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Predestination and the Use of Revelation

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

If anyone has looked into the issues that seperate various theological camps, then the topic of predestination is likely to be on their radar. I won’t pretend to be able to explain what theologians have debated over the centuries and come no closer to agreeing on, but there are a few guidlines to help us apply to our lives what scripture says about the topic without getting bogged down in the debate its mechanics.

First, the doctrine of predestination–how, when and why God choses people to be saved, and who it is that he choses–is a doctrine given to those of us who believe. There are two perspectives in scripture: one is God’s perspective, which is never explained totally to us, but only enough for our faith in him to be strengthened, and secondly, the perspective of humans.

These two perspectives often seem to contradict eachother. For example, scripture says that “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but who ever does not believe will not be saved.” This seems to put the salvation of a person in their own hands. Scripture also says “those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” This seems entirely God from start to finish.

The key is to understand the context. The first passage is speaking of people to whom the gospel will be preached. From a human standpoint, whenever the gospel is preached there is one of two responses: either the hearer believes or he doesn’t. It is the ones who believe and are baptized who will be saved.

The second passage is given as an encouragement to people who already believe, but who are discouraged because of the sin in their lives. Paul encourages them (in Romans 8) by telling them of how their salvation is not in how they feel or even the sin they commit from day to day, but in Christ who is their security for all eternity.

Why God predestines, who he predestines, and when he predestines them, are all questions that may remain a mystery for our whole life, but what God has told us about our responsability to believe and obey him, and the words he gives us to encourage us in our relationship with him are no less able to draw us closer to himself.

Miracles

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

Science is concerned with observable measurements and qualifications in the physical world. By definition it must therefore be limited. For in coining a term such as ‘infinity’ it states that there is knowledge about the world that is outside of its grasp. Both the infinitely large and the infinitely small indicate that there must be ‘laws’ outside of known natural law that determines the nature of all things. Therefore, science cannot comment concerning miracles other than to say that they cannot be explained by science.

The mystery of the origin of all things, just as it points to the existence of God, also points to the existence of miracle

Abiding in God’s Rest

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

Hebrews 3 and 4 teaches on the rest that is promised to the people of Israel. It points out that the way in which a person enters God’s rest is by following his Word, by listening to it and not hardening one’s heart against it. Now we know that the Word is Jesus–or Jesus us the Word made flesh. So does it not seem that entering into God’s rest by listening to Christ would somehow relate to Jesus’ exhortation in John 15 to abide in him?

Indeed, John is less about the language of the Old Testament as he is about the more emotional language of personal relationship with Jesus. So he clarifies for us in I John, particularly in chapter 3, though starting in 2:28. He urges us to abide in Christ because of the hope we have of seeing him at his coming, and not being ashamed when we see him. This is strikingly similar to the exhortation in Hebrews 3 and 4 to keep the faith, and listen to the Word so that we may be sure of entering God’s rest.

And John doesn’t leave us to wonder; he makes the connection in the Word: “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (I John 3:9). Aha! The abiding (which is in Christ’s love, i.e., the antithesis of sin) is only brought about by the Word first abiding in the individual. So it is in resting! Entering God’s rest is by heeding the Word.

However, we cannot say that the two are identical. For the rest is what the relationship is called, but the abiding describes it. Hebrews says the same thing, only it doesn’t use the term abide: “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the decietfulness of sin” (3:13). Hear is the continuous nature of abiding by supporting one another in love, just as there is in John 15 and I John 3.

So the rest is the assurance that one is in a right relationship with God, and abiding is living in the rest right here, right now. Both are given and sustained by Jesus Christ as gifts to his children.

God’s Omnipotence

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

God’s power is the capacity for him to give of himself.

We cannot define God’s power according to the human definition of power. For humans see power as the capacity to dominate and manipulate. But if the power wants or needs anything from those under his authority, then he admits a lack in himself and thus proves his inferiority to those under his authority. Power is then contradicted.

