Believing in the sovereignty of God is not an option of yes, no, or maybe within the Christian context. If the Bible is our authoritative guide, one must believe that God is sovereign. It is not unlike the issue of predestination. That God predestines people to salvation is not up for debate, what is up for debate is what it means that God predestines.

Both Calvinists and Arminians agree that God is sovereign, but they will often disagree as to what this means.

Here are the four primary options:

1. Meticulous sovereignty: God is the instrumental cause behind every action and reaction there has ever been. In other words, you chose white socks instead of the black socks because God caused it to happen. You have an itch on your eyebrow right now because God is actively causing it. In other words, every molecule that bounces into another is a result of God active agency in being the first and instrumental cause to the action.

This position holds little or no tension with regards to the human will and the divine will.

God is actively controlling everything.

Adherents: Hyper-Calvinists and some Calvinists

2. Providential sovereignty: While God is bringing about his will in everything (Eph 1:11), his will is not the instrumental cause of all that happens. God’s will plays a providential role in “causing” all things. In other words, all that happens happens because God did in some sense will it, but secondary causes are usually the instrumental cause behind the action. In the case of your socks, you chose them because you decided to, but it was also part of God’s will. God allows evil as it is part of his imperfect will to bring about a perfect end, but he is not the instrumental cause of evil.

This position holds much tension with regards to human will and divine will.

God is in control of everything.

Adherents: Calvinists and some Arminians

3. Providential oversight: Here God’s sovereignty is more of an oversight. He has a general plan, but is not married to the details. When necessary, God will intervene in the affairs of humanity to bring about his purpose, but this does not necessarily involve an intimate engagement with all that happens. God does not care what color socks you pick unless it somehow effects his meta plan.

This position holds much tension with regards to human will and divine will.

God could control everything, but only controls some things.

Adherents: Arminians and some Calvinists

4. Influential oversight: Here God’s sovereignty is self-limited. God could control things, but to preserve human freedom, he will not intervene in the affairs of men to the degree that the human will is decisively bent in one direction or another. He is hopeful that his influence will be persuasive to change a person’s heart or to guide them to his will, but is not sure if this will happen. Being all-wise, however, God will make strategic moves in people’s lives that will manipulate the situation to his advantage.

This position holds little or no tension with regards to the human will and the divine will.

God could control everything, but decides only to influence.

Adherents: Open Theist Arminians and some Arminians

Here are some charts that might help.

This first one is God’s relationship to evil. Please note: the definitions below are that of emphasis, not necessarily exclusivity—there will be overlap with some of the concepts.

I write this for many reason:

1. To give the spectrum of belief with regard to the issue of divine sovereignty.

2. To clear up some misconceptions about both Calvinists and Arminians. Most Arminians see Calvinists as only associated with number 1 (meticulous sovereignty). As well, most Calvinists see Arminians as associated necessarily with number 4 (influential sovereignty). To do this is to construct many possible straw-men representations.

Notice, according to my argument, an Arminian holding to number 2 can actually hold to a stronger view of divine sovereignty than a Calvinist holding to number 3 (although this is not typical). If that does not confuse your categories, I don’t know what will!

3. To create some new charts!

Where do you stand?

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1. I found this study interesting considering much talk about how the present postmodern generation tends to be less committed than previous generations.

Members of the Millennial generation are just as likely to open their wallets to charities as those born decades earlier . . . 

[Study] showed that young donors are as generous as those from older generations.

“We thought we would see some real differences, but giving across generations is not all that different,” says Edith Falk, chair and CEO of Chicago-based fundraising consultancy Campbell & Co.

. . . All other factors being equal, the study showed, the average giving level of Millennials is about the same as that of other generations.

2. Six Prayers God Always Answers (*Results May Vary) is a new book from Tyndale that explores some of the mysteries of prayer in a winsome and helpful way. In a chapter entitled “Prayers God Rarely Answers” the authors Mark Harringshaw and Jennifer Schuchmann say “Some questions get us in too deep, dredging up bottom filth that we never bargined for. Some questions are too big. Why is one of them.”

3. Theology Unplugged and Converse with Scholars. As we are anticipating some major “upgrades” here at Reclaiming the Mind, both TUP and CWS have been put on hold. Expect to continue to see them, but they will be more spuratic until the end of the Summer.

4. Pray for Ed Komoszewski. As you know, Ed has been such an important part of this ministry for some time now. He is also a dear friend. He has some serious health problems and is in need of prayer. As is the case whenever problems like this arise, there are many financial difficulties that he and his family are enduring. Please pray for this as well. I don’t want to share too many details here on the blog, but those of you who desire more details and would like to help, please let me know though email.

5. Bob Practico list the Top Ten Theological Scams.

6. Darth Vader Golfing:

7. Six reasons why Batman could take Yoda

1. Batman is taller.
2. Batman is smarter.
3. Batman would already know how to reverse the effect of the force.
4. The dark side would be mistaken for the Dark Knight and Yoda would compromise the code.
5. Yoda would simply be too scared to fight.
6. The anti-force alarm in the Batbelt.

