A Big View of Redemption
Monday, September 24, 2007
This here is what makes me a Calvinist (and to want buy this book, too) --
“At their best, Reformed Christians take a very big view of redemption because they take a very big view of fallenness. If all has been created good and all has been corrupted, then all must be redeemed. God isn’t content to save souls; God wants to save bodies too. God isn’t content to save human beings in their individual activities; God wants to save social systems and economic structures too…”
“Everything corrupt needs to be redeemed, and that includes the whole natural world, which both sings and groans…The whole world belongs to God, the whole world has fallen, the whole world needs to be redeemed - every last person, place, organization, and program; all “rocks and trees and skies and seas”; in fact, “every square inch,” as Abraham Kuyper said. The whole creation is “a theater for the mighty works of God,” first in creation and then in re-creation.”
- Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Engaging God’s Word
Author: Nate » Comments:
To-ler-ance?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
"It used to be that tolerance was the virtue of the person who held strong views about something or other, but who insisted that those who disagreed had an equal right to defend their views – the sort of stance picked up in the slogan, 'I may detest your opinions, but I shall defend to the death your right to speak them.' Today, however, tolerance is the virtue of the person who holds no strong views, except for the strongly held view that it is wrong to hold strong views, or to indicate that someone else might be wrong."
- D.A. Carson, Maintaining Scientific and Christian Truths in a Postmodern World
Labels: culture, philosophy, postmodernism, quotes, society
Author: Nate » Comments:
A Creed... Pt 1
Sunday, September 2, 2007
There is a God. One God. He is good, all-powerful and perfect in every way. This God created all things, for a perfect purpose - to glorify him and enjoy him forever. To share life with him and to enjoy it. That is why trees grow, why birds sing and it's why we are born.
But mankind has rejected its Creator and its purpose, going our own way in this world. We have made up our own gods to fit our preferences more, or we have changed tact and decided to live as if the whole world revolves around us individually. Now we've reached the point where we don't know whether there even is a God, we've deceived ourselves so much. This selfishness - this self-worship and self-delusion - is the essence of "sin", and this leads to death in every sense of the word. We've murdered our relationship with our creator, we've poisoned our personal relationships with others, and we keep destroying the very world that we've been placed on. Death follows us wherever we go.
Now, having rejected the source of all life, love and truth, we find ourselves lost, confused, empty and dying, and we search frantically for something to help. Religion, money and pleasure all consistently fail to satisfy our deepest needs - to deal with this gaping whole in us.
But this is not the end. Seeing the mess that we have made, the God that we rejected - and continue to reject every day of our lives - chose to help us. God, the maker of all the universe, stepped off his throne and entered his own creation, for us.
He became a man, like us in every way except sin, and revealed the unseen God to us. He shattered all our preconceived notions of what God is like and what life is all about. He taught, he healed and he showed us what life could - and should - be like. He showed the poor and the rejected that God loves them. He showed the rich and the proud that they are chasing the wrong things. He ushered in "The Kingdom of God" - a glimpse of the way things were meant to be.
But we would not have it. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, was hated by the world that he came to save. The political powers and the religious elite framed him and had him brutally tortured and executed. The people who once hailed him as a leader and a visionary abandoned him to death. He died, and was buried for three days.
But even death was not the end. This was not just the execution of a small-time political criminal, but a sacrifice on behalf of a sin-riddled world. A willing acceptance of the punishment due to us, by the one we victimised. And now, with the punishment meted out and the ransom accepted, we find ourselves acquitted by our Judge and welcomed back into the arms of our Creator. In the death of Jesus, mankind was and is reconciled to God.
... Part Deux coming soon...
Author: Nate » Comments:
