Thursday, April 13, 2017

The Future, Free Will, and Prayer

So I have been reading through the Screwtape Letters recently, and I must say it is a great read. C.S. Lewis uses the perspective of demons tempting mankind to talk about the dangers of temptation and also to highlight how we might be tempted without even realizing it. He also uses the context to bring up some otherwise difficult-to-discuss topics and concepts that we might not otherwise contemplate.

In one of the chapters I was reading today (I've tried to only read one or two at a time, because otherwise it is too difficult to reflect on the topics brought up), Screwtape (the experienced demon writing to his less-experienced demon nephew) brings up the prayer life of the man Wormwood (his nephew) is in charge of tempting. While the man has been concerned about the oncoming war with the Germans (he is English at the onset of WWII), his prayer life has reflected that concern as well as many petitions for virtue and safety. Screwtape voices his concerns over the man's prayers, as even simple prayers can bring one closer to the Enemy (God).

He goes into a short discussion of the efficacy of prayer as it relates to free will and God's omniscience, which got me to thinking about it myself. The problem is as follows: God knows everything, including everything that we are going to think, say, and do. However, He also has given us what we call Free Will, the ability to pick and choose what we say and do, and to some degree what we think as well. But if God already knows what we are going to say and do, and consequently what we are going to ask for in prayer, if He answers it, did we really have free choice to pray that to begin with? The example in the book was in regard to the weather. If I pray for good weather for the weekend, and it happens, did it really matter at all if I prayed that? God set in motion natural laws that dictate how the weather functions at the beginning of Creation, so wouldn't the weather have been nice regardless of what I prayed? Or, on the flipside, if God is answering that prayer, He knew I was going to pray for that when He set everything in motion, so hadn't He already set the weather patterns in motion then to make it nice weather, before I had technically prayed for it? The dilemma is whether or not I really needed to pray for it, or if I my prayers really had any impact on the outcome at all. Does God change the natural order of things to answer our prayers?

To answer that immediate question, I would say there are evidences in Scripture that on occasion, God does step in and alter the natural order of things for the sake of us. Joshua with his Sun Stand Still prayer, Moses parting the Red Sea, Jesus with his feeding and healing the multitudes, and so on. But I think there is more to it than that. I do not believe that God has alter reality to answer every single one of our prayers.

I think I share the conclusion that Lewis was alluding to in the Screwtape Letters. Where we typically fail in understanding this is in our perspective. Being men and women created within the confines of time, we are bound to a perspective that sees life in a "Past," "Present," and "Future" tense. There is stuff that has happened before, stuff that is happening now, and stuff that has yet to happen. But from God's perspective, all those distinctions are washed away. He exists outside of our concept of time, and therefore sees everything as one cohesive whole. Where we see Past, Present, and Future, He sees What Is. I like to think of it as a massive tapestry that He has woven together.

With this perspective in mind, I then approach the concept of prayer and His Omniscience. He hears our prayers, all of them, and weaves His answers into His Creation, as He is creating it. He has an overall, big picture, plan of how His Creation and His Will are going to play out, but within that there is freedom for diversity, change, and answering the prayers of His people. When it comes to answering prayers that fall outside the realm of His overall plan (meaning they do not affect it), there are some He can say yes to, and others He cannot. Maybe a "good weather weekend" would affect the flowers as they come into bloom, so He chooses not to acquiesce to that request for the sake of the beauty of His Creation. Or perhaps without the rain other people would suffer (like farmers). Either way, there would be a lot to take into consideration when looking at it from this grand a scale, so it would be hard for us to pinpoint why God answers some prayers with a yes, and not others. I think ultimately, however, that He takes pleasure in granting our requests and seeks to do so. He is a good, good father after all.

To put it a little more clearly, I think that God is able to see/hear all prayers from outside of time, which allows Him to put the world as it is, answering those prayers in the process.

I think He uses those times when He "breaks" the natural order of things to demonstrate to us His power more directly. Many times we need those "signs and wonders" to wake us up to who He really is, not just some old guy in the sky, but the majestic ruler of the universe.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

The Sinless Man, or was he?

Heyo,

So as I was attempting to go to sleep last night, I got this thought in my head. We teach constantly that Jesus was a sinless man, and make the claim that His sinlessness is necessary for salvation to work. If he wasn't sinless, then His work on the cross had no purpose and accomplished nothing for us. That is what we are taught. Well, as I thought about it, I couldn't immediately think of a passage in the Bible that said "Jesus never sinned."

Sure, there was the part at His crucifixion where Pilate "could find no fault in Him," but that doesn't mean He was necessarily sinless, just that He hadn't broken any laws that would constitute crucifixion, or even legitimate punishment by Roman standards. We know the Jewish leaders were mad at Him for claiming to be God, but if that's true, it is not a sin. But that doesn't make Him sinless just because He was telling the truth there.

So I have decided to embark on a several week process of studying the New Testament and the life of Jesus to discover what the Bible really says about the sinlessness of Jesus. I am not trying to say He was not sinless, but I want to have my faith in Him be based on Scripture, not what I've grown up hearing. I want them to line up, and be able to distinguish what is true about what I learned growing up, and what may not actually be backed up by Scripture. So here we go...

Break for time of study...

Okay, so this kind of embarrassing. I very quickly discovered how much evidence there is supporting Jesus' sinlessness in the Bible. Here we go:

Romans 8:3 - "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering." Paul very carefully distinguishes between being a sinful man and being in the likeness of sinful man.

John 8:46 - "Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me?" Evidently no one was able to prove anything.

Matthew 27:4 - "'I have sinned,' he [Judas] said, 'for I have betrayed innocent blood.'" Judas admits his own sin and describes Jesus as innocent by comparison.

John 8:29 - "The One who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him." We hear in Matt. 3:17 that God claims Jesus as His Son, with whom He is well pleased. And hear Jesus claims to ALWAYS do what is pleasing to God. Not sometimes, but always.

1 Peter 1:19 - "...but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." There was nothing wrong with Him, no fault found with Him.

1 Peter 2:22 - "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth." Getting a little more pointed here, a direct claim that He did not sin.

2 Corinthians 5:21 - "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." This verse not only claims His sinlessness, but also suggests that it was His sinlessness that made it possible for Him to pay for ours. This idea is far more heavily laid out in Hebrews.

Hebrews 4:15 - "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin."

Hebrews 7:26 - "Such a high priest meets our need - one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens."

Hebrews ultimately lays out the whole parallel between the sacrificial customs of Jewish culture as found in the Old Testament and what Jesus did for us on the cross. He acted as the sacrificial lamb which atoned for our sins, and in order to be that lamb, he had to be blameless, without defect, without blemish, without sin. He had to be perfect so as to be able to take upon Himself the sin of us all. He went through temptation, just as we do, and He overcame it. Every time. The Bible is actually a lot clearer on this than I had remembered (can't trust my memory ever, it seems), and very directly depicts Jesus as sinless and without fault. So not only did He not break human laws and regulations, but He didn't break God's Laws either. And it was because of this sinlessness that He was able to take the mantle of Savior of the world.

tl;dr Jesus was indeed sinless, and His sinlessness allowed Him to die for our sins. He did what we could not do, and saved us when we could not save ourselves.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

So is he saved... or not?

It certainly has been a while since my last post. I guess I've been distracted by other things, no time given for writing...

Well, this past week in Bible Study we were talking about John 5:43-54 which is the section where Jesus heals the royal official's son without being there. We were particularly focused on the official's faith and whether or not he believed in Jesus before the miracle. Somehow, the discussion led to salvation and we were discussing evidence for someone's faith and if you could definitively tell if someone else was saved.

As they were discussing this, I was sitting on the floor contemplating whether we should even be making that kind of judgment call. Who are we to determine if someone else is saved? I was directly asked what I was thinking about, having been quiet for a while, so I answered. I think I came across as little judgmental myself, because the Muffin Man (the one who asked) immediately got defensive.

In his defense, he brought up the fact that as the leader of a ministry who appointed leaders, spiritual leaders, over students, I inevitably had to make that call for people. I had to determine to some degree whether or not I thought someone was saved before I could confidently appoint them as a spiritual leader over my students. He was right of course. I do have to make that call. God has entrusted me with the care and spiritual development of the students in my ministry, and I have to ensure that I am wise about who I appoint as leaders over them. If I just appoint anyone (because who am I to judge their salvation), am I really being responsible with my position? No.

So this of course got me to thinking: By what means can we, as humans, judge the salvation of another? And should we at all?

In 1 Timothy 3 Paul gives instructions on who to appoint as leaders in the church. He gives qualifications like: "above reproach" and "self-controlled" and "able to teach" and "respectable." Paul warns that he should not be a recent convert, or he might become conceited. He also talks of deacons, that they must "keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience." (1 Timothy 3:9) In the next verse he says they must be tested and if nothing is found against them, appoint them. So there is obviously some amount of external evidence that should be there pointing towards someone's salvific status. There is observable evidence that is meant to guide our decisions in appointing leaders.

Galatians 5 has a list of the "fruits of the spirit" which are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are fruits in a person's life which are born out of life in the Spirit. So, it would seem to follow that by observing these kinds of behaviors in a person's life, you find evidence of their salvation, right? I would think so, and Scripture seems to think so too. James 2 talks about faith and deeds. In verse 17 he says "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." There seems to be an element of action that accompanies our faith. When we have truly put our faith in Jesus, out of that faith is born action - obedience to the calling of God. So when you have really put faith in Jesus, that faith leads you to then obey His commands and teachings. Your life changes, and you begin to live the way He has called you to live and not just whatever way you want.

Which leads me to believe that I can at the very least determine whether or not someone shows evidence of salvation. I may not know what is truly in their hearts, but so long as they demonstrate the kind of life that God calls us to, then I can put them in the category of "most likely saved." I say most likely because I won't ever know for certain about someone else's faith, which was my concern in the discussion in Bible Study, but in that regard I simply have to trust that God is in control.

I think the Muffin Man had a good point. In my position, I really do have to determine whether someone is worthy of leading others in the faith or not. But I cannot make that decision on my own. None of us can or should. I have to remain in constant prayer, and trust that God will guide my decisions and bring the right people into leadership over His people.

And I think the danger I was worried about when I voiced my thoughts was that we would start to think that we were judge. That it was up to us to decide if someone else was saved or not. And thankfully, that is not the case. I am not the judge of someone else's salvation. God is the judge, and I gladly relinquish that responsibility to Him.

tl;dr God has given us certain evidences that can be observed that point to someone's faith (or lack thereof). We can use those evidences to help us appoint leaders in the church, but we cannot use them to definitively determine whether someone is saved or not. We are not the ultimate judge, that's God's job.