8. Sproul on the difference between salvation and justification (love it!)

9. Was Noah’s flood local, global, parable, myth, or legend? What a conversation going on here.

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Join Michael Patton, Rhome Dyck, and Greg Cromartie as they discuss the problem of the unforgivable sin.

 

 Theology Unplugged - Problem Passages 4 - The Unforgivable Sin [28:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (478)

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I sat down with a young lady a couple of weeks ago and had a conversation. This was a conversation about faith—her faith. Better put, this was a conversation about a faith that once was and is no more. She was a very interesting and bright lady—inquisitive, well-read, and suspicious. She began by telling me that she was a Christian (past tense) and had since left the faith. Christ was once a part of her confession, but, as she recounted to me, after a long voyage of not finding sufficient answers for her doubts, she believes that she had no choice but to follow her own integrity and renounce Christ all together. I asked her what her problems were and she became very emotional. It was like I represented Christianity and she was ready to take it all out on me.

Ignorance. Pity. Shame. These are all good descriptions of what she thought of Christianity. But the primary description that I felt coming from here was “betrayal.” She had been betrayed by the Church because they duped her into a belief not unlike that of the tooth fairy. When she discovered this betrayal, no one had a valid answer or excuse. So she left. She is now an unbeliever—a soon-to-be evangelistic unbeliever.

One fascination, obsession, and focus (neurotic pulse?) I have in my life and ministry is with regard to those, like this young lady, who leave the faith. You may have noticed this. I have over a dozen books giving autobiographical sketches of those who once proclaimed to be Christian and are now evangelistic atheists, agnostics, or skeptics, with their goal to convert or, rather, unconvert others. I have been in contact with many people who either have already left or are on the verge of leaving. I get emails, phone calls, and visits from the same.

No, it is not a neurotic pulse. I believe that it is the recognition of an extremely serious issue that we are facing today. We are facing an epidemic in Christianity—an epidemic of unbelief among our own. Crowding our churches are those who are somewhere in the process of leaving. No, I am not talking about leaving a denomination. I am not talking about abandoning some institutionalized expression of Christianity. I am not talking about leaving the church (though related). And I am not even talking about renouncing religion. I am talking about those who are leaving Christ. Continue Reading »

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As many of you may know, the blog was hacked and we lost most of the material due to corrupted files. As you can see, we have restored the blog up to a year ago, but as of right now, all the blogs for the last year are in the deep abyss.

If you happen to have any of the blog post from the last year, it would be great if you could post them here in the comments section. It really stinks to lose so much.

Stay tuned as we continue to try to recover.

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This is an interesting question: Is sin fun? The answer, I guess, is going to depend on how you define the word “fun.” We are going to enter into some subjectivity here aren’t we? Wait, I am getting ahead of myself.

I have often her Christians talk about the “pleasures of sin.” In this context, the pleasures of sin are not said to be pleasures at all. It is said to be a “pseudo-pleasure.” It is not really fun. “Here, enter into our world. You will see that sin is not really fun, you just think it is. Join us so that your fun can no longer be fun.”

I was talking to a friend the other day who was not a believer. He said “Michael, I like to have fun. If I become a Christian, I will not be able to have fun any longer. I like my friends and I don’t want to lose them. Our connection is in what we do together. What is wrong with that? Why does God get so upset when we have fun?”

I was not comfortable with the standard answer above.

Sin is fun. At least it can be. I admit to this. I am an expert at both sin and fun. I like one, but often find the former a necessary conduit to this latter.

Now, obviously, we would not classify all sin as “fun.” Exploding in uncalled for anger is not fun. Worry is not fun. Demeaning others for the sake of self-security is not really fun. In many cases, the deepest sinful bents we have are not practiced for the sake of fun.

But some sin is fun and fun is our motivation for this sin. No, it is not pride, hate, or lack of faith that catapults us into this sin . . . it is just plain fun. It is to remedy the often mundane boring circumstance we find ourselves in. Escape from reality? Maybe. But it is often the reality we feel we are compelled to. Who wants to be bored. Boredom and escape from what we believe to be a trapped personality waiting to happen, can cause us to say, “What the heck! What harm does it really do? If we have a good time while engaging in some sin and as long as no one gets hurt, what’s the problem?”

This is not a defense of sin. God’s word is our ultimate authority, not our definition and drive for fun. Often the Christian life will be boring. Often doing what is right feels to go against our natural inclination for the fuller life. I think that this is what is so hard for some of us to realize. The “fuller life,” “fun,” and “pleasure” often change from day to day, having many dependencies. Personal instability will redefine everything. Telling a non-Christian that they are not really having fun may be the wrong direction to take. As well, I don’t think that this is the best direction for Christians to take in own own battle against sin.

Yes, there is pleasure in sin for a season, but that “season” may be our entire life.

Anyway, these are some intentionally random thoughts without much by way of concluding thoughts.

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