Opus 2025-508: Monday Pulpit: To Change or Not to Change, That Is the Question

In our Sunday school discussion we came across two different passages of scripture, which in my mind set up a tension.  They were quoted far enough part that I don’t think anybody else noticed it, but the first one was,

(Rom 3:10 KJV)  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

And a big thing was made over how no one could be righteous.  OK.  Later on as the subject changed and the topic went on a different path, somebody quoted the passage from James,

(Jas 5:16 KJV)  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Now we have a problem.  If the prayer of a righteous man is effective and no one can be righteous then it’s impossible for prayer to be answered.

Seems logical to me.  It seems logical because there’s a fallacy in the application of the verses.

And this got me thinking about how people try to take God and put Him into a box and force Him to be what they want Him to be.  This morning as I was on the porch thinking about how God is dynamic and not static, it came to me through several jumps that there’s a reason why God is considered a spirit.

Now we get into physics.  There are four phases of matter that I’m aware of.  One of them, plasma, I know little about and does not exist on the planet Earth in its natural form.  We are familiar with the other three.  We have solids, liquids, and gases.  Each one has different attributes.

Most people want to make God in the image of the solid.  They like to quote verses which say that God does not change; that He is always the same.  They like to quote how He is a rock.  And there are some interesting parallels there.

Unfortunately, the Bible tells us that God is spirit, not a rock.  What are the differences?  A rock cannot change its mass nor its shape, nor its volume.  It is static.  While we’re on it, we might as well look at the attributes of liquids.  Liquids do not generally change their mass nor their volume, but they can change their shape.  God is not a liquid nor a solid.  He is a spirit, which literally means gas.

Gas does not change its mass.  That stays the same, but it can adjust its volume and its shape.  It can expand and contract without changing its mass.  It can bend and fill crevices without changing its mass, so in a very real sense spirit can change and stay the same.

Such is God.  I hate to tell you, but He is able to get out of the box that you put him in.  That’s something rejoice about.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-023: Monday Pulpit: 100% Natural

The pastor was dealing with the end of the book of James.  He read from a translation that was very close to mine, which says,

(Jas 5:17 NAS77) Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.

He pointed out that we have the same nature as Elijah.  I was good with that.  It is what the Bible says, but then he began interpreting that to us.  He said that we are all sinners like Elijah.  Then he went on with the standard Calvinist approach about how we are all sinners and need continual forgiveness for our continual sin.

Excuse me.  I may commit sin but I am not a sinner.  I have been saved by grace, redeemed by the blood and filled with the Spirit.  The Biblical term for me, and I hope you, is “saint”.  We are holy ones.  The church, eklessia, is the called out ones.  Don’t put me in the same category as the generic pagan.  That says that redemption didn’t make any difference in me.

But the Bible says I have the same nature as Elijah.  That is the human nature.  It means that we are fallible.  It means that before Jesus touched us we were in the bonds of our original sin.  At the same time it means we are created in His image.  It is what Solomon was referring to,   

(Pro 22:2 KJV)  The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.

I did a few word searches and could not find the name Elisha in the same verse as “sinner” or any variation of the word I could think of.  Let’s try not to force the Bible into our personal interpretation or system of theology.

homo unius libri