Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write off the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Showing posts with label Grace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grace. Show all posts

Friday, April 17, 2020

Thomas Jay Oord - Select Videos: Open and Relational Process Theology



Thomas Jay Oord - What is Process Theology





Tom Oord, "The God of Non­coercive Love
in the Face of Randomness and Evil"




What is Essential Kenosis? A short explanation




Thomas Jay Oord:
Love's Essential Aspects and Diverse Forms




Thomas Jay Oord - God Can’t Stop Evil Singlehandedly




LRR: God Can't, Thomas Jay Oord




Thomas Jay Oord - Lecture on Randomness and Providence
of God in an Open and Relational perspective




Why Go Wesleyan? 13 Reasons from Tom Oord




On Salvation: God's part and ours




Essentials, Nonessentials, and Love




Thomas Jay Oord - 
How does petitionary prayer work in Open Theism?




Thomas Jay Oord -
What is your view of kenotic theology?




Thomas Jay Oord - 
What is Open Theism and why is this an attractive view?




Thomas Jay Oord - What are miracles?




Rethinking Hell Live 020:
Relentless Love? An Interview with Thomas Jay Oord





Monday, February 9, 2015

Misunderstanding God's Grace and Holiness. The Emphasis is Always on God's Grace.




Understandably Christianity is very interested in the righteousness of God becoming central to its practice and behavior. This stands out in Kevin DeYoung's book, "The Hole in Our Holiness." Obviously, for many practising Christians "holiness" is front-and-center to the Christian belief of what pleases God. Here is but one of twenty of Mr. DeYoung's firm beliefs and something we here at Relevancy22 would hotly debate:

“Not only is holiness the goal of your redemption, it is necessary for your redemption. Now before you sound the legalist alarm, tie me up by my own moral bootstraps, and feed my carcass to the Galatians, we should see what Scripture has to say. . . . It’s the consistent and frequent teaching of the Bible that those whose lives are marked by habitual ungodliness will not go to heaven. To find acquittal from God on the last day there must be evidence flowing out of us that grace has flowed into us.” (26)

If you wish to read more of these neo-Reformed gems of wisdom simply follow the link here provided - you will not be disappointed. Or visit the Google sites here and here filled with the images of Christian banners and book titles declaring the importance of God's holiness. I don't think it can be said enough that Christianity must ever wage war upon the legalists of its faith lest it become overwhelmed by an unloving, ungracious odor that reaches to the heavens even as it would fill the nostrils of those around us peering ever curiously at the kind of God we declare by our words and deeds.

Too often as Christians we get the proverbial "cart in front of the horse" leading out with God's judgment and wrath upon sin and evil when perhaps it may be better to explain by our actions and words God's grace as His very reason for relationship to this wicked world in the first place. Certainly DeYoung is describing the need of Jesus' substitutionary atonement as God's way towards holiness. This is not the debate. The debate is how evangelical Christianity places the weight of its Christian dogmas on holiness to the skewing of all following biblical church practices and doctrines. And thusly we at Relevancy 22 will say, "Not so!" It is God's grace that must skew all practices and doctrines and not God's holiness.

Why?

To simply favor holiness over grace creates an attitude of schism within the community of Christ's body by declaring one part of its body to be "more holy" than other parts of the body not observing those same rules and regulations. Even as it does with the watching world around the church which would misunderstand this attribute of our Lord's to be more important than His grace (I'll go on to explain what I mean by this in a bit).

So let us say this again, "It is not our works-righteousness that will make us righteous before God but through Jesus' substitutionary atonement that grants to us God's holiness. And yes, holiness to God is important but it is God's grace that makes God's holiness surmountable.

And to the church at large, neither are our ragged works done in Jesus' name what grants God's favor but that those works are done from hearts filled with God's grace thus forestaying any personal declarations of works-righteousness, pride, or legalism.

