majorities get to determine morality?

“Because the majority is in one place does not mean they’re in the right place” ~ Sen. Eric Adams, a Brooklyn Democrat on same-sex marriage.

The Trinity (3 Who’s and 1 What, or 3 Who’s and 1 Who?)

Here’s a question for you to ponder on your way to the grocery store today: “Is the Trinity more correctly 3 who’s and 1 what, or 3 who’s and 1 who?” By “who’s” I don’t mean those things on ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’. In other words, the orthodox position of the Trinity is that God exists as 3 persons together making up one being.

The question I am raising is, what do we mean by “being” when we refer to the oneness of God? Is this being personal or impersonal? Is it a “what” or a “who”? If we can’t know for certain, then which should we at least lean towards?

Mormons and The Sin of Pride

Most Mormons who come to my door, whom I see on tv, or whom I hear on the radio seem to always assure everyone that they’re “good people”. They’re quick to say this without hesitation as though they’re the finest top-notch specimens of human beings. They put the wonder back into wonderful. The context in which they say they’re “good” is that they keep their sin level to a minimum. It’s NOT because Christ made them good and is making them good.

It’s not because He lived the life they couldn’t, died the death they deserved (for not living the life they should have), and rose from the dead to prove it all satisfactory. Instead, it’s that they are good on their own and are making themselves good on their own.

Restore The Gospel

Welcome to my worst-news/best-news blog!

		R.C. Sproul gospel excerpt (3:48 ) Mark Driscoll on “religion” (17:23) Testimony of Johnny Cash (6:49) Andy Hunter Outro (3:25)

What does Galatians 3:6-14 tell us about the real gospel? Answer: What it really is! (click here for more)

Read about the missing gospel here.

Listen to the missing gospel here.

Good luck finding a church today that loves truth and loves the real gospel. The church is plagued with anti-nomianism and legalism…

First, anti-nomianism is a fancy word meaning we either abuse grace by carelessly sinning, or over-emphasize grace by likening God to Barney. Many Christians today act like heretics because they gloss over the doctrine of repentance, which should prevent us from glossing over sins such as divorce, homosexuality, pride, etc. Rather we should be marveled at God’s great beauty in covenant marriage, opposite sex lovers, meekness, etc. Further, there are many churches which over-emphasize grace, such as Joel Olsteen’s and Rick Warren’s. They offer ego-stroking, therapeutic, negative 5% offensive sermons. Mantras like “smile… Jesus loves you” and “God loves the sinner but hates the sin” stem from these types of Disney Channel style Christians who seek to please people more then God. Gandhi said “God loves the sinner but hates the sin”, not Jesus.

On the flip side, the church is plagued with legalism. Legalism is another fancy word referring to those who equate their man-approved traditions with Scripture, or think they are better than you because they minimize their dirty laundry and maximize yours…

Legalism, in the form of man-centered tradition says “don’t get a tattoo”, “don’t drink alcohol (ever)”, or “don’t have a worship style different than ours”, etc. These people are guilty for making Christ seem bitter and as boring as watching paint dry for the sake of making Christ look like them. Others are legalistic because they are self-righteous. They think God daydreams about them and wishes everyone was like them. This is a very un-biblical notion which stems from rotten pride. It comes from people thinking God is less holy then He is and that they are more holy than they are. They think God grades sin on a curve and that they’re somewhere at the top of the list. They forget that God grades only one way – perfection. One sin is enough to separate us from God forever. It took that one person only one sin. I think his name was Adam.

In summary, the Church today remains either un-repentant, embracing therapeutic gospels, clenching pointless traditions, or reeking of self-righteous pride. In reality, every Christian has a bit of all these things in them. Yet, we must go through detoxification, and re-approach Christ for who He really is. Both Christians and non-Christians are not impressed with Jesus Christ because no one dares to see how wild He really is. He is not safe, manageable, or tamable. With all of our anti-nomian and legalistic rigmarole, we cover up Christ and are left with our boring selves.

