So what’s so wrong with panentheism?

Eden's Banishment

When approaching Process Theology (PT) it is necessary to be able to grasp and understand its related and essential component of pan-en-theism from which each proceed together apace (please note we are not talking here of pan-theism. See links below for further definitions in this area). Over the past year we have attempted to discern both concepts - PT and panentheism - and to appreciate the relational aspects of our Creator God in living partnership to the cosmos and to humanity where each together are known and described as God's creative universe in living birth and dependency upon the other: God with His creation and His creation with Himself. Whereas the counter position of Classical Theology (CT) will emphasize the independency of God's being from that of His creation making Him more of a sympathetic, but wholly-Other God to creation's essence. Who holds Himself in unmitigated void apart from creation until He personally experiences it through His Incarnational birth, life and death in the wholly-Divine personage of Jesus (sic, cf. the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union of Christ). As such, the difference and the chasm that lies between both Process and Classic Theism is summed up in the phrase "ex nihilo creation" with PT denying its concept and CT affirming it.

 

Over the past year we have discussed the theological and philosophical ramifications of God and creation in terms of biblical ontology, metaphysics, and existentialism. We have also examined its scientific evolutionary origins through quantum physics and anthropological studies focused on the communicational development of individuals through learning theory and cultural sub-groupings. Beginning with man's early primitive understanding of himself and his surroundings discovered by anthropologists in the fossilized rock and earth; to the basic components of man's theorized social / psychological formation and interaction with one another in his early, primitive settings; to the archaeological examination of ancient human records discovered in early civilizations entombed around the world. Especially those ancient near-Eastern records discovered in comparative cultural and religious studies to that of the bible's own ancient contracts, social constructions, institutions, and theology of God. Who has especially revealed Himself in revelation to this region of mankind... specifically to a people/tribe/nation-state we know as Israel. Who tells us of His own divine being - who He is. What He wants. What His heart desires of us and this world that we live in. And from these early descriptions preserved upon ancient (biblical) manuscripts we enter into today's more lively discussion of Emergent Christianity.

A discussion which forces the active re-composition of the Reformational Era's theological by-products of systematized and reformed theology through a rigorous post-examination of both the Old and New Testaments from a post-modernistic understanding of narrative theology as it relates to the larger meta-narrative of God's own story to that of our own. Especially as both are beheld in the central personage of Jesus whom we understand to be the incarnate God who re-incarnates all living flesh with His own life force of redeeming grace-and-love. How? Through the profound experience of His personal atoning sacrifice that singularly reconstitutes all of life - both humanity's and the creative cosmos - from death's finality and destruction - to a newness of life and livelihood, existence and charter.

Who re-orients the cosmos and humanity from its fundamental willfulness away from Himself back into the life-giving breath-and-heart of its Maker-Creator-Sustainer. Process Theology then focuses upon this fundamental process and tells us how God is actively re-balancing creation through His own personal involvement of essential redemption. An involvement as much a part of His own divine being as it is a part of His own divine will. A fundamental act much misunderstood in Classical Theism's Reformational and Enlightened dispositions describing God as separate - and above - this very same process. But not in an unfeeling way. But in a dispassionate, ruling, capricious capacity, much as one would describe a machine or a computer dispensing truth and justice upon the non-elect of the earth.

Whereas Relational Theology then comes along and says to both Process Theology and strict Reformational Classicism that neither position should disqualify the other but join together in illuminating the many infinite aspects of the Unfathomable One who speaks life to the dry bones of our beings. Giving sunshine and warmth to the cold, mechanistic processes of life's fundamental aspects of growth and development. Mercy and peace. Truth and justice. Giving purpose, and hope, and meaning, to both the cosmos and to humanity that held none before without the active, ceaseless, involvement of a Creator God (if ever there was such a time!). Who has never let either this world, nor our own, go upon their wayward paths. But always-and-ever-and-only directs each cosmos (whether impersonal or personal) into His own paths of light-and-life even before either were created in the depths of His being's longings and passions.

For this almighty Creator knew our paths even as He knew of His plans for us (which is the debate of another doctrinal position known as Open Theism/Theology with Classic Theism/Theology - see sidebars for more info). And it is only ourselves who have become gravely misinformed by our many disconnected theories and mistaken reflections. Endlessly debating each other as we preach certain knowledge from our own biased doctrinal positions (heaven, hell, universalism, damnation, election, foreordination) all the while being woefully misguided having missed the telltale narrative themes of God's revelatory tone and import concerning these very same subjects! ...That He is. ...That He always has been. ...That He always will be.... And because of His divine being we must know and expect that He has not left us alone to the imaginations of our own hearts. But has come to be with us giving light-and-life. Foreordaining grace out of the determinative counsels of His own heart. Who will actively pursue this grace into our broken hearts and lives till all is healed and made whole. And all will sing in divine fellowship with the Godhead of creation. Singing eternal songs of love, and grace, and peace, and hope. This we must know through trust and belief.

For from time immemorial God is the God who reaches out to us in ceaseless care and love. Who desires truth and justice but knows these are unattainable without the administration first of His almighty grace and mercy in continual calls of repentance by His Spirit. And there to find common cause with the Creator of our hearts and lives who is become our Savior. Despite sin and death. Who makes all things new. Despite the ugliness and harm around us. Who creates life where there is no life. Hope where there is no hope. Who gives light in even the darkest of shadows. It is this Savior God that all will answer to. Who seeks our allegiance to trust in His great goodness. His majesty of wisdom. His undergirding power, sublime, and awesome. Who is strong in our weakness. Who is compassionate to the lost. Granting mercy to the forgotten. The downtrodden. The poor. Giving His breath of hope to the hopeless. Favour to the unfavoured. Blessings to those that languish. He is God. And His promise is to never leave us nor forsake us (whether saved or unsaved, I might add to my Calvinist friends). Not even in our sin and destruction. Our pride and shame. So be ye at peace then. God is, and will ever be, God. Incorruptible. Indivisible. Inexpressible. Incomparable. Who comes to give life. Be life. Provide life. Live life. His kingdom is forever. And forever is this kingdom ours, in the personage of His being, and majesty of His power. Be at peace then and know your salvation has come. Even as it comes into this world that we live to be remade into the image of its Sovereign Creator become its unwanted Savior.

R.E. Slater

August 8, 2012

Addendum:

Pantheism or Panentheism?

If you were like myself a year ago I would not have understood the difference between "pan-theism" and "pan-en-theism" thinking that both terms meant the same, or in my case, just not noticing the casual spelling difference between the two words! However, pantheism means that God and the universe are the same ontological entities, whereas panentheism suggests that God and the universe are two halves of the same coin, though not necessarily the same ontologically. Moreover, each are considered dependent upon the other thus removing the distinction between a Creator vs. Creation (Cosmos). Put another way, "if there were no Creator there is no Cosmos. If there is no Cosmos then there is no Creator." This is pan-en-theism.

