There is a curious theory of the end times that considers that the blessed of mankind will be restored to the Garden of Eden to enjoy an Endemic Bliss forever. One obvious problem with this idea is that it makes God’s work of new creation (II Cor. ) nonsensical. God rested from His first work and no one was allowed to share in His rest before He began (John 1:1 vs. 1:2) a new work (Heb ). The original work was in the realm of the heavens and the earth which are still in operation. This realm was established to make an end of the problem of evil. The contraption of the old heavens and earth (the more uncomfortable the word “contraption” makes you is an indicator of the influence of evolutionary doctrine in the heart) will be dismantled and trashed (). No part of an earthly garden will remain to which the redeemed may return. Of course, the majority of those that believe in the “back to the Garden” concept are convinced that they were hovering around the garden in some quasi-spiritual way when it was first planted by God (before the foundation of the world, so to speak) and refuse to countenance the notion that they are humans like everyone else and are subject to the demand God places on them that they meet him at the cross of Jesus!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Not just SOME things...
Romans 8:28. "And we know that all things work together for good to those that love God, to those who are called according to HIS purpose." I don't know how many times in a year I refer to this verse in one form or another. My favorite is to remind someone else or myself that it is not in just SOME things where God is working...in all things. Of course, this promise is only true in the life of a person who has a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Notice that the verse points to the work of God...something He is doing right now. Notice also that He is working on that which will be good. This is the language of Genesis 1. God created and it was good. The old creation He completed and rested from that work. The raw material of New creation is not the best stuff from the old creation that has been tweeked to get rid of some tarnish. The raw matrial of new creation includes the sin of mankind that He alone could bear and transform through His blood to make it usable dirt. This is not great-great-great grandpa Adam's red clay. This is blood bought deliverance by the power of love over evil and death. Only Jesus could make this happen and he did it on the cross at the exactly correct time (Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly).
You Calvinists need to quit trying to leap the Garden wall and come to the cross. God didn't save you before time began. He will save you at the cross.
Notice that the verse points to the work of God...something He is doing right now. Notice also that He is working on that which will be good. This is the language of Genesis 1. God created and it was good. The old creation He completed and rested from that work. The raw material of New creation is not the best stuff from the old creation that has been tweeked to get rid of some tarnish. The raw matrial of new creation includes the sin of mankind that He alone could bear and transform through His blood to make it usable dirt. This is not great-great-great grandpa Adam's red clay. This is blood bought deliverance by the power of love over evil and death. Only Jesus could make this happen and he did it on the cross at the exactly correct time (Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly).
You Calvinists need to quit trying to leap the Garden wall and come to the cross. God didn't save you before time began. He will save you at the cross.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Jesus demonstrated love...what is its trajectory when you launch it?
Many thanks to my friend Mael Disseau for making me think about the contents of this post.
The meditation of my heart for this week has been inspired by Georg Gadamer and my reflections on the picture I came away with when I studied his work, Truth and Method, with Dr. John Sailhamer for a few weeks in my last best days at SEBTS... God holds us responsible for those things He has embedded in us both personally (like the Knowledge of Good and Evil), and in us as a spiritual community (like "Love is spiritual warfare...it is not in the devil's arsenal!"). That's why Jesus was able to tell the biological sons of Abraham that they were sons of the devil (John 8:37-44); they had intentionally neglected and excluded resurrection from their "theology" (Hebrews 11:19). Even the Pharisees had become practical atheists and worse than pagans because they denied that Jesus IS the resurrection and the life and is NOT a system or process. Why do we keep trying to get Holy Spirit results out of legalistic endeavors? The devil can certainly haul that out of his arsenal....but it's useless to approach him with "show me the love."
The meditation of my heart for this week has been inspired by Georg Gadamer and my reflections on the picture I came away with when I studied his work, Truth and Method, with Dr. John Sailhamer for a few weeks in my last best days at SEBTS... God holds us responsible for those things He has embedded in us both personally (like the Knowledge of Good and Evil), and in us as a spiritual community (like "Love is spiritual warfare...it is not in the devil's arsenal!"). That's why Jesus was able to tell the biological sons of Abraham that they were sons of the devil (John 8:37-44); they had intentionally neglected and excluded resurrection from their "theology" (Hebrews 11:19). Even the Pharisees had become practical atheists and worse than pagans because they denied that Jesus IS the resurrection and the life and is NOT a system or process. Why do we keep trying to get Holy Spirit results out of legalistic endeavors? The devil can certainly haul that out of his arsenal....but it's useless to approach him with "show me the love."
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