If you claim to be a Christian does any of this concern you?

What do we do? We must stand up and shout “let Him in!” We must let Christ back into the Church (Revelation 3:20). Then we will begin to see Christ as He really is and see ourselves for who we really are. He is outside knocking. Please let Him in.

There’s much gospel restoring to do. The gospel message needs no restoration itself – it is forever perfect. We must see that it becomes restored as center focus in ourselves and the Church. Please join with me and others to fulfill this seemingly impossible task!

In The Gospel, Should We Emphasize Love Or Death?

The answer is yes. The answer is both. It’s not that we talk about either/or, but both/and! In fact, the gospel could be stated this way: “Christ has loved us to death!” The gospel reveals God’s love for us because He died the death we deserved.

What I’m going to ask next is what most “churches” and “Christians” are too pansy to talk about these days. What was Christ not saved from? If you call yourself a Christian, you should know! The answer is God’s wrath. He was NOT saved from God’s wrath. The answer to that question is the same answer to another question. What is the believer saved from? We are ultimately saved from the wrath and anger of God for having sinned as we have not loved God with all our heart, soul, and strength, nor others as ourselves. Christ loved us to death by dying the death we deserved. So He loved us to death… quite literally. And that’s the ultimate death that believers get to escape by grace.

Is The Apostle’s Gospel “The Gospel”?

What is the gospel? How should we refer to it? Is it the entire Biblical story or a specific part of it? What does it begin with? Where does it end? Should we explain the gospel message primarily to be God making all which is broken fixed, that God’s purpose for you is to better the world, or a proclamation that the Messiah is the risen Lord, like many today are advocating to be the “good” of the “good news”?

The Chinese translation of “gospel”, which is “fuyin”, doesn’t mean “good news” but rather “all the good news about God”. While I at times refer to the gospel as everything accomplished or purposed by God in Christ, I am increasingly becoming hesitant with this language. The more I look at how the Apostles use the term “gospel” the more I see it as a specific message, NOT an all encompassing story. I see this message being a narrative (specific truths) to a meta-narrative (all of God’s truths). In other words, it is a message by which all other parts of the story get to be carried out and equally cherished.

You’re Going To Die

This is just your splash of water wake up call, and friendly reminder, that you’re going to die. It could be soon or it could be after a while. Either way, it will happen. Make sure you’re right with Christ. And may Michael Jackson’s death remind us all, not only how good his music was, but that everyone, everyone, yes EVERYONE, whether a king or a street sweeper, must dance with the Grimm reaper.

Are You Scared of This World, Distracted By It, or Both?

As a Christian, are you scared of popular opinion? Especially when you believe something the Bible says that isn’t popular according to popular opnion? Why? Do you have it on your to-do list to “make sure the world approves of me”? Are you afraid that people will be intolerant of your intolerance of silly and evil beliefs? If so, why? Either way, someone is being intolerant, and the truth is always more liberating and freeing. Have you spent any time learning about why only the Christian worldview makes sense so you can be more confident about what you believe and sleep like a baby? If not, why? Let Jesus be the hero of every sermon, the point of every text of Scripture, the answer to all the questions, and the focus of all the lives.

Consider Mat 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

The Shack (Needs To Be Taken Out To The Shack)

Over the last year this best selling book by William P. Young has created quite a stir among believers. Many praise it and many reject it. Here are my quick thoughts on the book ‘The Shack’:

Pros:

The main character Mack dialogues a lot with God. You can tell that Young would have had to crack his doctrine 101 books about the nature of God, the nature of man, and other important doctrines in order to present this type of dialogue as being Biblically sound (Orthodox). In many parts, Young does a good job of remaining Orthodox and some of the explanations that God gives Mack are very practical and insightful.

I think he does a good job of upholding a Biblical view of free will (page 95), God’s self-sufficiency (pages 98-99), the Trinity (page 101), and even does a beautiful job of explaining why the Trinity is a precondition to something such as “love”, hence page 102 which says “Or maybe worse, you would have a god who, when he chose, could only love as a limitation of his nature”.

