Saul to Paul

Acts 13:4-12
Saul and company have gone throughout the island of Cyprus on the first missionary journey.  We don't get an account of the things that happened in the eastern or central parts of the island. Doubtless they, being filled with the Holy Spirit, saw extraordinary results from their preaching and testimony of Jesus' death, burial and ressurection.  However, the Holy Spirit excluded all those things from being recorded and chose to point to the flavor of Paul's (no longer Saul, the Rich Young Ruler, the upstart Messiah, the enforcer of Hebrew power and restoration...) new ministry, method and future expectations.

Paul's encounter with the bar-Jesus character points to the spiritual warfare that is brought against him on many occasions as he divides the synagogues and plants new churches.  However, this encounter is a reflection of the path that Saul had been on since the power that now possessed "Elymas" was satanic.  2 things point to the background of this sorcerer having been, like Saul, a Pharisee. Paul calls him "son of the devil," in concert with Jesus (John 8:44).  Again, Elymas is stricken with blindness in concert with the revelation of the true Messiah, Jesus, to Saul the fire-breathing Pharisee (Acts 9:1).

Paul leaves behind his name, his heritage, his past and any ideas of doing ministry for Jesus in a gentle, peaceful manner.  Ahead of him are the dangers he lists later in 2 Corinthians 11, notable among which is the fact that he will not be able to count the number of beatings.  This encounter with the sorcerer of Pamphos sets the stage for those of us who read later to note that our faith is to be lived out with an awareness that conflict is inevitable.  Saul decided to embrace his ministry by pressing on as Paul and, once done, he left Cyprus behind and went after the Gentile world, putting his Roman citizenship to good use.

Not a Greek god...

John 5:37 (38) - "The Father who sent me has also borne testimony to me himself; but His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen, His word you have not kept..."

Implicit in this statement by Jesus is the fact that his Father has a form, a body. those of you who are trying to maintain a worship for the cosmic everythingness like evolutionists or silly theologians teach need to know that:
1. Jesus is God and has a body and an individuality.
2. Holy Spirit is God and has a body and individuality.
3. Our Father which art in heaven has a body and individuality.

Fear of anthropomorphism (giving human characteristics to God) must not result in foolish, UNBIBLICAL descriptions of God. He is not some primordial fireball. He is not nirvana or super-consciousness. He has arms to hold and hands to touch and eyes to see and a heart that beats in love for the world for which He gave His only begotten Son.
You may meet Him at the cross.
Come to the cross.

Abundance of life...not the "Abundant Life"

Jesus is such a passionate protagonist for life (“I have come to give you life…YES, an overwhelming amount of life!” John 10:10) that He takes the remnant of the stuff of life upon Himself so that He can die the death toward which all of mankind was turned.  Taking death to the realm of death, He leaves it there and returns to be the truth that He had already predicted: “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”  This proclamation destroys the Calvinist/Evolutionary notion that the Father is available to special people who were preprogrammed by God/Everythingness before time was countable.  Time makes all men accountable and points to the one who set all things in motion in our realm: Jesus. 

The banner of Jesus

flies over a hill

that is a skull,

the place of declaring

with whom

you will be numbered. 

The door to the recruiting office was opened on this side of the cross with “WHOSOEVER WILL” written above it.  Jesus does not need the help of self-appointed Superhuman/Nietzschean characters that “discover themselves” like comic book heroes in some ridiculous, Augustinian/Manichaean fantasy.  You Calvinists need to get a manly philosophy to live by and leave behind your nursery room notions that served to derange men like Hitler.  There is only one place and time that matters as far as enlisting to serve the Living God. Come to the cross.

Fail-Safe

Water heaters and furnaces that use natural gas are all equipped with a failsafe mechanism. By using a thermocouple or similar device, the main gas valve is prohibited from opening unless there is a pilot flame. “Failsafe” conditions are established in many areas such as bank accounts, gasoline pumps, dam engineering, rocket science, etc.  A failsafe approach is a fairly common perspective in many areas of our lives.  However, its application is quite often curiously missing in our theology. 

