http://www.evangelists-conference.org.u … sation.mp3
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/us/26 … nted=print
http://www.eveningsun.com/portlet/artic … siteId=140
This is just unbelievably sad and angering to me for the sake of Christ. The people of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, protesting at the funeral of a soldier killed in action, and calling yourselves believers in Jesus Christ? And then Calvinists? They would be hard-pressed to show how they line up with the tender, loving, compassionate hearts of Charles Spurgeon, William Cary (who was himself opposed by hyper-Calvinists for doing missions), George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards, who were themselves Calvinists. I wouldn’t post a link to their website if they were not in the national news, just because these guys are a bunch of wingnuts and need no attention shined on them. However, because they are in the national news and are claiming to be Christians as well as Calvinists on their site, and do things so unloving in His name, they deserve all the attention in the world so they are exposed. If you go to the comments on the news article, you can see those who are already opposed to Christianity making their case even further because of these guys actions (granted, they too have no excuse for denying Christ, but still, I mean if you’re going to reject the Gospel, don’t reject it because of some fanatics).
These my friends are hyper-Calvinists, as well as neo-gnostic Calvinists (only “true” Calvinists are saved; absolutely repugnant). And after viewing many websites of hyper-Calvinist churches, I have never seen more hate-mongering than this church. Frankly, it’s unbelievable how hateful they are toward others and self-contradictory in their teaching. It seems they honestly believe they are without sin based on what they say. Where’s the humility? The poverty of spirit before the throne of God? It is non-existent, at least from what we can tell from a merely external point of view. It makes me angry first and foremost what they are doing to the name of Christ, totally stomping it under their feet. Next they are making an awful name for the church in America. And then finally the awful name they are making for Calvinists. I’m sure some people will hear the phrase Calvinist now and think of these guys, which is just sad.
Did Jesus not abhor the self-righteousness of the Pharisees more than anything else during His earthly ministry? It was so repulsive to Him that he addressed them at almost every turn in the Gospels. These hyper-Calvinists hate all “workers of iniquity” as they say, and yet, based on their actions toward other people who are trying to conduct a funeral for their slain family member, they are just that. They view themselves as being righteous enough to have been chosen by God (conditional election, though they would never say this directly) and are thus on “God’s side” because of how good they are and the rest of us are not chosen because of how morally repugnant we are. Everyone who doesn’t see things exactly as they see them (on every little jot and tittle of theology) are hell bound (myself included), as they say, “end of story, period.”
These people only make Christ, His church (as well as Calvinists) look awful. They reek of lives full of hate and evil toward other people. These are the type of people out on blogs making such hateful comments concerning the sovereignty of God to others who are either struggling with it or opposed to it and just need some more patient, loving, good Scriptural explanations. Were not the Pharisees just like these people in terms of their hate? Claiming to know the things of God, and yet their hearts were far from Him, as Jesus said? He said that you will know them by their fruits. And that is some bad fruit my friends.
I’m very sorry for the name of their site, as this type of hate-speech is not what characterizes true, historic Christianity, but is a fringe, cult-like group:
http://www.godhatesfags.com/main/index.html
http://www.godhatesamerica.com/
“How may I know I have understood the gospel and that I am elect?
“First, by the Word of God having come in divine power to the soul so that my self-complacency is shattered and my self-righteousness is renounced. Second, by the Holy Spirit convicting me of my woeful, guilty, and lost condition. Third, by having had revealed to me the suitability and sufficiency of Christ to meet my desperate case and by a divinely given faith causing me to lay hold of and rest upon Him as my only hope. Fourth, by the marks of the new nature within me – a love for God; an appetite for spiritual things; a longing for holiness; a seeking after conformity to Christ. Fifth, by the resistance which the new nature makes to the old, causing me to hate sin and loathe myself for it. Sixth, by avoiding everything which is condemned by God’s Word and by sincerely repenting of and humbly confessing every transgression. Failure at this point will surely bring a dark cloud over our assurance causing the Spirit to withhold His witness. Seventh, by giving all diligence to cultivate the Christian graces and using all diligence to this end. Thus the knowledge of election is cumulative.