Thought through, there isn't a lot of difference between the two concepts of pantheism and panentheism. The first term arises from a polytheistic basis such as is found in Hinduism, whereas the other term arises from a Christian basis and has been adopted into an important new branch of Christian thinking known as Process Theology/Theism/or Thought. As background to the article below please refer to the links below but begin with Part 2. And do not be afraid to wade in. Its a simple enough concept with big, big ramifications. Thanks!
 

Open Theism & Process Theology, Part 1/2

Doctrinal Differences Compared

Open Theism & Process Theology, Part 2/2

Basic Definitions

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What’s wrong with panentheism?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2012/08/whats-wrong-with-panentheism/

by Roger Olson
with emendations from R.E. Slater
 

August 7, 2012

Comments

So What’s Wrong with Panentheism?

Recently I suggested that Jonathan Edwards may have been guilty of panentheism. I won’t explain why again here; if you’re interested please go back and read that post. At least one commenter asked why that’s a problem in light of Paul’s quotation in Athens of a Greek poet. He referred to God as the one “in whom we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Was Paul affirming panentheism? What’s wrong with panentheism?

Confession that one is a panentheist is, rightly or wrongly, the kiss of death when it comes to being hired to teach theology at most evangelical institutions of higher education. A few years ago an acquaintance who was a candidate to teach theology at an evangelical seminary was rejected by its president because, during his interview, he admitted he is a panentheist.

“Panentheism” is a somewhat flexible and evolving concept. When someone says “panentheism” or “panentheist” I ask what they mean. The term has no definite, universally agreed on definition. I no longer take it for granted.

Panentheism is a relatively recent term, if not concept, in Christian theology and philosophy of religion. Scholars agree that it was coined by German philosophical theologian Karl Friedrich Krause (1781-1832) who invented the German word Allingottlehre which literally means “the doctrine that all is in God.” Of course, Krause was not the first person to promote the idea. (See John W. Cooper, Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers [Baker, 2006], 121-122.)

Krause meant more than merely that “all is in God, however.” That can be interpreted in multiple ways and might even fit Paul’s statement in Athens. According to John Cooper, Krause believed “the distinction between God and the world is that of whole and part.” (122) Exactly what Krause meant by panentheism is debatable, but the concept took on a life of its own, apart from whatever Krause meant, in philosophers such as G. W. F. Hegel who famously asserted that “Without the world God is not God.”

Hegel is usually thought to have been the paradigmatic panentheist of the 19^th century, but Alfred North Whitehead is usually considered that of the 20^th century. Whitehead, of course, was the philosopher-mathematician who is the inspiration behind process theology. Whitehead said that “It is as true to say that God creates the world as that the world creates God.”

A consensus used to exist that panentheism is any view of the God-world relationship that portrays God and the world as essentially interdependent although God’s essence is not contributed by the world. One of the first whole books exploring the concept was Philosophers Speak of God by Charles Hartshorne and William Reese (University of Chicago Press, 1953). They defined panentheism as any view in which “To be himself [God] does not this universe, but only a universe.” (22) They asserted that, at the very least, panentheism denies creation ex nihilo (23).

So, traditional, classical panentheism distinguishes between God’s essence, his eternal being, and his experience. God’s essence, his thatness and whatness are his independent of the world, but his actual experience is given to him by the world. Many panentheists have used the body-soul or body-mind analogy to describe the God-world relationship in traditional, classical panentheism. The world (universe, cosmos) is God’s body.

I came to think that what distinguishes panentheism, in its German idealist (Hegelian) form and in its process (Whiteheadian) form, from traditional Christian theism (in its broadest form) is the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. In other words, I have no problem believing that God actually experiences the world such that there is a sense in which the world is “in” God. That’s how I interpret Paul’s statement in Athens. Also, I believe Paul meant that "the world is dependent on God for its existence from moment to moment" [which is the traditional expression for Classic Christian Theism - R.E. Slater].

The crucial difference between traditional, classical panen-theism and Christian theism, broadly interpreted (i.e., not necessarily as defined by Augustine or Anselm or Aquinas), is God’s dependence on the world. Panentheism traditionally affirms it; all forms of classical Christian theism deny it. Creatio ex nihilo [as a philosophical expression AND as a scientific expression - R.E. Slater] is the crucial doctrine that protects Christian theism from making God essentially dependent on the world....

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In re-reading what I have said here a year ago (2012) I noticed I had written my understanding of panentheism backwards... as such, I've re-written it again to read as follows:

I've come to distinguish between the two expressions by remaining neutral to the philosophical while affirming the scientific.... That is, in scientific terms "something" cannot come from "nothing"... which correlates with quantum physic's observation. So, when using the phrase creatio ex nihilo in connection with panentheism it must be considered both "nay" and "yeah." "Nay," because quantum physics has stated shown our universe to have a beginningless mass from which our present universe became. And "yeah," in that I still prefer the classic idea of God giving mass and energy to the pre-universe though this cannot be proved scientifically.

Additionally, pertaining to God's sovereignty as related to creational evolution, I understand God to have reordered the quantum nothingness of the pre-universe into a quantum state of chaos filled with divine purpose and indeterminate possibility (sic, the "free will" side of creation). That is, evolution has a "teleological" side to it. Though random and chaotic per God's divine plan, there is also found superintending over its indeterminate structure (or "creational freedom") His divine direction in some mysterious process we've yet to understand giving to us life from nothingness. Most atheistic evolutionists will disagree with this sentiment as would be proper within a strict evolutionary understanding of creation. But as a theistic evolutionist I cannot explain biblical passages that express again-and-again God's deep involvement with creation as its Creator without understanding God's involvement within it as He directs its chaotic process towards our present day humanity.

On the philosophical side of the question of whether God is, or is not, dependent upon His creation I would like to affirm classic theism's idea that God is not dependent upon it based upon His essence both ontologically and metaphysically. As well as based upon the absolute necessity that we remain culpable free willed beings for our sin (which likewise makes God blameless for our sin). And yet, because He is our Creator there is also the sense that God is not so much "dependent" upon creation but somehow equisitely "linked" to His creation. So for me, process thought has the right idea leading in the right direction but is using the wrong word and linkages when discerning the Bible's idea of God's interconnected relatedness to our world. Hence, classic theism is the poorer without process theism's observations, while process theism must widen its idea of panentheism to allow a separateness of God's ontologic being from His relational being as creation's Creator.