Consider for a moment the concept of pre-trib rapture.  A failsafe approach would be to ask, “What if this theological assumption is incorrect?”  Notice that, by definition, the safe approach is the one that assumes that there is danger ahead. The pre-trib perspective assumes that there is no danger and even teaches people to ignore danger; the danger of being unprepared for the greatest trial the church can endure – relentless deception (Matthew 24).  The pre-trib position would build water heater gas valves without a pilot light, thinking that, “everything is going to be okay for those of us who are favored.”  Notice as well that anyone who assumes that they will have to go through tribulation will certainly be pleasantly surprised if pre-trib turns out to be true.  However, how quickly can you prepare for tribulation if you’ve been skylarking along in your pre-trib assumption that ignored the danger, only to find the devil uncloaking in full power?

What happens if we apply failsafe theology to Calvinism?  Doesn’t the safe route take every individual though the methodology established by the church that you must believe and act upon your belief and understand that Jesus joins you in your belief through the power of the Holy Spirit?  Surely this procedure eliminates the danger of having to come to an understanding that you were preselected in some place and time where you don’t have access to the records.  Unless some angel has visited you with a Xerox of a heavenly papyrus that has your name written from before God decided to make anything (sounds dangerously parallel to baloney of Moroni that Mormons believe...), then you Calvinists would certainly be better off with your beginning place at the cross and your understanding of God’s will for you as something that was written after the foundation of the world.  Come to the cross.

"This thing was not done in a corner . . . " Acts 26:26

Building blocks. 

Of course these are fundamental to any small child’s toy chest.  

When was the last time you saw a child build a house of blocks? Did he suspend the roof in mid air? Were the walls floating above the floor?  Was the foundation the last thing that was put in place?  Obviously none of this is possible.

Even on the most basic level of construction, the foundation is laid first.  When we are looking at a biblical picture of a structure made of stone we are constrained to evaluate the cornerstone; Jesus is the cornerstone.  This cornerstone was promised in Isaiah 28:16 and set in place according to 1 Peter 2:6.  Notice that this cornerstone does not get set in place at the foundation of the world or before the foundation of the world.  It was promised and predestined before the foundation of the world but not made effective until established in time.  That time, according to true Christian doctrine, was the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

There appears to be some confusion in this area of Christian doctrine because of what I would call a flirtation with Pharisaism.  A renewed interest in Judeo-Christian ethics and the idea that the Ten Commandments are the cornerstone of a great society has a powerful appeal, but is truly a house of cards.  The inspired picture in Revelation 21:10-14 gives us a different perspective on God’s view of how the house is built.     The Apostles are not set in place before the cornerstone.  The Apostles are not set at random without the cornerstone.  The cornerstone is set in place first.  The twelve building blocks of the foundation are established in relation to the cornerstone.  The gates of the city, though older material, are not of greater importance, they cannot be established on a foundation of sand nor suspended in mid air.  All the houses and apartments above the first floor level are part of the promise of John 14:1-4 (You Calvinist make what Jesus says here nonsensical, if he already knows who will be living in the house and how many there are, then there is no need for preparation).  It is often hard to remember that Jesus did not care a fig about building a great society but gave his life to save every individual soul.  Pharisaism , we must always remember,  is the favored formula of Satan and his promised method of deliverance. Never mind that what he promises is always based upon lies (John 8:44) and the only deliverance that he is capable of is special delivery straight to hell.

Notice that one of the cardinal difficulties of Calvinism is that it pictures a building with Jesus at all four corners.  Again, their perspective is problematic in that their building is all on one level: limited in size and scope.  Small hearts demand small horizons . . . fueled by the parochial power of Pharisaism.   Jesus promises to erase our horizons when he says, “If I be lifted up, I will draw everyone to me” (John 12:32).  What difference do our human limitations make to us when he is offering us eternal life from the cross?  

Come to the cross.

They sing the Bohemian Rhapsody in Hell.

Romans 4:25
Judgment.
Justification.
Here is a topic about which Paul wrote many words in the letters sent out to the earliest churches. This topic took hold of some of the large personalities of the 16th century such as Luther and Calvin and, what is known in church history as the Reformation was launched. "Justification by faith alone" became the battle cry of men against a church system (the Roman Church) that was fat with wickedness and evil practices, not the least of which was putting salvation up for sale.
500 years later, many people still honor the words and works of these men such as Calvin. They consider that he had a great capacity to understand God and scriptural truth. However great Calvin's intellect and organizational skills may have been, none of these attributes can compensate for the fact that he was not "heart smart." All of his intellectual skills did not keep Calvin from becoming so stupid in his thought processes that he dared to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
One of the ways in which the Reformers such as Calvin did damage to the truth of God's word was through their emphasis on an inadequate justification. Propelled by the foolishness of an ex nihilo perspective of creation, the dead wood of Calvin's heart led him to propose salvation by fiat. Being a lawyer and in love with the Roman form (that eventually became the European and American form in refinement) of written law, Calvin saw God as speaking things into existence and writing decrees. Calvin's explanation of the process was that if someone was justified by God, then God spoke it into existence. Afterward, some exalted creature like Jesus would come and make a show of submission so that there would be a holy lesson plan. Calvinism denies that Jesus is God and that his death on the cross was effective in bringing about forgiveness of sin. Calvinism is as unholy as Mormonism and is the basis of Mormon doctrine, reducing Jesus Christ to a status that is less than God Himself.
Justification.
David comes upon a scene (1 Samuel 17) where the sons of Abraham - friend of God, mighty in faith - are trembling before a son of foolishness (Psalm 14). Goliath is champion for the god of power and modernism and worldliness. David accepts the role of champion of the true and living God, creator of heaven and earth. The clash between them defines the term "justification." The god of Goliath is left laying with him in the dirt. The God of David and Abraham and all who will join them, prevails. You can truly decide for yourself who you will serve.
Romans 4:25 is beautiful in brevity; "(Jesus) who was delivered for our offences, was raised again for our justification." Get the bad pictures of American courtroom battles out of your feeble, Calvinistic minds and enlist with Jesus - the true and living God (Hebrews 2:14) - at the cross. The battle is not paper and pomposity, it is trusting a champion and joining an army which is determined to "make darkness break camp" and flee (James 4:7). Come to the cross.

Dying to be green.

Winter has some spiritual advantages that are not available at other times of the year. When I drive by a pasture and see an oak tree on a hill that is covered in green leaves, I know that the tree is unhealthy since it is impossible for it to have its own greenness until Spring. Mistletoe has so invaded this tree that it has become a dominant feature; one that cannot be ascertained in any other season.
There are many people who talk as though Calvinism is a good thing: a godly doctrine. They don't want to admit that it is Mistletoe Theology. It never was any good (not even when Augustine proposed it or King Solomon flirted with it...read Ecclesiastes: interesting how the king gets truly wise when he is old), and the only reason good people are deceived by it is because they have never held a mirror in front of them when the days outside are frosty, yet revealing.
Someone needs to ask a Calvinist why Total Depravity only works where they want it to work (they want to use it to gain "Theological Power" over you and appear wise in their own eyes) and ignore what the Apostles teach about "corruption."
Oak trees are still oak trees even though they share in the corruption that is common throughout creation. The corruption of mistletoe does not make the oak tree into some other decrepitated entity. It is not the agent of "Total Depravity." It latches onto the good thing that has a name dating back to Adam. Romans 8:19-27.
You Calvinists stupidly (using a technical term here..."stupid" ("bete" in French which translates as "beast") means using the analytical capabilities of an animal) insist on impossibilities in the same way as do evolutionists. You join them in professing that Total Depravity is in operation in the universe and that the thing infected will become something new and good by advancement. You like to jabber about being devoted to biblical creation but you lie to yourselves if you hold the blasphemous doctrines of Calvin.  Your God is the universe of everything.  I have good news for you. Jesus IS God.
The oak tree is an oak tree. Infected with mistletoe, it can give up its goodness to the infection and, eventually, both oak and mistletoe will die...a second death. Humans, infected by sin/and/death, can get spiritual surgery if they visit another tree. There is still an old rugged cross for anyone who is alive and willing to kneel there.

You may be almost nothing besides mistletoe, but,
if your body can still hold breath,
you can inhale the air
of a land that is breathed into you by its king,
maker of humans and trees and every good thing.

Meet Jesus at the cross.