More On The Laws of Logic and John 1:1

“Either the laws of logic are separate from God,

or

the laws of logic were created by God.”

Just as John 1:1 says that “and God was the Logos”, thus what God is the Logos is (speaking of the Logos’ nature), so I believe that the laws of logic are neither divine axioms (just as the Logos is not the Father), nor are the laws of logic created by God (just as the Logos is not “a god”).

This is extremely profound!!! This philosophical issue which has perplexed countless people for centuries is answered in John 1:1. The very arguments which atheists, Clarkians, and others use to try and say that it must be either/or when accounting for the laws of logic, have left out the only actual possibility: they are part of God’s very own nature. This is not just something the Christian apologist says but can point to from Scripture itself!

Deborah 13: Servant of God

Here are my thoughts on ‘Deborah 13′, a BBC documentary about a young girl named Deborah Drapper who has lived secluded from the outside world and pop-culture her entire life. Deborah is a devout Christian, along with her parents. She temporarily leaves her country side home and gets to experience what life is like on the outside with her older brother Matthew who is in college. Here are my thoughts, for what they’re worth. Keep in mind, I don’t know the big picture with Deborah or this documentary. Please take my assumptions about the documentary with a grain of salt as I lay out my thoughts.

(part 1)

(summary) Deborah and her siblings have no knowledge whatsoever of pop-culture or the “outside” world.

(my thoughts) Many Christians raise their children with no knowledge of pop-culture and wear this fact like a badge on their shoulder. There are some wonderful things which can come about from withdrawing from sinful scenes and situations. However, many of these types of people who are raised culturally unaware become socially awkward. They have little or nothing to add to people’s everyday conversations and are only most comfortable around their families – those who know their quarks and personalities best.

Jesus and the apostles shared the gospel in ways which found common ground with unbelievers. Many times Christians equate holiness to withdrawal from the “world”. Just like the movie ‘The Village’ demonstrates, sin is inside of us, not “out there”. Being able to find commonalities and interests with unbelievers is an extremely biblical and effective way to share one’s faith. For example, if she knew who David Beckham was, she would already have something to talk about with virtually every girl in Britain! Then she could tie it into a spiritual discussion and ask, “do you think famous people are really happy? What do you think makes us most happy? I think it is Christ for this reason…”

Sometimes Christians have the tendency to be people who have all the answers, yet have no questions. We can only converse about what we think is best for people and not offer much else. This is what I call “in-and-out” Christianity where there is little relationship building, that is until an “icky” unbeliever crosses over to looking like us.

Why Is Christ Everything?

You may often think about your problems, your needs, and your desires. You’re a human being. Of course you and I will spend much time thinking about all this. But what about Christ and His needs and desires? What about His love for Himself, His justice, and His glory? All this ties into the real story that God is the author of, namely, the gospel. The gospel is an eternal story. Here is where it begins:

1. Have you loved God and others perfectly every day of your life? (Mat 22)

2. If not, then you deserve to be eternally separated from a holy and righteous God. (James 2:10, Gal 3:10)

3. You are not a good person in trouble with a bad God, but a very bad person in trouble with a very good God. (Isaiah 6:5)

4. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23)

5. Cling to Jesus Christ and receive Him as Savior and Lord (Boss).

6. He lived the life you couldn’t live, died the death you deserved, and rose to prove it all satisfactory.

7. He is returning to judge everyone that has ever lived and sinned, including you.

8. Are you ready to meet Him in the next world?

9. Know you are ready.

10. Change your life and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

11. We were created to know, see, and experience Jesus Christ… forever! He is the eternal solution to our hearts eternal longing.

Charasmaniacs, Tongues, and Hypnotherapy

I had not known what the difference was between hypnotherapy, hypnosis, and meditation. I realize now that hypnotherapy is somewhat shorthand for being in an altered state of consciousness. Apart from the dangers that alcohol and drugs may have on one’s conscious state, we can experience alternative states of consciousness which are normal and healthy. This can be in the form of daydreaming, laughing hysterically, adrenalin rushes, listening to a motivational speaker, etc.