And more so, though Christians are to live as righteous people, we too often get this attribute of God ahead of God's grace. What? We end up holding attitudes and beliefs that would lower God's grace ahead of God's holiness. And when doing this end up affecting our attitudes towards God, mankind, the church's mission to the world, and even false beliefs about very basic Christian doctrine we should be holding in the hands of God's grace.

So let us say this again, it is not works-righteousness that makes us holy before God but God's grace through His Son to us. It is not by living "untainted" in the world that creates favor from God but that we know how to share God's love and grace to those around us while living and being a part of this world. Not as bigots, or judgers of men, or by proclaiming "sin upon everything we cast our eyes to." But by proclaiming God's mercy and forgiveness through ministrations of service and helps.

Are we then saying that God's attributes are ranked? That Holiness is more important than Grace. Or that Grace is more important than Holiness? Nay, let us not be so foolish! But know that God's attributes are not ranked except within His own foolish church when it seeks to proclaim its own self-righteousness as favor from God over a humbled heart crying "Thank you Father for your grace and mercy."

But, if we were to rank God's attributes, then as sinners saved by grace, God's grace is the one attribute that makes the most sense to our lives, to faith living, to our witness, and to our relationship with our heavenly Father.

Why?

Without grace, descriptions of God's holiness and righteousness sound as hollow things falling like tinkling brass upon the ears of our pagan hearts even as it does to our fellow man. Without grace, the holy Creator-God would never become our Redeemer-God nor would this be demonstrated in the Christian life of service. That is, God would not be moved to reach out to us if He were all austere holiness before all else. Nor would we as God's people ever desire to reach out to those sinners and evil doers around us whom we are but one redeemed by grace.

Appropriately so, the church's righteous means very little to the starving, the belittled, the hated, the envied, the harmed, and the condemned. But the grace of God as lived through His people is that very thing that will change all things within so many desperate lives lived impossibly on the edge seeking personal fulfillment, identity, and justice from God. But should God's people become like the vaunted Scribe or unbowed Pharisee filled with self-righteousness and condemnation upon others less worthy. Who turn a blind eye to the many grace-projects living about us - than fear and tremble and pray ye for God's forgiveness and repent of this evil thing by the winnowing Spirit of the Lord!

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, be righteous. Be holy. Let this fill all your actions to one another as to the world about us. But above all be gracious as your Lord is gracious sharing His mercy, love, forgiveness and hope. Let God's grace be the leading attribute in your doctrinal vernacular and dogmas and not those Pharisaical practices of condemnation and hatred to our fellow man. Be the grace-filled vessels of God in Jesus' name and learn to rewrite harsh doctrinal statements and church dogmas to more favorable treatises perfumed and scented with God's grace and love, hope and forgiveness. Amen.

R.E. Slater
February 9, 2014




* * * * * * * * * * *


"God’s righteousness is that attribute of God that means he is determined to sort the mess out through the way that he has chosen, ultimately through Jesus Christ. That means that one has a solid platform on which to stand to talk about putting things right in the community.

"This is not something off on the side, as in, “Oh, Christian faith is over here, and then, oh dear, there’s some people in pain there. Let’s get the Band-Aids out.” It’s absolutely vital to make those connections between justice and justification, and to say God intends eventually to put the whole world right. He has already done it in Jesus Christ. We who live in between those two poles have got to make sure we are moving in the power of the Spirit from the one towards the other."

N.T. Wright

* * * * * * * * * * *


"When we understand the character of God, when we grasp something of His holiness, then we begin to understand the radical character of our sin and hopelessness. Helpless sinners can survive only by grace. Our strength is futile in itself; we are spiritually impotent without the assistance of a merciful God. We may dislike giving our attention to God's wrath and justice, but until we incline ourselves to these aspects of God's nature, we will never appreciate what has been wrought for us by grace. Even Edwards's sermon on sinners in God's hands was not designed to stress the flames of hell. The resounding accent falls not on the fiery pit but on the hands of the God who holds us and rescues us from it. The hands of God are gracious hands. They alone have the power to rescue us from certain destruction."



