Oh Friedrich, you always seem to say what I’m thinking before I can articulate it.

"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!"

I am one of those people who needs to resolve philosophical and theological problems before I can move on from them. What I mean is that when someone says, “what do you think about so and so”, if the question is of some consequence, or even extended debate, I cannot let it go until I have solid ground on which to place an informed opinion.

For example, some of the major topics of the last several years were the place of spiritual gifts in the church—I mean their operation as it stands today. Or the election of certain people to salvation and the passing over of others. Alcohol and social and medical drugs was another.

Some times these topics pervade my spiritual and personal life in such a way that my conclusions follow me everywhere I go. The ground on which my opinion was formed my opinion is forever under me. Other times, more frequently in fact, the topic is important but not forever around me. These times, although I will work hard to form my opinions with integrity, in time my opinion will remain clear, but how I landed there becomes foggy.

I am an opinionated person. In social situations, I’m one of those obnoxious people who, if asked (and sometimes unasked), usually has something to say. But I discover often times that I can’t say exactly how I got to my opinion.

I’m with Friedrich on this one. I have my opinions. Isn’t that enough? No, I guess it’s not. Oh well.

Not all talk that may lead us away from the richness of our faith is crazy and unrealistic. I love the way the ESV puts Colossians 2:4:

I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

The sense of that word ‘plausible’ is something like ‘persuasive’. In other words, arguments that delude us in our thinking by making persuasive arguments. But no argument is made persuasive without also being, or at least seeming plausible.

It seems that many Christians, myself at times, feel a sense of false security, thinking the apologists of the World don’t have a logical argument to stand on. But this simply isn’t true. There are plenty of plausible ideas that would lead us away from trusting the Lord.

Christians should realize that knowing and being confident in their theology (know what they believe and why), is a paramount duty. We cannot expect that we are impervious to good arguments of the disagreeing party. But, rather, expect their arguments are plausible and be prepared by knowing and believing our own plausible Truth in the Gospel.

Thomas Watson, one of my favorite Puritans, writes this simple yet inspiring thought:

Read the scripture, not only as a history, but as a love-letter sent to you from God.

Some read the word solely as a means to understand and develop theology. Others, as a means to know what they should and shouldn’t do. Others, only to know what has happened in the past, according to Christian and Jewish tradition.

The intention of the Word isn’t less than these, but it is also a great deal more.

We should approach it, as Watson says, like a ‘love letter’. Not necessarily in the literal sense, but in spirit. What we read, was not only an intellectual work to be studied—a textbook. But it was intended for us so that we would be deeply affected and moved in the most sensitive regions of our soul. If we accept it as anything less than it really is, we miss more than we are gaining.

(Can’t see the video? Watch it on Youtube!)

Quoted in this video:

Ephesians 4:8-9:

Therefore it says,

    "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
   and he gave gifts to men."

(In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?

And, Psalm 68:18:

You ascended on high,
    leading a host of captives in your train
   and receiving gifts among men,
even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.

At least a couple of times during my first couple years as a Christian, my beliefs over certain theological things were shaken dramatically. I was forced to reassess my stance.  Both times that I can remember clearly, I resisted changing my belief because doing so would be a shot to my pride and I would have to own that.

Reading in Galatians this morning, it occurred to me that if anyone else had experienced this kind of thing, it was probably Paul. Galatians 1:22-23:

And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."

There’s a reason people use the term ‘Pauline Conversion’ when talking about people’s dramatic changes in opinion. It’s because scarcely was there ever a person who made a more spectacular 180 degree turn.

Paul was actually a violent opponent to the Gospel. After God struck him on the road, the greater portion of his theological belief was turned on its head. He stopped persecuting the church and instead, became a part of it and preached the Gospel with more vigor than nearly all of his contemporaries in the Church.

Thank God the Holy Spirit convicted him with the potency that he did and that he didn’t tarry, resisting the discovery of this truth, since he eventually became the author of most of the New Testament.

When our convictions are shaken and changed, we should not to give our pride space to stop us. If we discover we are mistaken in our belief, we should humbly accept that we were wrong and move into what we have discovered. Not like I have, sitting, resisting, insisting that somehow our original belief was right—just for the sake of saving face.

For about four months now I’ve been reading Edwin Palmer’s The Five Points of Calvinism. I’ve been reading very slowly. Mostly because most of it is recap for me. Valuable nonetheless.

While reading today, I came across an excellent quotation from Palmer on God’s foreordination of man’s sin. It goes like this:

“It is even biblical to say that God has foreordained sin. If sin was outside the plan of God, then not a single important affair of life would be ruled by God. For what action of man is perfectly good? All of history would then be outside of God’s foreordination…”

Although this quote hardly includes the whole discussion of this topic, it does ring very true to the underlying question. Is it part of God’s ‘plan’ that man sins? Yes. In a way, it absolutely must be.

The dissention over topics of predestination in the bible begin with the question of man’s depravity. Is man able to do ‘good’ before he is a believer? ‘Good’ like accepting Christ? Some believe that he can, other’s in the reformed tradition believe that he cannot. If man is to accept Christ, God must enable him to do it.

Although there are many verses supporting the reformed understanding of man’s condition, and indeed some apparently in support of the opposition, I came upon this one today and found it’s language compelling.

Jeremiah 13:23:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin
   or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good,
   who are accustomed to do evil.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God argues that the rebellious creatures of man are no more able to do ‘good’ in their natural state than is a person able to change the color of his skin, or a big cat the pattern in his fur.