Hypnotherapy is often mistaken for hypnosis – commonly referred as  hypnotism. In other words where you have no conscious “veto” power over your mind and actions where someone or something is in total control of you. However, hypnotherapy is different. You have full control of your mind and actions but your sub-conscious self is being catered to more then your conscious faculties. You’re in more of an emotional or experiential state then in a mentally focused state.

This proper knowledge of hypnotherapy helped me all the more understand what I now believe to be some truths about the Christian Charismatic movement, which I came out of about 5 years ago.

The North American Christian Sub-Culture’s Idol – Sensationalism

Sensationalism – subject matter, language, or style producing or designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions.

An epiphany hit me today while I was driving and listening to the Christian radio station-which I hate listening to. I decided to listen for a moment just to see if its cliche lyrical content was still in tact, which it was of course. So there I was, listening to those sexy, overtly inspirational, making out with “God”, Disney Channel style songs when all of a sudden it dawned on me… the North American evangelical Christian sub-culture suffers greatly from worshiping the idol of sensationalism.

In other words, the climax of the gospel for us is that we no longer have any emotional or life problems. If we do admit to having emotional or life problems, however, then we wright them off with our convenient “Jesus” anesthesia. He numbs our pain so that we can be walking have-it-togethers. Somehow the best news of the good news is that we become PHP’s (perpetually happy people). We don’t hurt inside anymore. No, we are happy-go-lucky because we chose Jesus!

And do we boast about this spiritual shot?

Did Jesus back down from being God in John 10?

John 10 is commonly used against Christians to try and prove that Jesus denies being God. I have heard many arguments by many different Christians when defending this passage. Here is what I believe to be the best argument, and the most Scriptural:

John 10:30-36 says “I and the Father are one.”

³¹Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, ³²but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

³³“We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.“

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’? ³⁵If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?

The argument commonly goes like this: The Jews assume that Jesus is claiming to be God. Then Jesus backs down and says “hey… fellas… let’s not jump to conclusions. Some dudes in the Old Testament were called gods so why can’t I? I’m not saying I’m God, but kinda god-like ya know?!”

Foo Fighters – Come Alive

Happy Easter!

Here is my Scriptural commentary on this awesome song. This is not a Christian band or a Christian song. If it were it might run the risk have having a boring 4 for 4 timing, use all major chords, have an overtly uppity beat, have lyrics with no depth, have lyrics for Christians only, have lyrics that are painfully cliche, have lyrics which sing about 1% of God’s character and 0% about everyday life.

So for our purposes we’re going to look at what non-Christians have written through a Christian lens because they actually aren’t afraid to talk about real life struggles. They don’t have a sub-culture telling them that it’s “unspiritual” to sing about everyday life or live in fear that “God” may get out his wooden spoon if they do.

Seems like only yesterday
Life belonged to runaways
Nothing here to see, no looking back

Every sound monotone
Every color monochrome
Life began to fade into the black

Ecc 1:2-3 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?”

Such a simple animal
Sterilized with alcohol
I could hardly feel me anymore

Gen 9:21 “When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.”

Obama’s First Signing

It seems as though if Obama were to even move his left foot that many people would praise it. It kind of makes me think about his very first signing of a law as President.

Photographers take pictures of Obama’s very first Presidential signing:

Photographers take pictures of toilet after Obama’s very first #2 in White House:

There wasn’t even a stink!

Do You Dream of Californication?

This song definitely has lyrics that are worth pondering for a bit. Consider the chorus “I dream of Californication”. When I first heard this song, I thought this phrase somehow meant “I dream of a united California” or something similar. However, what I found is that “Californication” is a play on words which is basically saying that California is perverted in its great influence, hence the term “fornication”. The lyrical content greatly backs up this notion.