- R.E. Slater, August 7, 2013

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... Why is it important to deny God’s dependence on the world? Traditionally Christian theologians have said “to protect the transcendence of God.” Fine. But why? The bedrock reason is, as I have stated and argued here before, that “whatever is of nature cannot be of grace.” Christianity is not a philosophy; it is a message of grace. If God’s creation and redemption of the world is not free, then it is not of grace. Only that which is freely done is truly gracious. That’s a bedrock principle of theology. When someone disputes it, I frankly don’t know what they mean by “grace....” [To sum up: God is not dependent upon the world to protect His transcendancy over the world, but to allow our world and ourselves our greatest freedom when separated from God's "dependency" upon it (remember, I do not like the word "dependency"). When we speak biblically of creation's indeterminacy, or of man's free will, we assert a non-coercive free will of man and nature held quite apart from God's divine will. God has given to creation its highest possibility of separateness from His holy will as free-willed creatures. Thus, God is neither culpable to sin's progeneration, nor are we protected from its affects, and yet God longs for reconciliation and works always to restore creation back to Himself, who is inseparably a part of His creation in terms of will and purpose, rather than as ontologic or metaphysic connection per panentheism. As such, the term panentheism is evolving to mean many things instead of the classic Hegelian or Whiteheadian expression it once was intended to be in the 19th and 20th centuries. Consequently, we should not be afraid to use the word, but when we do, to use it less strictly, and perhaps with adjectival address. - R.E. Slater

 

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Hence, in nature - as pictured in creation's current state of fallenness - some aspect of God's image may be borne. And yet, it remains unresolved, impure in some sense, corrupted, and unlike God's fully divine image. As such, though one may find a kind of "rebirth" from some aspect of God's creation - an experience of nature perhaps, or an experience within society itself through someone's story of rebirth - the rebirth that is sensed is but a glimpse of the very God Himself imperfectly reflected through His creation. Redemption cannot lie in these experiences (per biblical statements reflected through Jesus and the Apostle Paul, amongst others), though it may be lead back to the Creator-Redeemer God. But existentially (and metaphysically), the completion of divine redemption can only be found in God Himself, and not obtained from creation's ground of being.... Redemption's reality, presence, and ultimating source, is the divine personage of God Himself. This is the Christian doctrine of redemption, salvation, rebirth, and so forth.

Creation may direct us back to God (as it can, and will, because of the image of God lying resident within it's frame when glimpsed through sin's constant distortions). But in God's being doeth redemption fully reside unhindered, unmitigated, uncorrupted, unmangled. A redemption based upon the grace of His being met in the redemptive willfulness of God as a derivative of His grace. Where salvation's fullest, redemptive expression is found in the God who bears redemption's ground of being in Himself.... Especially when understood through Jesus, as God Incarnate expressing grace and glory, healing and life, light and reconciliation.

Presented in the form of redemption to both the world and to mankind each are found to be corrupted. Held in the grip of sin's disorderliness and ungodlike willfulness. Where no synergy of fellowship can be complete (or completed) without the singularity of redemption's repurposing of all of creation's aspects back upon God's divine person, being, and fellowship. Redemption must come from God. And especially from God's grace.

- R.E. Slater

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... Notice that in Acts 17, during his speech in Athens, Paul not only quotes the Greek poet but also asserts that “God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” (vs. 24, 25) That has to be kept in balance with “in whom we live and move and have our being.”

So, the problem with traditional, classical panentheism, as expressed in the philosophies of Hegel and Whitehead (and their many followers), is that it seriously blurs the line between God and the world with the result that God’s creation and redemption of the world are not free and gracious acts but necessities for God. [Hence,] in saving the world God is somehow saving himself. And concepts like “create” and “save” don’t even mean the same in traditional, classical panentheism as in classical theism (broadly defined).

Having said all that, I must admit that the term “panentheism” is undergoing change in contemporary theology [as I have been demonstating here... R.E. Slater]. Like all theological concepts, over time it is being stretched to cover much more than it meant under the influences of Hegel and Whitehead (et al.).

A relatively recent study of panentheism illustrates this: In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being: Panentheistic Reflections on God’s Presence in a Scientific World edited by Philip Clayton (we studied together under Pannenberg in the 1980s) and Arthur Peacocke (Eerdmans, 2004). Especially helpful is the chapter “Three Varieties of Panentheism” by Niels Henrik Gregersen (19-35).

I won’t go into the details here, now. I have submitted an article about this change in the meaning of panentheism to a theological journal. If it is published I will alert my blog readers to it.

Essentially, what is happening, is that some Christian theologians are adopting the term “panentheism” and adapting it to a more classical theistic view of the God-world relationship. Gregersen talks about “Christian [Theistic! - res] panentheism” by which he means a view in which God’s experience is contributed at least partly by the world [think in terms of Open Theology, if this helps - R.E. Slater], and what happens in it while God is himself not essentially dependent on the world. In other words, God freely chooses to include the world in his life. A good example is Juergen Moltmann who explicitly labels his theology panentheistic in several of his writings (“trinitarian panentheism,” “eschatological panentheism”). Many other relatively conservative Christian theologians, including some evangelicals, are calling their theologies panentheistic, but they don’t mean in the Krause, Hegel or Whitehead sense. They seem to mean only that the God-world relationship is ontologically real, not merely external to God. God freely (he could have done otherwise) creates the world and experiences it such that he is not the same with the world as he was, or would be, without it. And yet he does not literally “need” it to be who and what he is [which, with this last expression (underlined) would seem to me to be very un-panentheistic like, and not a true expression of panentheism, but some appendix of classic theism that is dangling off of it - R.E. Slater].

The analogy of parenthood comes to mind. In this panentheism, God is like a parent who freely chooses to have a child but, once the child is born or adopted, the child is part of his or her life. The parent is not the same as before. And yet, should the child die, the parent would still be the person he or she was even if changed. (This is only an analogy, of course, so please don’t pick it to death because it’s not perfect.)

My concern is whether this is stretching “panentheism” too far. It seems to me to lose all shape, so to speak, unless it is kept closely tied to (i) the rejection of creation ex nihilo and (ii) affirmation of the idea of God’s essential dependence on at least some world. I fear that, like many theological concepts, panentheism is losing meaning. In light of this broadening of its meaning to cover new ideas not traditionally meant by it, I suspect the candidate for the position teaching theology who was rejected by the evangelical president may have been treated unfairly. He may have only meant what Gregersen means by “Christian panentheism” which is compatible with creation ex nihilo.

I personally do not consider any theology that affirms creation ex nihilo panentheistic. That doesn’t mean affirming it makes everything correct; a person might affirm creation ex nihilo and be profoundly wrong about something else in his or her doctrine of God. But, it seems to me that creation ex nihilo is minimally necessary for a robust biblically and theologically sound doctrine of God. Traditionally, classically, it is one major factor dividing Christian theism from panentheism (or even pantheism).

[As addendum, in my opening comments I had mentioned how to overcome this doctrinal impasse between both theological divisions by coining the phrase Relational Theism to distinguish it from Process-Relational Theology's traditional panentheism that excludes ex nihilo creation; and from Classic Theology's impassive, wholly-Other God, unfeeling, untouched, and transcendent over His creation. I then attempted to bind both together into a synthesized framework by relating thematic plotlines from Scripture and our human experiences. Moreover, I have used the parental example myself and have found it helpful in describing God's personal experience of creation both as Creator-Sustainer and sublimely as its Incarnate (and Incarnating) Redeemer-Messiah. - R.E. Slater]

 

The Narrative Story of God, Creation and Mankind from an Evolutionary Perspective of Love Wins

An interesting post by one of my favorite theologians whose guest writer pretty much says what we've been saying during this past year's investigation into Science and Evolution, Human Origins, the Universe, even Narrative Theology and Emergent Christianity's focus on "Love Wins"! Each are major sidebars in this blogsite which I will reference throughout Bev Mitchell's guest article on the story of mankind, the story of God, His divine acts and almighty purposes! Amen and Amen!

R.E. Slater (res)
August 6, 2012

red highlights = links to other articles in this blogsite

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A guest post (the biblical story of God and us that includes evolution) from a frequent visitor here
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2012/08/a-guest-post-the-biblical-story-of-god-and-us-that-includes-evolution-from-a-frequent-visitor-here/

by Roger Olson

August 5, 2012

Comments

Homo Sapiens (Naturalis) and The Creator-servant’s Universe-The Revelation:

The Biblical Story of God and Us in Brief

By Bev Mitchell

Homo Sapiens (Naturalis)

Homo Sapiens, the ones who know, the conscious ones, the self-conscious ones. We sense that we are on a journey, that we have a story and are in a story, that we are part of that story [e.g., cf. "Narrative Theology" - res]. We know in our conscious selves that we have come from somewhere and are going somewhere. We resist the thought that our conscious self will one day end. We refuse to really believe this. Self consciousness, self awareness act like powerful lenses that focus us on …. well, ourselves. We are not only self conscious, we are naturally, unavoidably, self-centered. This is perfectly natural, even essential in a material setting.

We, the conscious ones, are aware of life. An amazing thing, life. Think about it. Consider the energy required to make life possible – start with the energy of the sun. Those energized packets (photons) arriving in waves from the sun, specifically those in a narrow energy band called visible light, making life possible. Photosynthesis organizes carbon, present in the air as carbon dioxide, into carbon-based life. All life, as we know it, is carbon based. Consider the word ‘organize’. The only way to organize anything is to put in energy, continuously. It is fundamentally a battle against entropy (disorder), relentless entropy. To win against entropy requires a continuous flow of energy and efficient management of that energy. As far as we know, this battle has been going on from the time something was first organized – from the first moment that chaos was challenged, and it will continue as long as entropy makes disorder a possibility.

Our consciousness also makes us aware of the other-others like us, others not like us, others not at all like us. Beings. Living things, with an existence, beneficiaries of those sunny photons and photosynthesis and efficient energy management, but apparently not self-conscious. At least not in a way that allows the kind of communication we would like to have. But part of the family of living things nevertheless. It’s really quite amazing when you stop to think about it. [sic, cf. "Eusociality," - res]

Our awareness of a journey, of a story there somewhere, also moves our minds beyond life, to before life, to afterlife. A bit of a scary thought that second one. But just try not thinking about it for very long, I dare you. While we are naturally self-centered, we have a strong sense that …………… I won’t presume to say what your strong sense is, but I am prepared to bet that you have one.

So, here we sit, conscious, amazed, self-centered, unsatisfied. Maybe if we just get busy we can ignore that last bit. After all, there is so much to do, so much to learn. It’s even a full-time job just keeping entropy at bay in our own little corner. What keeps us very busy should satisfy us, right? And then there is this self-centeredness, kind of cozy really, maybe it’s even all about me. That would be satisfying, wouldn’t it? If only I could get everyone, everything, else to agree. Damn!

Meanwhile, the universe continues to spin, to evolve. Much stays the same, but, if we pay attention, much is changing. We can’t conclude or pretend, like our recent ancestors did, that things are essentially wrapped up. The story is moving. We are conscious of this movement, we are conscious of the passage of time, we are conscious of a direction in the movement, we want to know what the movement is about, what is behind it, what is its purpose, where are we going? Enter religious thoughts, theories, speculations, disagreements, battles……..

Religious awareness first comes from our self-centeredness, and may never move beyond ourselves, may remain entirely on the human plane, and may be thought of in material or spiritual terms, or both. This kind of religious thought and activity is essentially like all other complex thinking and activity, it’s entirely self-centered. It’s probably even adaptive, in the Darwinian sense. Such is the state of Homo Sapiens before some revelation from God. Some revelation from the One who makes all this highly organized universe possible, a reality, brings it into existence and sustains it. [cf, Tim Keller's quote of the Christian philosopher Peter van Inwagen's statement for God's inclusion of mankind's religious belief into the human genetic structure from early on. - res] 

To continue with the story, some revelation from God is absolutely essential.

The Creator/Servant’s Universe -The Revelation

This universe came into existence in the face of a spiritual rebellion against God’s will. Our creator is waging a cosmic battle against rebellion, chaos, disorder and confusion – a physicist would say, a battle against entropy. Maximum entropy equals maximum disorder. There is a spiritual battle, a rebellion against God, that comes from a great deceiver who wants only chaos and darkness (Rev 12:7-9). In the first verses of the Bible we see God’s response to chaos, darkness and emptiness – he simply and powerfully says “Let there be light.” This is the first bit of evidence that our Creator, through divine love, will win because he is the one God, YHWH, and in response to his first command we are told “there was light.” This work will be completed as our Creator’s perfect masterpiece when rebellion is no more and the Son of God, the resurrected Man-God, reigns supreme in perfect love. [cf. "The Origin of Sin, Hell, and Universalism," - res] 

Our Creator is neither a God of the gaps nor a God of the zaps nor the grand tweaker. The vast majority of the gaps left by current scientific work will be filled in, so these are ultimately embarrassing places to shelter our understanding of God’s mighty acts. As for imagining a God who ‘zaps’ things into existence (or out of existence) this only reveals our sad desire for magic. At least, we should expect our Creator to behave in a more interesting manner. More recent proposals that God deems evolution a reasonable way to get to our present world, but reserves the right to tweak things along the way, don’t really capture the big picture of an immensely great God either.

According to the growing mountain of scientific evidence, God does indeed work in far more interesting ways. The observable universe studied by physicists and cosmologists is unfolding, and has been unfolding for 13.7 billion years. The living world that biologists explore is constantly changing, and it has been changing for more than 3.5 billion years, with no end in sight. Furthermore, all living things are related; none have been found that don’t belong to the same big family. Now that is the work of a very interesting Creator. No zaps, no gaps, except those due to our lack of knowledge, and tweeks unnecessary.

