I've really tried to resist this board for a number of reasons, one of them being I know I don't have the time to follow through the way I would like to.
Nevertheless, let me tell a bit of my story and then ask a question.
A number of years ago I became involved with R.C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries as the West Coast coordinator for deaf interpreters for his conferences out here (in San Diego then, I don't know about now). At the time I began, I did not know what Reformed Theology really meant. I just knew the Bible and wanted to make sure my dear deaf friends did, too. We were even able to get deaf people in for free at his presentations, which I thought was very generous of him!
Then, during one presentation, the impact of what Reformed theology meant hit me like a bomb. I was deeply disturbed and spent the following two years reading the Bible cover to cover again and again, wanting to make sure of what it was saying.
I had to inform the Ligonier Ministries that I could no longer work with them as I had become convinced that the Bible itself denied the Reformed position. Many of the reasons have already been discussed to death here, but there is one which I have not seen:
From the time of Adam on, God has been telling men "if you do this, then the consequence will be...." It is a major recurring theme in the Bible. We see it very strongly in speeches by both Moses and Joshua and repeated over and over again all the way through the New Testament.
Almost as if man really did have the ability to choose...
So many time, in fact, that if man did not have the freedom to choose (not necessarily to do anything about that choice, please understand, but simply the freedom to want one way or the other -- to choose his master, if you like), then one of the major themes of the entire Bible is a farce and a sham. Since I know the Bible is God's Word to us, I knew that there was no farce or sham in it. So I knew that we did, indeed, have the gift from God of freedom of will. Yes, our hearts in their natural condition TEND toward evil from childhood, but we expect everyone to resist that tendency. That is what childhood training is all about, Christian or not. Even the vilest man has some concept of something other than evil toward which it is possible to aim. The Christian message is simply that it takes God to get us there, and that He did the work making it possible and takes the burden of the trip we must make on Himself after our rebirth in Him. He is the Good Shepherd leading us the whole way.
Nevertheless, if the if...then clauses and warnings in the Bible mean anything at all, then we can, indeed, choose this day whom we will serve.
How do Reformed followers deal with these if...then statements?
[ April 19, 2002, 09:43 AM: Message edited by: Helen ]
Nevertheless, let me tell a bit of my story and then ask a question.
A number of years ago I became involved with R.C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries as the West Coast coordinator for deaf interpreters for his conferences out here (in San Diego then, I don't know about now). At the time I began, I did not know what Reformed Theology really meant. I just knew the Bible and wanted to make sure my dear deaf friends did, too. We were even able to get deaf people in for free at his presentations, which I thought was very generous of him!
Then, during one presentation, the impact of what Reformed theology meant hit me like a bomb. I was deeply disturbed and spent the following two years reading the Bible cover to cover again and again, wanting to make sure of what it was saying.
I had to inform the Ligonier Ministries that I could no longer work with them as I had become convinced that the Bible itself denied the Reformed position. Many of the reasons have already been discussed to death here, but there is one which I have not seen:
From the time of Adam on, God has been telling men "if you do this, then the consequence will be...." It is a major recurring theme in the Bible. We see it very strongly in speeches by both Moses and Joshua and repeated over and over again all the way through the New Testament.
Almost as if man really did have the ability to choose...
So many time, in fact, that if man did not have the freedom to choose (not necessarily to do anything about that choice, please understand, but simply the freedom to want one way or the other -- to choose his master, if you like), then one of the major themes of the entire Bible is a farce and a sham. Since I know the Bible is God's Word to us, I knew that there was no farce or sham in it. So I knew that we did, indeed, have the gift from God of freedom of will. Yes, our hearts in their natural condition TEND toward evil from childhood, but we expect everyone to resist that tendency. That is what childhood training is all about, Christian or not. Even the vilest man has some concept of something other than evil toward which it is possible to aim. The Christian message is simply that it takes God to get us there, and that He did the work making it possible and takes the burden of the trip we must make on Himself after our rebirth in Him. He is the Good Shepherd leading us the whole way.
Nevertheless, if the if...then clauses and warnings in the Bible mean anything at all, then we can, indeed, choose this day whom we will serve.
How do Reformed followers deal with these if...then statements?
[ April 19, 2002, 09:43 AM: Message edited by: Helen ]