* * * * * * * * * * *

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-- 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.


8 Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

7 But just as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us--see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."


* * * * * * * * * * *


The “grace” vs. “holiness” debate
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2013/01/the-grace-vs-holiness-debate/

by Gene Veith
January 31, 2013

Christianity Today has set up a symposium discussing the following question: Do American Christians Need the Message of Grace or a Call to Holiness? As usual, no Lutherans were asked to participate, and the whole debate is maddening for a Lutheran to read, not just because of its false dichotomies but because of what is missing in the understanding of both terms.

For example, is it true that the Biblical definition of “holiness” means “being good”? For convenience, here is a link to every use of the term “holy” in the Bible, and here is a link to the uses of the word “holiness”. We learn that the Sabbath is holy, certain mountains and lands are holy; the Tabernacle (and later the Temple), its furnishings, the priests’ vestments and tools are holy. None of these inanimate objects are capable of moral action, but God’s Word declares them holy. There is a contrast with what is ritually unclean or profane, but this isn’t a matter of moral righteousness as such. God, above all, is supremely holy. So are His people. Christians constitute a “holy priesthood.” The holiness of Christians seems to be connected to the Holy Spirit. To be sure, God’s holy people must avoid contact with what is “impure,” just as holy objects must not be touched by something “unclean.”

There are indeed passages in the Epistles that call for holy conduct, but there is more to the concept than that. The word, of course, means “set apart” for God’s special use or for His spiritual presence. The word “sacrament” comes from the word “sacred,” which, says the Online Etymological Dictionary, derives from the “obsolete verb sacren ‘to make holy’ (early 13c.).” In Baptism, God sets us apart. He makes us holy. In Holy Communion, Christ makes us holy. In the Holy Bible, God’s Word brings us His holiness through the Holy Spirit.

I’m not saying this exhausts the issue, but it is strange, in Lutheran eyes, to talk about “holiness” simply in behavioral terms. It is also strange to talk about “grace” as an abstract quality without mentioning Christ, the Cross, or the tangible “means of grace,” which gets us back to “holiness.”

Good works? Of course! But these grow out of both grace and holiness. Both have to do with God’s gifts and what God bestows through Christ. How can they be set against each other?


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Where does the etymology of the phrase, "It Is More Blessed to Give than to Receive" come from?

 
 
Recently I heard the phrase "it is more blessed to give than to receive" and got to wondering where its etymology might have come from. Perhaps not from the Jewish Gospels, as in Matthew 10.8b, when Jesus quoted a popular Jewish phrase,
 
5 "These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers,[c] cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. 9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics[d] or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food."
 
But more perhaps from Acts 20.35 (context vv.34-36), when Paul said,
 
"34You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'36And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all."
 
Earlier, in verse 32, Paul had said,
 
"And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified..."
 
as he spoke about his time of ministry having come to a close amongst his disciples. How he had labored night and day for their edification and sanctification. And that with his very hands he served them, providing the blessings of God's word to their hearts and minds.
 
So I found it curious that Paul would connect the grace of God with the phrase of Jesus of being a blessing to others (v. 32 to v. 35) by translating from its Jewish counterpart which flatly stated "freely give what you freely received" (sic, Matthew 10.8b). From Paul's Jewish heritage he was going through the process of re-evaluating Christ's teachings in light of what he  had previously understood through his Torah upbringing as seen here by his revelatory assessment pertaining to God's grace and blessings. He was in the process of threading the Christian themes of the Gospels backwards into his own Jewish heritage and teachings about God, and beginning to conclude their contemporary relevance and significance to the church of his day. Especially in the light of God's revelation through Jesus, as not only the Son of God come to dwell amongst men. But who was Himself the very God of the Godhead. The Incarnated Triune God. Israel's long-awaited Messiah come to live and minister grace within the temples of His dwelling built within His wondrous creation brought alive by His life, death and resurrection over sin and death.