The evolving cosmos and the evolving bios to which we belong are clearly works in progress; not independently either, but part of a huge, long-term, unfolding masterpiece. And amazingly, all of the participants are part of the process. All are unfolding in relation to everything else in an unimaginable, magnificent symphony. If, on our own, we tried to imagine how a Creator might operate, we would never come up with this – it’s way beyond us. We would probably imagine something more like a grand zapper who controls everything. It’s a good thing we weren’t asked for advice on the method to use! We were just given the opportunity to participate and ended up with the blessed ability to appreciate the results, the ongoing results.

It turns out that our Creator doesn’t stop creating. It’s also obvious that he is not in a hurry. At 13.7 billion and counting, we probably have a while to go. Diversity and change also seem to be high on the Creator’s list of good things. It seems, as well, that our Creator is more than a little interested in us. We can’t reach him, but he reaches us in self-revelation. His works in the natural world certainly get our attention, but he actually comes to us, first through Israel, the chosen nation, then in person, the new Adam. The creator actually becomes a creature.

We have noticed, all of us, that we have serious problems with what Scriptures call the ‘knowledge of good and evil’. Having this knowledge, like Israel having the law, makes us acutely aware that knowing the difference between good and evil but is of little help in actually doing good. We are born failures at doing good, far too often. We expect points for trying, but basically we lack something fundamental when it comes to being good the way we know we should – in ways that will please a holy God.

Enter the Creator become Creature. Since he is making everything in perfect love, he knows a thing or two about always doing the right thing. The Creator’s physical presence among us, is a unique, once-in-a-creation event – what scientists refer to as a singularity. In fact, from a Christian perspective, the singularity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man, the God-man, is the very heart of creation as well as the essential beginning of the Gospel. He is the apex of creation while also being the one through whom creation flows. This Creator we worship is truly interesting beyond our imagining!

Then, because of our inborn inability to deal with the temptation to not do the right thing, and the resulting dysfunction and horror this brings to our world, our Creator as Servant voluntarily suffers with us. In fact, suffers maximally and ultimately, participating even in death for us. But our Creator/Servant did nothing that should lead to death, he accepted it on our behalf – a willing sacrifice. Then, our Creator/Servant, in a glorious continuance of his very interesting creative work, rose from the dead in a glorified body – a victorious King. Scriptures call him the ‘first-born’ from among the dead because he is indeed a new creation – the Creator/Servant/Perfect Sacrifice/King, our Lord.

This resurrected Lord now takes up residence with the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and looses the Spirit, the very Spirit of Creation, upon the earth for our edification, guidance and empowerment. As we have been through all of time, we are called to continue with our own role in creation, now under the guidance of this Spirit of Creation. The Creator is not done yet. He keeps making moves that are more and more interesting. Now we are called to get on with the good over evil thing, but with the Spirit of Creation within us, because, in Christ, we too are new creations. Not completed yet, but, as with all of creation, works in progress.

This great, ongoing and ever more interesting creation story needs to be told. The Spirit of Creation within us moves us to tell the story, with boldness. The treasure we have within is a treasure to tell people about. It’s all connected. It has been going on for 13.7 billion years. We are a part of it simply by being born, and as Christian believers we are a part of it with a wonderful new re-birth and a new role. We have been given Good News to tell to the whole world. The Creator, Immanuel, has come to us. The Creator, Jesus the Saviour, has redeemed humanity. By repenting from our self-centeredness and acknowledging the work and centrality of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we can live and grow in him as he lives and grows in us. Ultimately, we shall behold him and we shall be like him. We will then know him as he is. His love will have won! [yes, "Love Wins." - res]

Bev Mitchell, Doaktown, NB, Oaxaca, MX The Creator/Servant’s Universe April 19, 2012 modified May 2 and 9, 2012 Homo sapiens (naturalis) added May 11, 2012

For further discussion on Human Origins & Evolution see -

How God Created by Evolution:

A Proposed Theory of Man's Evolutionary Development

http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2012/01/resolving-genesis-story-between.html

Unfriended

 

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationships/unfriended#overlay-context=life/relationships/unfriended

 

By Preston Yancey
August 3, 2012

Preston Yancey is a blogger, painter and author of the forthcomingTables in the Wilderness: A Memoir of God Found, Lost, and Found Again (Rhizome Publishing). Visit Preston at www.seeprestonblog.com.

You used to be inseparable, but now you barely talk.

Exploring the sad reality of friendship erosion.

“We’ll keep in touch.”

This is the collegiate equivalent to writing HAGS! (Have a Great Summer!) or Don’t ever change! or I wish I had gotten to know you better! in someone’s yearbook when you graduate high school. It’s polite sentiment, acceptable intimacy, and commits us to everything we wish we could bring ourselves to feel without ever having to feel it.

As freshly minted young adults turned out from four years of college facing hiring options and reruns during the summer, checking our phones every few minutes to see if our once close friends still remembered that we’re breathing, we are left with the annoying anxiety that our lives weren’t supposed to end up like this.

We are left with the annoying anxiety that our lives weren’t supposed to end up like this.

If we believe the television—and many of us do—the ties we formed carefully over our collegiate career or any period of high-pressure intimacy, were supposed to ferry us into the embrace of adulthood and provide comfort when rent came due or break-ups snapped.

According to the movies, we all have a clever best friend who—no matter what time we called, pouring coffee out of a stainless steel french press and about to sit down to a dinner in good company, would wax long poetic to us when we mourned our bank statement before he offered a bit of cracking, wise insight as the music swelled (because in this world, we live set to a soundtrack scored by Ben Gibbard) and everything that had ever needed explaining would be majestically made clear. We would be reassured, and then we would have dessert.

Grey’s Anatomy lied to us. Meredith and Christina’s tight-knit friendship, which was identified most clearly by their reference to one another as each other’s person, is perhaps sustainable only in a world of 24 episode seasons an hour a week with hiatus during summer and midwinter. For outside of a carefully crafted script, we usually don’t end up having an actual person, let alone the poet friend waiting patiently and perennially by the phone.

In reality, our bank statement comes the moment we overdraft our debit card buying a cup of coffee we are positive we can both afford and also deserve after hours of interviewing for minimum wage jobs we are at once overqualified and under-qualified to hold. When we call our best friend from college to lament, his response on answering his phone is that he’s busy and will call back the next day. He does a week later, when we’re still overdrafting, buying more coffee, which we reason is cheaper than therapy, and he tells us that he’s still busy and he’ll call again soon.

HAGS!

What happened? Weren’t we supposed to have it all? Between Twitter and iPhones and Starbucks and Gap commercials and college degrees, weren’t we supposed to have our best life now? Weren’t all those people who told us at graduation that they would love us forever supposed to, perhaps, show that love in some tangible form?