– A .W. Pink
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“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” – 1 Thessalonians 1:4-7
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” – Romans 8:16-17
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” – 1 John 2:3-6
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” – 1 John 2:1
“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” – 1 John 4:13
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” – Philippians 2:12-13
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/25/ … nviron.php
I believe at this point, people are so divided on “Global Warming” and now the new phrase that has been coined in its place, “Climate Change,” we need to all at the very least look at the problems and address them quickly. When you put global issues in terms of over-population, the destroying of vital terrestrial ecosystems like the rain forests, pollution of all forms (whether or not it’s causing global warming or not) are issues that all nations very quickly need to address with great urgency, because the world population is fixing to explode by 50% in the next 45-50 years. Here’s the problem though. In my estimation, every consumer “going green” only solves a marginal amount of the problem. Maybe more than marginal. But we need something more drastic.
Just down the street from me, bulldozers, dump-trucks, and other industrial machinery are pumping out tons of toxins into the atmosphere and are totally flattening fields in preparation for building more homes as well as setting up a new gas well. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be done, just making the point that massive pollution is taking place and landscape is being destroyed. If we want things to start turning fast in favor of the environment, we need to go to the root of the problem, do we not? This involves, of course, newer power plants, factories, mines, maybe more efficient (or altogether newer technology – hydrogen fuel) for industrial machinery. But how do we do it? I have no answers for how you get corporations so reliant upon current technology for profits (which fund your mutual funds for your financial future, might I remind you) to move over to newer technology in a fast, seamless manner.
Over-population is another issue. I did not realize how bad this problem was until I read a statistic from a UN report today. By the year 2050, in 43 years, (when/if I’m 71) the world population will have increased about 50% to between 8 and 10 billion people from the current 6.6 billion. Here’s the report: http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/media/index.asp Unbelievable. 20 years ago, the UN realized the world was at an unsustainable pace for consumption of resources. But their predictions of the world’s consumption rate were wrong. We have been consuming resources at a rate they never anticipated. What will the world look like in 43 years? So much has changed just in the past 43 years. World PopClock: http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/popclockworld.html
All I can say to all of this is praise God He will make the world new. I have no idea where the world is headed. Eventually, it’s headed to renewal, but not until things get worse, per Revelation. Our hope is not like the rest of the world though, in trying to make perfect something that has been cursed by God at the fall of man into sin. Our hope is in Christ, the resurrection of our perfected bodies and a totally regenerated world, not in anything present. However, at the same time, there are things we can do to turn the tide of problems we’re bringing upon ourselves (i.e. more efficient ways of living, whatever that means). But it needs to happen at the producer level primarily, and then at the consumer level, when at the present time, it seems to be reversed. The whole going green thing is just a nice marketing slogan for corporations to bring in more dough (which I guess is good for mutual funds, but still, actually do something the helps the environment, instead of just trying to bring in customers).
“In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.” – Ephesians 1:5-6 (ESV)
Paul starts these verses with two words that are pivotal to our understanding: “In love.” The words of these verses are packed with faith-sustaining theology that experientially sets my heart ablaze with love for God in His unmerited, free, “un-asked-for” grace toward a wayward sinner like myself, who was not seeking Him in any manner at the time when I fell in love with Him. I take no credit for ever first loving Him. As Ephesians 2:1-2 states, and I gladly confess with it, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” I was running from Him angrily toward deeds of wickedness, gratifying my sinful nature, miserable in my rebellion against an infinitely holy God. I did not have any basically good intentions toward the Lord at that time. I was dead, a spiritual waste, as that one song goes, a burned out forest, no life at all. It was His sheer grace I was not obliterated on the spot during my rebellious days (same now for how I treat His grace toward me). But who am I that He would have mercy on me, when I had turned my back on Him willfully, outright defying Him to His face for the trials in my family I knew He had sovereign authority and reign over? I ran from Him with what strength and might I had, employing my members (as Paul says) in the service of evil, pursuing friends who denied Him, who hated Him, pursuing drugs and outright rebellion.