Jesus' words were important to Paul. And they were important to evaluate against all of God's past revelation to Israel received over many, many centuries, if not millenia, from Abraham unto Paul's current milieu of first century Judaism. It is not hard to visualize Paul working out a basic hermeneutical structure of New Covenant theology as he progressed through the various ministry environments he experienced during his missionary journeys of evangelism and church planting. And when seated within the Roman cells of imprisonment to begin working through the many fractured paths of Judaistic thought-and-theology into a more enlightened view of God's New Testament revelation presented to not only himself, but to his fellow apostles (Christ's disciples) received at the hands of Jesus to by His faithful followers. Out of which we now have Paul's letters written to the churches of Asia Minor and Rome, garnered first by experience, and secondly through the interpretive rumination of prayerful thought and balanced judgment, against Paul's previous background of systematic, rigorous, Jewish training. (Paul once noted that he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, when contesting an interpretation of Scriptural revelation being rejected by fellow would-be revelatories. Interpreting and acting upon God's Word aright was important to him).

And not only did this phrase of blessing mean something in Paul's day, but it has come to mean something to us in our day as well, as we continue to translate, or import, God's revelation through Jesus into the digest of worldly phrases heard in our ears from within today's cultures and societies vying for moral, religious, or philosophical ascendancy. But by filling our ears, our minds, and our hearts, with the illumined richness of God's Word, the Bible, as revealed to us through Jesus, we might then be better able to speak to each other of God's grace and truth. By re-assessing (or re-positioning) such popular phrases as, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" we, as Christians, may communicate it's higher revelatory significance of referring to God's empowerment of His word of grace into our meager lives lived so gracelessly. So self-centered. So anxious and sparse.
 
And by this phrase one might gather that it had become one of those basic tenets of Judaism mostly likely conscripted from its more common, worldly origins, then as it later became by Paul through impassioned speeches to Jewish-Hellenistic congregations scattered amongst the pages of the book of Acts as he hastened to Jerusalem to begin his fourth and final journey for the gospel of Jesus unto Rome itself. Paul's desire to go to Rome saddened the churches of Asia Minor (20.38f) but also stiffened their resolve to provide for their destitute Jewish brethren dwelling in-and-around Jerusalem they had not met but knew to be suffering for faithfully following Jesus. So that in the midst of famine in Israel, the Apostle Paul's congregants wished to provide help through the provisioning of bread, money, and so forth, to the churches of Jerusalem, as he, Paul, travelled amongst the churches of Asia Minor before returning to Jerusalem, and ultimately to his final journey as a Roman prisoner to tell of the good news of Jesus to the emperor of Rome himself.
 
And in this way Paul spoke to what his Lord and Savior had provided to him - specifically that through the gospel of Jesus he freely received God's grace as a religiously loyal Jewish Pharisee trained in the Torah - and was to freely give back God's grace to those who knew not Jesus.... And in hearty response, those Christian followers of the Messiah Christ took to their heart to give of themselves - and not only to one another - but to their Christian brothers and sisters suffering in foreign lands for their faith in Christ.

And in this way have I likewise labored here at Relevancy22 with many contemporaries to provide fresh insights into God's living Word through recitation of articles and posts reflecting popular discussions, songs, theologies, or ideas, found in today's mainstreams of thought and rhetoric. To tell of the Scripture's richness once thought lost in the arguments of the church between one interpretive dogma or the other; to enliven today's theologies with a recharged hermeneutic that works past many of Evangelicalism's dead-ends to reclaim a Jesus-nation warm-and-alive with the breath-and-power of the Spirit. To say plainly what many would wish to cover up. And to say it again-and-again-again until it sinks in, using a simple literary nuance here, or a shaded overtone there, that might overcome our Christian differences and religious impasses to discover a more meaningful Bible; a richer theological landscape; and a broader tapestry of ministry and livelihood than once thought possible.