It’s understandable that jobs, relationships, family and opportunity spring young people in all different directions. But after the parting of ways, shouldn’t friendship be more than a Facebook “Like” after three months of no contact?

In the summer following college, though some friends remained, geography’s cruel conspiracy springs friends in all different directions, and we are left with the waning of texts, emails and the occasional Skype conversation interrupted by lives lived beyond each other. We neglect a long overdue phone call with a friend, and so “Like” their Facebook status instead as proof of closeness. We all know how easy it is to neglect people when we don’t see them anymore, when we actually have to work to connect.

So, what do we do?

We are not now what we thought we would be then, back when we promised to always be there for each other, when we thought we’d always laugh at our secret jokes.

We lean into two hard places our hearts are not naturally inclined to embrace: perspective and grace.

We all haunt someone’s grace limit.

Yes, Grey’s Anatomy lied, and the people we thought would be our people weren’t always who we had wished they would be. As blogger Carlos Whittaker says, “We all haunt someone’s grace limit.” Though it would be fair to say that we can’t be in the wrong all the time and if we feel slightly abandoned by those we love, there is likely some truth in it, it is also true that there is someone, somewhere we are presently neglecting in our own lives. Someone probably thinks we’re their person and a pretty bad one at that. We stopped calling, we didn’t text back, and while we sit watching reruns and frustrated that our person isn’t calling us back, this someone else is feeling the same about us. Maybe we should take out our phones, roll through the last month of texts and emails, and ask the hard question of if we’ve been Christ to those we did not reply to.

Further, there is something we love about grace when it means that all we need to do is to sit back and pray for the person in question to repent. We are less fond when grace means that we keep loving and keep extending even when we receive nothing in return. But this returns us to Christ. We have been entrusted with a feast, the abundance of a God who has and continues to give, and by His Spirit equips us to feed from our storehouses. Grace would have us keep feeding, even during the rerun watching, and would expect us to stop expecting what others, perhaps, do not have in their storehouse to give.

So between all the falsehood of saying, “We’ll keep in touch,” perhaps there is a truth we speak when we say it. A hope. Perhaps a sort of promise. It is the audacious commitment that as Christ never withdrew His touch from those around Him, from the leper, from the sick, from the wealthy, from the poor, so too can we respond to the phone call from our once good friend who is just too busy with a simple, honest, and charitable, “I understand.”

Maybe then we’ll really have it all. In this way of grace, we’ll have all we need.

GCN "Life: The World Through My Eyes" 2012 Trailers

http://www.gaychristian.net/

The church is at war over homosexuality. Will our youth be the casualties?

Through My Eyes provides an unflinchingly honest look at the role of today's young Christians in the gay debate: what they really think, how they perceive the church, and what they wish other Christians knew.

Over two dozen young Christians agreed to share their private feelings, struggles, and experiences on camera. All of them have a personal stake in the debate. And all of them hoped that their stories might make a difference.

Created for Christians by Christians, Through My Eyes tackles one of the most controversial topics today with compassion and sensitivity, shining new light on the debate for people on both sides. It's unlike anything you've seen before.

It's a powerful, eye-opening experience you won't soon forget.

Included with the disc is an action guide, 4 simple ways to change someone's life, and a special on-disc "discussion version" for classes and groups. Get it now to share with your family, class, church group, or pastor. And help everyone see through their eyes.

DVD details: 46 minutes, region-free (playable around the world), with English captions for the hearing impaired. Disc includes both regular and discussion versions of the film.

LIFE: The World Through My Eyes TRAILER 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ5XJgKO6lI&feature=player_embedded

Published on Mar 24, 2012 by yahirb

This is the first of five trailers for the short film "LIFE: The World Through My Eyes". The film depicts the topics of bullying, helping the less fortunate, sexuality, extremely strong parenting and racism. It premieres April 5, 2012 at Baldwin Park High School's Film Festival.

LIFE: The World Through My Eyes TRAILER 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QYGx7a5F9Kk

Published on Mar 30, 2012 by yahirb

This is the second of five trailers for the short film "LIFE: The World Through My Eyes". The film depicts the topics of bullying, helping the less fortunate, sexuality, extremely strong parenting and racism. It premieres April 5, 2012 at Baldwin Park High School's Film Festival.

Learning to Parent Children by Speaking Support and Affirmation

"Which is why it's important for adults to

learn to practice affirmations later in life."

                                           

                                                        - Anon

"Practicing the 'Art of Affirmation' begins with everyday

conversations so that it becomes most affective when applied

deliberately in the lives of those we love and would minister to."

                                                         - Anon

Learning to Parent Children by Speaking

Support and Affirmation

by R.E. Slater

August 1, 2012

Some children are the products of overzealous and unjust spankings (some quite extreme and frightening). Many of us might feel that we were once one of those children. And if true, than it is all the more important to practice the respectful correction of children by minimizing a spanking (in my case, I would apply a small, but firmly applied, swat to my child's rear) while taking care to not correct in anger, emotional frustration, verbal abuse, or from personal control issues. In my view, it was better to positively instruct a child in the ways of life than to negatively correct from one instance to the next. Mostly because I did not wish to create a child who could become overly aggressive towards fellow siblings, friends, his/her parents, and/or a future spouse later in life. It creates harm and resentment, fear and distrust, of others when growing up, and studies have shown time-and-again that affective, positive reinforcement works nearly 100% better than harming, negative reinforcement.

Further, as my children grew up I was careful to not publicly embarrass them, threaten them with careless words, speak out of anger, or in rash judgement. And when I failed in these areas would apologize to the injured child and try to not repeat these hurtful actions. I nearly always tried to provide positive guidance and counsel while remembering my own limitations, feelings, and misperceptions (as we know, parents are not always right!). Certainly I failed. More times than I care to remember. But day-after-day I prayed for strength, patience, wisdom, and importantly, renewing and effective ways to be loving, kind and generous. This was the burden that I carried within. And where it came to correction I tried to error on the side of misunderstanding to be sure that I wasn't overreacting to my child's perceived actions of disobedience. Oftentimes it was simply one of better explanation and communication. Sometimes it was because I had set the rules too high, too selfishly, too one-sidedly, rather than allowing my child to make innocent mistakes and the freedom to learn from them. To not expect perfection but imperfection that could be molded and lovingly shaped. To allow a child's individualization to emerge and not mine own. To form his/her little personality into discoveries of strength and passion. To patiently teach character traits that would reflect Jesus' love and compassion to others.

