my brain hurts
This last week we started a discussion in my class that will last for the next month and a half. It is the Calvinist vs. Armenian debate or somewhat unfairly known as the free will verses predestination debate. This discussion reminds me of the golden age of college where my roommates and I would nightly debate issues ranging from the biblical role of para-church organizations to the aforementioned discussion. We would sit around our living room and while the other person spoke, conjure up responses that were sure to stop everyone else in the room in their tracks and reduce them to shock and awe. Sadly this never happened.
So now my theology class will be spending the next several weeks discussing and debating how we should best understand God’s sovereignty and how it relates to our free will. Did Jesus die for everyone? Does God choose those who will be saved or do we have the freedom to respond? Does our freedom include the ability to be saved at one time and later lose that salvation? If God chooses people why try and share the hope of Christ? If God chooses to send some people to Hell for his glory, is he a loving God? (see Melissa’s blog at http://pauserewinderase.blogspot.com/ for similar discussion) And there are thousands more questions along these lines.
The point of this blog is that as we have begun this debate I am coming to the clear understanding that my theology contains many a contradiction and I am not sure how much I care. I am quite sure that I hold to views, although I am not sure exactly what they are, that are not logically consistent together. And the reason that I am not sure if I care is that all examples within history that I know of that have attempted to come up with a fully logical and error free system has jumped wildly into either heretical beliefs or limited theology.
Now I still want to weed out of my life things that are illogical but I don’t want to spend my days focusing on that. I want to live a life that is fully obedient to scripture which I believe by faith is without contradiction when correctly understood. I do not want to be lazy but I also know that these debates can drown living out of our faith. I want to learn how to balance sincere glorification of God with my mind AND living according to what I now know. We shall see how that goes.
posted by Jon at
9:58 PM
7 Comments:
bro, i'm totally into that system (who am i?). anyway, i really am completely down with that thought process. i mean, i think that the value of deeply theological discussions is found more in the process than in any sort of resolution. and as post-modern as this sentiment is, when i am asked if we are predestined or if we have free will, my most common responses are: "yes." and "who cares?"
obedience...that is, living a life worthy of the call Christ has extended to us...is what i want to know more deeply. i want to study theology only so that i might get to know Jesus better in the process, not to come up with some slick answer i can rattle off in a debate or sunday school class. oh, and i think you're wrong jon. our discussions were completely awe-inspiring and edifying every time, especially when jar...err... someone started introducing f-bombs.
Jon -
I don't think it is lazy to not choose "sides" when it comes to theology; I think it demonstrates the power and the complexity of our God to know that God will always be above and beyond the boxes that we create. God can give us free will and hold 100% sovereignty all at the same time because God is God. That is what I have concluded for better or worse!
Shelly
potato. potahto. i agree that it's the conversation, the process (like cory said), that is more meaningful at the end of the day.
also, i like how you're so big into photos on your blog now. you're so trendy and tech-y. :)
patahto? nice.
Jonny, you are speaking Miller and McLaren. Is this vein going to grow and flourish within us, and the church, or slowly fade away and burnout?
from Oshkosh...
what's with this 7-day span between posts thing you've got going on?
for real, you've got to post something new, lest someone else pose as you and post in your place ... no, no. we wouldn't that.
once you start diging more and more the more complicated it will look just remember that God made it simple too and you can see that all around us......the whole world screams that simplicity and beauty........i mean just look aoutside and see the snow its white and clear it is
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