Nor did I think I would become so overwhelmed by so large a burden so late in life. But through God's spirit, and by the grace He has given to me, I have collected and written this past year-and-a-half of God's great goodness as it proceeds unstoppable through this world we live within. Whether through the church itself. Or in spite of itself. Or even at the hands of those burdened souls for human rights and suffrage. Or even through the pursuits of common scientific discoveries and human organizational efforts. God is actively involved in this world of ours and it is only we ourselves who would try to contain the will of our Divine Creator, the Lover of our Souls, our Redeemer and Savior. To unwittingly, or ignorantly, prevent His word of grace from being as relevant today as it ever was in Christ's day. It is but for us to hear. And to hear God's Word aright. And thus, have I chosen to re-orient our message of the Gospel as an emerging Gospel dispelled of the church's many pet dogmas and religious zeals. To dare to enter in upon holy ground and there stand speaking God's Word afresh as it should be spoken unaltered and pure without so many of our words and actions hindering the Spirit's movement.

And with that, I leave with you a follow-up article speaking to the further development of the Christian phrase of blessing written several years ago during one Christmas season from a Canadian perspective. It doesn't complete the Jewish etymology of this phrase, but it may help provide an important "regal" perspective to our response by God's actions to us - both in creative deed and redemptive act. To this may I add a short prayer,

As God gives strength,
Be blessed and be blessings,
Each and every day,
To every man or beast,
In every realm or kingdom,
To the glory of God,
Unto the richness of
His Rule and Reign.

Give without receiving,
Receive with thanksgiving,
In all things give grace,
As is the will of God,
Who Himself is grace.

May God's peace be our inheritance,
May charity be our livelihood,
May the Lord Jesus Christ be uplifted,
Both now and always.

- R.E. Slater
October 11, 2012 



Acts 20
English Standard Version (ESV)

Paul in Macedonia and Greece

20 After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. 2 When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. 3 There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews[a] as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. 4 Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. 5 These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, 6 but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.
 
Eutychus Raised from the Dead
 
7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. 9 And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. 10 But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” 11 And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. 12 And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.
 
13 But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. 14 And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. 15 And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and[b] the day after that we went to Miletus. 16 For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
 
Paul Speaks to the Ephesian Elders
 
17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them:
 
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by[c] the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God,[d] which he obtained with his own blood.[e] 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
 
36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.
 
 
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It's more blessed to give than receive
http://www.lucknowsentinel.com/2008/12/17/its-more-blessed-to-give-than-receive

By Pastor Perry Chuipka

As we approach this advent and Christmas season this verse keeps coming into my mind. Many of us grew up hearing that "It is more blessed to give than to receive." But what does this word "bless" really mean.
 
In the Bible, the origin of the concept of "blessing" is a Hebrew word (baw-rahk'), meaning "to kneel" and was used one way or another, hundreds of times to convey the meaning of respect or adoration. You would kneel before a king in respect or to offer thanks for something. Of course, you would kneel to God in adoration, praise, thanksgiving and supplication. The Septuagint (LXX) translators choose the Greek (eulogeitos) to represent (baw-rahk') (more than 400 times). So, among Greek speaking Jews, this was a common word for praise, thanksgiving, respect, etc. Latin writers used the verb form (benedicere) to translate the Greek, preferring to offer the literal sense of the Greek. I think they wanted a strictly English word so they could get away from the Catholic Latin expressions.
 
The word "bless" was not a literal translation, but it had religious overtones and they used it even though it had come from a heathen source. So, there was a long and varied series of associations - Jewish, heathen, Christian - to blend in the English use of the word "bless". Therefore, "blessing" is a word which has a position in Christian vocabulary by reason of long-standing usage. But it does not directly translate (eulogeitos)! BUT - there is a modern version which does have a direct translation, and it is to this version that I pay honour. The version is the Spanish. In Ephesians 1:3 in the Spanish, the word (bendito) is the part participle of the verb (bendecir). It means, literally, "to say good things or good words."
 