So power is the capacity to give of the self, for this demonstrates the innate quality of the power, and thus conforms the object of this power to this quality by filling the object with the essence of the power. God is omnipotent: he is an unlimited source of life that gives without measure to his creation so that it might be filled with what he is, and thus conformed to his relationship.

Mark 16

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

What can be more exciting that being spoken to by an angel? How we would want to tell of it, to share the wonderful experience! Why is it then that the women who went to the empty tomb and saw the angel, and heard him tell them that Jesus was risen, and that they were to go tell his disciples, kept silent out of fear? Surely being spoken to by an angel was enough to convince them that an extraordinary thing had taken place. Jesus had risen! They saw the guards laying on the ground like dead men, they saw the empty tomb, and they spoke to a heavenly creature! How does this not turn their mourning into dancing?

Perhaps the answer is because of exactly what happened to Mary Magdalene when she finally did tell them; they did not believe. Nor did they believe when the two disciples who spoke with them on the road to Emmaus told them that they had walked and talked with him.

We can laugh at their hardness of heart and nod our heads in pious agreement when we read of Jesus rebuking them for their unbelief. After all, we have believed!

Or have we? Certainly for those who have faith that Jesus, the Son of God, died and rose from the dead then they believe. But is that it?

Notice what Jesus commands them to do once they have been shown and finally believe that he has indeed risen; he tells them to go tell everyone!

It is completely consistent with God’s life of self-expenditure. We have nothing, are nothing, and doubt even what is given, but who we are is what Christ has made us to be. Though we did not seek him; just as the disciples did not seek him even after he had promised them that he would rise from the dead, he still made a people out of us by uniting us with his death that we might share in the life of his ressurection. What he is he made us, though we were in opposition to it.

And the command remains; “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”. Is this just about preaching? Certainly that is the emphasis, and even that condemns us. For we are like the women who went to the tomb; we have been told, we know he has risen and his life is in us, but we fear the rejection. We tremble at people before we rejoice in the risen Christ.

And yet there’s more. We were not given this life only to talk about; but we were given it to pour it out. Jesus shows himself to the disciples, tells them the good news that he has risen, and then immediately sends them out to do the same: to give away what was just given them! That is the very essence of the gospel. It is the only thing that can be had for sure and for always, because it is the only thing that can truly be given away limitlessly.

So now believe truly in the risen Christ! Not just the empty tomb, but in the life that left that tomb and now dwells in us. This is a faith that embraces what is given to such an extent that no longer fears the reaction of people, but only desires for them to befilled with the same ressurection.

God’s Image; Objective?

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

Many find it beneficial to understand the essence of God’s character apart from creation or his interactions with people so that we may get to the heart of who he is. How is this possible for us who have never seen, heard, or been shown anything other than what God wills to relate to us, his creation?

Do we want to speak of his power? Power over what? How do we know he is powerful? We know of his power only in relation to his ability to create and dispose of his creation according to his will.

His omniscience? His sovereignty? All these things are only known in relationship to how he deals with us, his people.

Ah, but his glory? Look in scripture; God’s glory is always described as his greatness in the relationship he has established with his people. If it is the cherubim and seraphim who glorify him it is because of the lamb who was slain, or because of his righteousness in judgement. All these things pertain to his relationship.

It appears that God simply isn’t interested in revealing anything to us that is ‘outside’ of creation, or more importantly, that does not pertain to our relationship with him.

How can one even speculate “If God had not created”?? He did create! And thus he is a creator! If he had not created we would be talking of a completely different God. Since it is what he did we must conclude that it is what he is and serves to help us define who he is insofar as he is revealed.

God’s image is not in the abstract (as far as he has revealed it to us). God’s image as it is revealed is summed up in relationship. For even the Trinity is a relationship of three in one in which humans take part when they enter his rest. This relationship is sacrificial giving of life, otherwise known as love.

All other attributes, therefore, serve this character of self expenditure for his creation. Clearly, then, it is futile to try to come up with any sort of ‘objective’ explanation of God’s image, when all that he is shown to us in the context of a relationship with the individual!

And praise the Lord for that! For now when we study his word and seek his face we can know that whatever we find is what he desires us to know for the sake of giving it to us.

Religious Experience

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

There are a variety of human emotional experiences and states of consciousness. This wide range of mental activity is one of the things which set humans apart from all other creatures. The interpretation of these experiences, however, is determined by one’s cultural mindset.

Since spirituality is integral to all human cultures it is no wonder that many unusual experiences in altered states of consciousness are attributed to other unseen powers. This cannot prove the existence of God, but only indicate that there is across the board a place, and even a necessity, in the minds of all humans for the existence of a higher state of being than that which is within human capacity.

The Leaven of the Pharisees

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod'” said Jesus to his disciples.

Jesus had just fed four thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish. He had gotten into a boat and sailed to another town with his disciples, and there the Pharisees had asked for a sign from him to prove that he was from God.

The Pharisees in this town had not seen Jesus feed the four thousand on the other side of the lake, but the disciples had. And Jesus’ warning was issued to them who had both seen his miraculous providence of bread and Jesus’ subsequent refusal to give the Pharisees a sign. The four thousand people wanted only full bellies and healed bodies, the Pharisees wanted to prove to themselves that Jesus was not who he said he was, but the disciples were the clay that Jesus was molding.

For their sake he worked miracles and refuted the Pharisees. But they did not understand. When he gave them this warning the disciples thought he was rebuking them for not bringing bread along in the boat. They also, had their narrow understanding of who Jesus was, but to them Jesus was compassionate.

He reminded them that when he fed the five thousand with five loaves there were twelve baskets left over, and when he fed the four thousand with seven loaves there were seven baskets left over. “Do you not understand?” he asked.

Do we understand? The people wanted to be provided for, the pharisees wanted to prove their spirituality, but what did Jesus want to teach the disciples?

Jesus did not come to fill us with what we think we need. He did not come to make us feel spiritually sufficient, he came to pour out his life for many. And in warning the disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees and that of Herod, both people who prided themselves in representing the Jews as God’s chosen people, he was warning them against a self-serving spirituality.

The Faith of Isaac

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

“By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.”

This is the faith of one who has received a promise, the promise of Abraham, his blessing and his covenant, and who, without seeing whence it came nor where it was to go, held fast to it. He held fast not because God had spoken directly to him, nor because he himself knew where it led ultimately, but because it came from the mouth of God; he held fast. Certainly he had been blessed with the wealth of his father Abraham, had witnessed the provision of God on Mount Moriah, and had been prospered in his life-time, but as for the fullness of the promise that through the seed of Abraham all nations would be blessed, he was no closer to seeing than Abraham had been. And yet he believed.

But it wasn’t that simple either. According to his understanding the promise is to the first-born. Was this not the first fruit, what was offered to God? Was not Esau the strong one who conquered the land and brought home meat for the family? Esau was the one whom Isaac loved and cherished. It was for Esau that Isaac dreamt of God fulfilling his promises in a mighty way, conquering enemies and spreading God’s fame by his strength. If Esau had found favor in Isaac’s eyes as his first-born, then surely he had found favor in God’s eyes, had he not?

But Isaac lived by faith; not in his son, not in his beloved wife who had comforted him since his mother’s death, not even in his own blessing from God, but in the promise of God to whomever God chose to send it upon. And this faith produced a love that is stronger, more miraculous than any other love he had experienced on earth. It was a love that brought pain and sorrow in his old age and defied all human reason, but it was love that descends from heaven by power of God’s spirit through faith in his promise.

The Existence of God

Posted by Nathanael Szobody on

The existence of God can be argued for as long as philosophers want to entertain the possibility of their not being a God. One has to wonder; if it is so clear that God does not exist, then why are proponents of this idea still so preoccupied with proving it? Also, if God does exist, and he is the absolute cause, the infinite power, then why do believers in this God feel it so necessary to him for them to prove it?