Opus 2026-310: Sound Bite Religion

I have been attempting to listen to a debate between Steve Gregg and James White on Calvinism.  I am currently half way through the second of five sessions.  I am not sure if I will finish.  I find the Calvinistic view of God as Sovereign to be a caricature.  I agree that God is sovereign but that should be defined in the sense that God reveals Himself, not in a way that fits the box the Calvinists want to force Him into.

If there is no free will and salvation is totally a coin toss that God enjoys then what is the point of all this?  What keeps being ignored or twisted away is the fact that if God arbitrarily chooses who will be saved the other side of the coin is that He also arbitrarily chooses who will be doomed to eternal damnation and torment.  I think the term is “double predestination”.  If that is the way it works then having Jesus die on the cross is some sort of masochistic ritual that serves no function.  Why go through the agony of becoming sin on our behalf if you could just wave your magic wand and bestow salvation by fiat?  

I will concede that being a mere human what might seem arbitrary to me is carefully thought out by God.  At the same time He did make us different than the animals.  We are created in His image.  Adam and Eve were without sin.  God used to walk the garden with them.  I don’t see any way around the necessity of God making them sin if He is the sovereign that Calvinists describe.  In that scenario they had no choice.

I could probably set my phone up to greet me as Lord and Master every time I opened it.  I would find it amusing because I know I am not.  If I programmed it to do so and felt like somehow that brought glory to me I would become the God of the Calvinists.

White took John 6:36-40 and lifted out verse 37,

(Joh 6:37 KJV)  All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Based on that he build a case that only those sent by God could be saved.  In the heat of a debate that sounds like a case but he totally overlooks that the verse gives no reason why God sent some and not others.  All you have to do is back up two verses and you find,

(Joh 6:35 KJV)  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Notice it is no longer a matter of whom God chooses but who comes and who believes.

It is always dangerous to start with your favorite paradigm and squeeze your Bible verses into that mold.  I assume that I suffer from the same malady but I am trying to start with the word and build my theology from that.  It is often a lonely road and it is worse when I am surrounded by people who love sound bite religion.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-196: Bread

All cultures have some form of bread.  It may take different shapes and be prepared with variety but it is still a grain product.  With the gluten craze it is becoming less popular but I don’t think I will ever get used to a hamburger on a lettuce bun.  Two thousand years ago it was the staple of many cultures.  That is true for the Bible cultures as well as the rest of world.  That is why the allusion to bread is so common.  

Jesus engages this thought when teaching about His mission.

John 6:58 (KJV) This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

Think ancient Middle East.  The bread of that day was much more nutritious.  You can still find its descendents if you look.  Have you ever tasted heavy European breads?  They are awesome.  Today we have empty calories in most of what we eat.  Get your cultural and historical thinking caps on when you hear statements from the past.

When Jesus said He was the Bread of Life He was not talking about Wonder Bread.  He was talking about a necessity for life, eternal life.

You might want to add the Living Bread to your shopping list.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-217: Digging into Deuteronomy: Hard Choices

(Deuteronomy 1:35-6 KJV)  Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD.

How easy it is to throw away a promise.  In the first Chapter of Deuteronomy we see how the children of Israel who had been led out of captivity in Egypt, across the Red Sea and to the verge of the Promised Land have thrown away the promise God had given to them.  They refused to trust and move forward in obedience.  As a result all those alive at this point were told they would not enter Canaan.

There were two exceptions, Caleb and Joshua.  In this verse we see why Caleb would receive what God had promised.  He looked at things differently than the majority.  He stood out because he was different.  I think it is significant that God says Caleb “followed” (310) “wholly” (fully NASB) (4390).  He wasn’t just a lot of talk.  He was not an opportunist.  He was fully committed.

It is important that we give God everything we have.  Most people who come to believe in Jesus will have a moment of crisis.  There will come a time when they will be forced to decide whether they are hangers on or disciples.  Everything started out beautiful.  Emotions were high.  The sense of forgiveness made life different.  But eventually the everyday steps in and begins to mess up the glow.  Eventually the call to walking in righteousness makes itself harder to ignore.  Eventually you come to a point where you need to fish or cut bait.  We will need to decide if we are follow the Lord fully. 

Jesus ran into this during His teaching ministry.

(John 6:60 KJV)  Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

(John 6:66 KJV)  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Notice that these are called “disciples”.   These are people who had declared that they were going to follow Him.  He would be their guru.  At least until the teaching got too hard; then they were out of there.

Caleb had to make that decision.  If you are a follower of Jesus, you will need to make that decision.  Caleb and the nation of Israel traveled together for the next forty years.  Most of the way you could not tell that he was different, but when the crossing was made across the Jordan, Caleb was the only one left.

The decision is up to you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-045: Are Grits Gluten Free?, part 2 of 2

Why do I not embrace every new mantra of diet and health that comes down the pike?  Why do I not automatically accept every announcement of the AMA.  In the words of the old children’s song, “How do I know, the Bible tells me so.”

Bread is made of grain, right?  Maybe you didn’t know that.  Jesus said,

(John 6:48 KJV)  I am that bread of life.

That tells me that bread isn’t bad.  He didn’t say, “I am the GMO free, gluten free, organic, vegan turnip of life.”  He said bread.

How about salt?  I know the mantra that salt is a learned taste and we get plenty of it in our regular diet.  Then why did Jesus say,

(Matthew 5:13 KJV)  Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

If we get enough in our diet why do deer go to salt licks and enjoy a few moments? 

I know it doesn’t say, “Eat bread and salt your spinach if you want to go to heaven.”  Did I mention how much salt I put on spinach?  Does Pikes Peak in winter bring a picture to mind?  It does however imply that these things are good.

If those references don’t work for you how about God speaking to Noah,

(Genesis 9:3 KJV)  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

That sounds pretty inclusive to me.

I know that some people are very sensitive to salt.  Got it.  I keep hearing that gluten and lactose can cause issues.  If you say that is you, I will not argue with you.  Some people will also die if they eat peanuts.  I believe it.  That does not mean that the rest of the world has to do without.

All this came from a bowl of grits.  Maybe I need to go mow the lawn.  I can’t, I am in an apartment.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-149, Healthy Insights: Biblical Nutrition, Wheat Products

What other basic foods are on the growing list of anathemas in our health crazed culture?  I don’t know how new it is but I have been hearing a lot of concern about gluten lately.  I am not sure what gluten is.  I am not sure I care.  But it is getting a lot of bad press lately.  Increasing numbers of packages are labeled, “gluten free.”  Gluten is part of the kernel of wheat.  It is involved in the process that makes the bread dough rise.  Along with wheat it has become a supposed villain in our quest for the perfect diet. 

I was listening to a podcast by a survivalist and he came down hard on wheat and what a terrible thing it was for us to eat.  He gave the impression that it would destroy our digestive tract.  It should be no surprise that he was on a low carb kick. 

I have news for you.  Bread is one of the universal elements of human diet.  It may take different forms from tortillas to sour dough rolls, but it is basic.  So much so that Jesus could say this and be understood.

(John 6:35 KJV)  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Everyone understood what He meant.  Bread is basic.  It is hard for bread to be basic and low carb to be healthy but the modern culture does not accept the teaching of the Bible.  It also seems to reject basic facts and logic.

We find bread from the earliest references.  When Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden we find bread being mentioned.

(Genesis 3:19 KJV)  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

I guess you could argue that Adam was doomed to eat bread because of the creation of sin in the Garden.  You might say that he was a salad and fruit man before that and I am not sure I could argue with you but I still see that bread is basic.

What other foods are given good press by the Bible?

To be continued...

homo unius libri