Now I realize that each parent has their own methods of correction and accountability that works for them, but for me, this was the parental burden and counsel that I carried within me. Where it came to physical correction some psychologists will say to use a wooden spoon to apply a small spanking. Thus avoiding connecting the parental hand with violence and harm. For myself I preferred my hand because I could feel just how hard I had spanked my small child (my rule was only once, mind you) along with a time-out chair, or some other corrective form of learning (perhaps the removal of a reward; but not unduly, nor prolonged; and always in the spirit of benevolence, forgiveness, and reconciliation). Most importantly I wanted to speak love and not verbal abuse to my children. To avoid labeling them. To not speak unkind words to them. Harsh words from an angry heart. But rather, learn to speak my love, care and affection into their hearts and ears. Holding and hugging my little ones. Developing their trust and cooperation. Diligence and respect. And with every failure (whether mine or theirs) seek God for more wisdom, patience, and understanding. To not give in to despair and disappointment. But to see small spiritual victories that could grow and take root. Because one day our children will grow up. And I suspect that one day our children will need the strength of our communications and nurture to surmount life's unending temptations and hardships. The teen years can be hard. And life after schooling is no less. What we do now may perhaps provide guidance and counsel to our children later in life (or even, they to us!).

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. ¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ¹¹ Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? ¹² And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. - Eccl. 4 (ESV)

Most upon my mind and heart was how to show benevolence, forgiveness, and reconciliation. We're not perfect people. Nor should we expect our kids to be perfect either. God doesn't expect us to be perfect but uses our flaws and our passions to lead and guide us. So that not all parental punishment needs to be prolonged if the child's heart is remorseful or repentant. I think parent's many times have to use a great deal of wisdom in the matters of correction (and mostly self-restraint if we're honest with ourselves!) and we try to take the best from our upbringing, while abandoning those childhood experiences which had hurt us the most, and were the most ineffective. I can only speak to my own experiences, but I knew that I was loved even as I also felt that my correction was at times too severe, or sometimes too harsh.

But worse than the physical correction was the verbal abuse and labeling I received later as a teen from parents whom I later discovered to be overwhelmed by life, though I did not understand it then. And yet, God had my heart even at that early age to forgive my parents and try to understand how my behavior was unhelpful to the family. They were good people who had my best interests at heart and were learning themselves the art of parenting as very young parents. So that, to all parents everywhere, please remember, that our words are venomous as poison and poison can rot the soul. Take heed then and learn to speak words full of the anointing oils of myrrh and frankincense as salves (healing ointment) to the soul and as balm to the broken heart. Children can recover but will carry personal baggage and scars from our actions. So then, as both a one-time child, and now as a parent, let us try to limit our responses to our children learning to live in love with one another. Let it begin today. Let us not wait any longer to love, apologize, forgive, and work hard at being at peace with our family. Our children. Our parents.

And as our children grow up eventually a parent must abandon all spanking. I did this when my children probably began to emerge into years 4 and 5. We went from some spankings occasionally to none at all, although I will admit that even as late as 7 or 8 years of age the occasional spanking did occur despite my own policy to eliminate all spanking in the very early years of childhood. Certainly the pre-teen years are off-limits from spanking and better done through other methods of skilled reasoning and administration.

Thankfully, kids have that inner awareness to know when you have their best at heart for them and oftentimes parents simply need daily reminders to be patient, to remain loving, and to pray for God's wisdom in these matters. And again, expect failure. On your part and on theirs. We will fail. Too many times actually. But it is in our failure where we will find our greatest strength and ability to show love and mercy. Forgiveness and compassion. Reconciliation and peace. Each broken trust. Each broken heart. Each broken communication can be repaired and made stronger. Learn to trust God and grow into these experiences of lost and heartache to discover the beauty of love's strength and resilience. No matter how difficult. How prolonged. How impossible. God's love can, and will, conquer all our fears and failures.

Most importantly, know that parenting is a difficult, timeful, job when done correctly. It takes the combined community of a parent's friends and support system to seek out wisdom and counsel in raising one's kids. Reading good parenting books, paying attention to your child's needs and frustrations, knowing their personality and what works or doesn't work, and making time for your kids is extremely important. Too many times I heard from parents that they were spending "quality time" with their children... but what they meant was that they were spending a "quantity of time" with their children by "doing something together while hoping for something more."

Too oftentimes it is a misnomer to believe that quality time can be spent with someone without first, and foremost, spending a quantity of time with that same person, when we really don't have it to give in the first place. Why? Because our priorities are out of whack. Children need time with their parents. Lots of it. Time we don't have but must somehow find. Hence, "Spending quality time cannot occur without first spending a quantity time with your child"... no matter what the books (or your friends) tell you. You deceive yourself if you believe this is true. Without play time there can be no relational construction. Its a fact of life.

As a result, I played with my children constantly. And they loved it. We learned to communicate to each other through the reading of books and playing games together; going out on field trips, the playground, or picnics; visiting family and friends; or visiting farms, orchards, zoos and museums. Each event gave me valuable input in understanding my child and helping him/her to grow up responsibly, emotionally and spiritually. As parents we must remind ourselves that all our hard work, our patience, our prayers, will someday pay off when we see our children become blessings to those around them. A child will never realize the pains of parenting until they become one themselves. But God knows and will reward your efforts. Perhaps even into our later years when our own children will need guidance and counsel in raising their own kids. These can be wonderful years. But they begin all the way back at childhood. So be wise. Be loving. Be constant in your affections and sacrificial sufferings (the bible calls this l-o-n-g-sufferings).

And remember that Life is going to be hard enough for our children. They will encounter soon enough mean teachers, unloving behaviors by family and friends, unjust circumstances in their lives, hurtful betrayal, misunderstanding, discouragement, disappointment, even harm or worse. As parents, take each-and-every day to speak love to your children. To be love to your children. To act love to your children. Learn to be kind, generative, and generous. Talk to your children and learn to listen to their needs. As example, though my son hid his heart and feelings from me I still tried to fathom his depths; though my daughter usually spoke once of something that was important to her I still had the obligation to catch that phrase/feeling in her heart and try to remember it, if even months later. Raising children is hard. It is not an easy task. We fail and try and fail again. But overall remember, it is God who will lead and guide, love and protect our children, knowing that we are weak and frail and wanting the best for our children. And yet, through all the trials and turmoil, God's greatest of gifts to any parent is our children. They are our legacy. And our blessing. As we are to them.

Learn to trust your children. Learn to speak affectionately to them. To speak in affirmation to their interests, their concerns, their insights and accomplishments. Don't be cynical. Or patronizing. Or overly judgemental. For many young parents just simply behaving themselves and learning to grow up is a difficult enough task let alone learning to raise children, loving one's wife, and maintaining some kind of job to provide food and shelter. To help you, seek out a loving church that will provide support, guidance and counsel to you, the parent. This cannot be emphasized enough. Within our community there are many wonderful churches that have inspirational children's programs spring, summer, fall and winter. Become a part of that ministry and let your children find new challenges and growing experiences. If you are abandoned by your family, or if your folks have passed away, know that God's people are there to become your new family. Let your needs be known and do not hide them. And where there is no help resist giving up. Stay to the course and become to others what you never had. Or wished you had. God is faithful and knows your needs. Don't stop believing this truth regardless of how hard life is today. It can, and will, change through your perseverance and longsuffering. Be at peace and know God's strength will be your sufficiency.