So let me go back to my verse, "It is more blessed to give than receive." It is not that giving is more important than receiving. That is not what this verse means. Instead it points out that blessings start from someone giving good things or good words. I couldn't help but think back to the Genesis stories of creation where God created his blessings for this world by first giving good things or good words.
 
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day" and the darkness he called "night". and there was evening, and there was morning-the first day."
 
Now, just think for a moment about Jesus' ministry. He showed us the power of the word [...and I might add, our actions! - res] to bring new life to others through the many good things that he said and did. And so it is with us, as we enter this advent and Christmas season. Our words and our actions are important because they help bring about God's blessing to others. We can give blessings to others this Christmas and it starts with us being thankful for all the good things that God has given us to share with others.
 
My family and I are very thankful for the people here in Lucknow. We arrived in Wingham near the end of April of this year coming from Sudbury in Northern Ontario. Not long after we arrived here, Sara, the reporter from the Sentinel came to our home to interview my wife and I. Not long after that, I attended the regular men's Wednesday morning gathering time at Finlayson's and I was greeted with smiles and a few jokes that I cannot repeat here. The people have been great and very welcoming to us. My family and I do feel blessed. We are blessed with good people who are with us on our common journey of searching for the truth in our lives. My family and I wish you and your loved ones a very blessed Christmas season filled with many good moments with family and friends and a New Year echoing with "good words and good things".
 
 
 

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Does God Always Do the Wisest Thing?




As I re-read Roger's article I began to think in terms of classic theism as versus process theism... the first asserts God's freedom of dependency from Creation, the latter asserts the necessity of God's dependency upon Creation. In the one view God is Creation's governor, in the second it's necessary partner. A third view, one that I have been calling "Relational Theology" reaffirms the classic position but then goes on to say that God has further declared Himself in partnership with His Creation, thereby admitting the various truisms of process theology. But rather from a volitional, and not a non-volitional argument, and thus avoiding the panentheistic corollary of involuntary bond(age) between God and His Creation which says each is necessary for the other's existence. The Classic view says this is not so, and the relational view goes on to further assert that God has voluntarily bound Himself to His creation not out of coercion, necessity or actuality, but from a free will or libertarian choice. In this way I find Dr. Olson's article on this subject a little more intriguing when thinking through the infinities of God's ontological estate (to place it dryly in its systematic vernacular), or better, the majesty of our infinite God who created by choice and by grace something apart from Himself in which He inhabits, partners with, and devotes Himself to, by choice and by grace.

R.E. Slater
March 1, 2012



Does God Always Do the Wisest Thing?

by Roger Olson
posted May 17, 2011

Many (not all) Calvinists argue that libertarian free will or, the power of contrary choice, is an incoherent concept. (E.g., Jonathan Edwards, Lorraine Boettner, R. C. Sproul, John Frame, John Piper, et al.) The reason is, they argue, that it amounts to belief in uncaused effects. They argue that people act according to their strongest motive.

What I’ve often wondered is whether Calvinists who argue this believe God has power of contrary choice. If God has power of contrary choice, then it cannot be a strictly incoherent concept. But to say God does NOT have power of contrary choice seems to make God a prisoner of creation; without power of contrary choice God’s decision to create would be necessary and that would make creation less than gracious and, in fact, a part of God’s own life – not a free act as if God could have done otherwise.

Wikipedia - J. Edwards
The way Jonathan Edwards attempted to get around this in The Freedom of the Will was to say that "God always does the wisest thing." Contemporary Calvinists who follow him closely agree. In other words, according to Edwards, God could have done otherwise than create the world, but he created the world because it was “most fitting” to do so.

My question is how this gets around the problem. To me it seems like a dodge; that is, it seems to attempt to answer the challenge without answering it. It seems like saying both at the same time – that God could have not created and that God could not have not created.

The question is simply this: Is it logically conceivable that God might not have created the world? Is it conceivable that God might have decided against this creation or any creation?