R.E. Slater

August 1, 2012





Lightpainting with Love

Rebecca's Basic Rules for Parenting

by Rebecca Trotter

July 15, 2016

My basic rules for parenting:

• Your child should see your face light up when they walk in the room.

• Always assume that your child has the best intentions, even when you know they don't.

• Treat your child the way you want them to treat other people.

• Touch your child often. Reach out and rub their arm or hold them when they talk to you. Rub their head as they walk by. Sit close while watching a movie or reading together.

• Leave them alone for long stretches of time. Let them be bored.

• Help them laugh at themselves.

• Let them have their own opinions and be wrong.

• Remember that your goal is to raise good adults, not good kids. Two different things.

• Don't be controlling.

• Deescalate, deescalate, deescalate.

• Responding harshly to kids' misbehavior gets less effective over time, responding gently to kids' misbehavior gets more effective over time. Use the lightest touch possible.

• Not every battle must be won and rising above the battle altogether gives you more power over time.

• When you have to lower the boom and hold the line, be unruffled, speak in short sentences and repeat yourself continuously without responding to their objections or protests, move your body into close proximity without being threatening, do not leave until compliance has started, praise and thank them for compliance, return frequently to verify that compliance is ongoing.

• What you respond most strongly to is what you will get more of.

• As early and often as is possible and safe repeat these words: "they'll figure it out eventually."

* * * * * * * * *

15 Inspirational Christian Quotes

About Raising Children

http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/inspirational-christian-quotes-about-raising-children/

by Josh

March 29, 2011

Inspirational Christian quotes about raising children are helpful and needed for all parents. The best source of these parenting quotes and direction comes from the Bible. God’s word is sharp and penetrating and us parents need it to guide us in raising a family. I have four kids at home and know the challenges of day to day life. Parenting is difficult and I often feel like I am failing but I know if I trust in God and call out to Him for help and guidance that He will show Himself strong. Parents need to pray. Christian parents need to get others also to be active in prayer for their children. My prayer is that these Bible verses and Christian quotes on raising kids will spark some thought and action in your life today!

Inspirational Christian Quotes on Raising Kids from The Bible

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Genesis 18:19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Matthew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Deuteronomy 6:7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Inspirational Parenting Christian Quotes for Raising Children

“The family should be a closely knit group. The home should be a self-contained shelter of security; a kind of school where life’s basic lessons are taught; and a kind of church where God is honored; a place where wholesome recreation and simple pleasures are enjoyed.”

Billy Graham

“A child needs both to be hugged and unhugged. The hug lets her know she is valuable. The unhug lets her know that she is viable. If you’re always shoving your child away, they will cling to you for love. If you’re always holding them closer, they will cling to you for fear.”

Polly Berrien Berends

A wise person truly said, “It ought to be as impossible to forget that there is a Christian in the house as it is to forget that there is a ten-year-old boy in it.”

Roger J. Squire

I believe that if an angel were to wing his way from earth up to Heaven, and were to say that there was one poor, ragged boy, without father or mother, with no one to care for him and teach him the way of life; and if God were to ask who among them were willing to come down to this earth and live here for fifty years and lead that one to Jesus Christ, every angel in Heaven would volunteer to go. Even Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, would say, “Let me leave my high and lofty position, and let me have the luxury of leading one soul to Jesus Christ.” There is no greater honour than to be the instrument in God’s hands of leading one person out of the kingdom of Satan into the glorious light of Heaven.

Dwight L. Moody

Ask your children two questions this Christmas. First: “What do you want to give to others for Christmas?” Second: “What do you want for Christmas?” The first fosters generosity of heart and an outward focus. The second can breed selfishness if not tempered by the first.

Anonymous

We do not develop habits of genuine love automatically. We learn by watching effective role models – most specifically by observing how our parents express love for each other day in and day out.

Josh McDowell

You want to mess up the minds of your children? Here’s how – guaranteed! Rear them in a legalistic, tight context of external religion, where performance is more important than reality. Fake your faith. Sneak around and pretend your spirituality. Train your children to do the same. Embrace a long list of do’s and don’ts publicly but hypocritically practice them privately… yet never own up to the fact that its hypocrisy. Act one way but live another. And you can count on it – emotional and spiritual damage will occur.

Charles (Chuck) Swindoll

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

Charles (Chuck) Swindoll

Parents, you will teach your children more by scheduling regular times to nurture the relationship between husband and wife than you would ever teach them through a lecture on commitment. Although it is important for you pray to for your child, seeking the Lord for that perfect spouse for them, it is equally important that you teach them through your example how to cherish the future gift of a companion that the Lord has in store for them.

Katherine Walden

Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that Sunday School is intended to ease them of their personal duties. The first and most natural condition of things is for Christian parents to train up their own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I pray these Christian quotes and Bible Verses about raising children will inspire you to become a more biblical role model and parent to your child. I know I need to read through these often to be reminded of this!

Resources

http://www.christian-parenting-source.com/family-quotes.html

http://dailychristianquote.com/dcqfamily.html

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version

“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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More Bible Verses on Loving Your Children

http://www.openbible.info/topics/loving_your_children

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Colossians 3:20 ESV

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Philippians 2:1-4 ESV

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

1 John 5:14 ESV

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 5:48 ESV

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV

Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Titus 2:4 ESV

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children...

Titus 2:3-5 ESV

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Ephesians 5:22-24 ESV

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

John 15:13 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Matthew 6:25-34 ESV

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these....

Matthew 5:39 ESV

But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Proverbs 21:9 ESV

It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.

Psalm 113:9 ESV

He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

Exodus 20:1-26 ESV

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me...

Genesis 3:16 ESV

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

2 John 1:9-11 ESV

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Ephesians 6:2 ESV

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise)...

Ephesians 5:25 ESV

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...

Romans 12:1 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Matthew 10:37 ESV

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Matthew 5:44 ESV

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...

Matthew 5:28 ESV

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Proverbs 31:1-31 ESV

The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted...

Proverbs 29:15 ESV

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

Proverbs 15:1-33 ESV

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. A fool despises his father's instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent....

Psalm 78:5-7 ESV

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments...

Psalm 78:1-72 ESV

A Maskil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children....

Psalm 51:1-19 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me....

Deuteronomy 6:6 ESV

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

Genesis 2:18 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

1 Peter 3:7 ESV

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

1 Timothy 2:15 ESV

Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Romans 12:18 ESV

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Luke 6:35 ESV

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Isaiah 55:11 ESV

So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Proverbs 22:15 ESV

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God....