Edwards’ answer seems to say yes and no at the same time. That’s against the laws of logic UNLESS he can explain how the “yes” and the “no” are referring to different things. But in his explanation, they aren’t.

The question is: Is God the prisoner of his own wisdom (or of anything)? I’ve earlier discussed here the issue of nominalism/voluntarism versus realism – i.e., whether God has a nature. But even the strictest realists do not believe God is a prisoner of his eternal character. Rather, his eternal character guides his decision; it does not necessary govern them.

IF one says that God “always does the wisest thing” WITH THE ASSUMPTION that there is always only ONE “wisest thing,” then how is one not making creation necessary and therefore not gracious? (A basic principle of theology is that what is by nature cannot be by grace. If I HAVE to rescue you, it’s not an act of mercy or grace.)


Why assume that there is always only ONE “wise thing” to do – even for God? Why couldn’t it have been wise to create but also wise not to create? Of course, as any rationalist will ask, then why did God create? Was it simply an arbitrary choice – like throwing the dice?

Here I’m tempted to throw back at the Calvinist his or her own argument that God’s choice of "some to save" and "others to damn" is not arbitrary without any hint at what might explain it. In other words, if it’s fair for the Calvinist to argue that divine selection is not based on anything God “sees” in the elect or the damned (that differentiates them) and yet is not arbitrary, then why couldn’t the person who believes in God’s power of contrary choice argue that God’s choice to create is not arbitrary even though no specific reason for it can be given?

However, I prefer to argue that for God, as for us, there are moments when two alternative options are equally wise and no controlling, determining factor interior (such as motive) or otherwise determines which option one must choose to be right.

For example, some married couples confront the choice whether or not to have a child. I know couples like that. They wrestled with the decision, they thought about it long and hard, and they never really came up with a determinative reason to have or not to have a child. Some such couples decide to have a child, which is wise, and some decide not to, which can also be wise.

It seems to me that to say “God always does the wisest thing,” implying by that that God must do such-and-such (e.g., create the world), is the same as to say that God is a machine and that the creation and redemption of the world is not by grace but by nature. Only if God really could have done otherwise than create can creation be by grace only. Grace cannot be compelled and still be grace.

The upshot is, of course, that IF the creation and redemption of the world by God is truly gracious and not automatic, then God must possess libertarian free will, power of contrary choice. And if God possesses such, it cannot be an incoherent concept.


Now, it’s another thing entirely to argue that God possesses power of contrary choice but humans don’t. That’s a different argument. The natural answer is “Why?” If God possesses it, why couldn’t he give it to humans? There doesn’t seem to be anything about power of contrary choice that requires deity. It’s not like omnipotence, for example.

[By definition, Creation is not the same thing as God but is something set apart from God and yet bears God's divine Image or divine essence to itself. This realtionship is ontologically distinct from one another, though each bears the imprint of the other, and in a fashion each inhabits the other in some metaphysical sense, which is what is meant by divine Image or Essence. - re slater]

I think Edwards skirted the issue and so do his followers who repeat his argument in one form or another. To say “God always does the wisest thing” is either to imply that God is an automaton, in which case creation and redemption are automatic and not gracious, or to imply that God COULD do that which is something other than “the wisest thing.”

I reject the notion that “God always does the wisest thing,” not because I think God is anything less than absolutely wise but because I don’t believe there is always only one “wisest thing” in every situation of choice between options. To avoid making creation and redemption other than gracious, we have to suppose that God really could have chosen not to create. To say “God always does the wisest thing” is to imply that God really could not have done otherwise.

So, the Calvinist argument that libertarian free will - the power of contrary choice - is an incoherent concept falls on its own sword UNLESS the Calvinist is willing to make God the prisoner of his wisdom, that is of his nature, in such a way that creation and redemption are not gracious.


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*For a related article see "The Origin of Sin, Hell and Universalism" -
http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2012/02/origin-of-sin-hell-and-universalism.html