But in His sovereign love toward someone as fallen as myself, He had mercy on me the summer after my sophomore year in high school by cutting me to the heart with His eternal kindness and beauty, even at the time when I was pursuing wickedness in the form of drugs and outright rebellion against my parents, and most importantly, God Himself. He pursued me before I pursued Him. In fact, I confess experientially that I pursued Him precisely because He first pursued me (1 John 4:19). He didn’t just give me a nudge to help me lay hold of Christ, but He had to change the entire disposition of my heart to be able to see the beauty of Christ first, and then I could not help but lean upon Him for eternal rest because He was irresistibly lovely to me. I mean, to be honest, I began reading the Scriptures in the midst of smoking pot in my back yard! I sat out with a lawn chair at 2 in the morn, smokin’ it up, and reading the Psalms. And upon reading the Scriptures of God’s forgiveness toward sinners through the blood of Christ, God broke my heart for the evil in my life and He lavished grace after grace upon me. On a merely experiential level, this proves what is stated in Ephesians 1, Romans 9, etc. God saved me. I did nothing but receive grace upon grace. And having been shown grace, how could I not trust Christ for salvation at that very moment?
As Spurgeon said so beautifully (my paraphrase), what led me to read the Scriptures in the midst of my rebellion but the Holy Spirit preempting my will, going underneath my thoughts, beliefs, coming in and doing a supernatural work within me, even while I was partaking of sin? What led me to see the utterly ruined state of my soul before a sovereign, just and holy God but the work of the Spirit alone coming in power through the Scriptures to show me my total depravity? And then to make me seek Him with heart-felt desires? I owe it all to the grace of God, working in His due time and season. And according to Ephesians 1:4-5, this was His plan for me from the foundation of the world! That is massive, faith-sustaining doctrine right there, the kind of doctrine that can sustain a soul undergoing persecution, illness, loss of loved ones, financial woes, broken marriages, just name the trial. If this is true of the believer, as Paul states in Romans 8:35, what can separate us from the love of Christ if God has been for us before the foundation of the world!? Is this the plan for all people though? Sadly it is not. How do I know this? Because at the end of Revelation, looking into the future at the judgment of men, some will perish for all eternity due to their rebellion against the Creator. And I should have been one of them, if God had let me go my own way. With my sinfully corrupted will, had God not intervened, I would have freely chosen the fires of hell over Christ, even when presented with Him. Just like the Pharisees in the Gospels, had God not first turned my heart, I would have just gotten angrier at the mere sight of Christ. That’s where I was headed, no doubt. But God worked in my heart first and made me willing! The prophecies of the new covenant in Ezekial 11:19-20 and Jeremiah 31:31-34 had become a reality within me.
“And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
And also,
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
The only reason God made me to differ is due to His singular, sovereign work, which He had chosen long ago to carry out in me. Was I seeking this change from the heart? No, I was seeking sin and ways to displease Him. My will, desires, mind, body, all of me lied dead in sin, enslaved to its power over me. Praise God though for His electing love that I never earned, deserved or even asked for (namely because I didn’t care to)! God made me willing in the day of His power (Psalm 110:3). That is my only explanation as to why I am a believer in Jesus Christ and others have rejected it. What have I that I did not receive? (1 Corinthians 4:7) Including faith and desires for Christ? Were these not granted by God as a gift? If not, did I produce them while I was dead in sin? I think not. And that is not my experience either.
If you think of the predestining work of God as this harsh, grandfather character making random choices as to who will and who will not enter heaven, please discard that from your mind. God does not make random choices. Greek determinism, as it has wormed its way into Christian doctrine, that God saves by sheer decree without any reference to the work of Christ for sinners, has no place in the Word of God! I realize people may have presented this rather harshly and frankly acted like jerks toward you in presenting this. Please come to His Word though with a mind free from the doctrines of men and their wicked behavior. Again, the first two words of the verses above are, “In love.” “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” This is the backdrop for everything concerning predestination. Love. Every time predestination is spoken of by Paul or Peter, it is always for the edification of His readers, not as some philosophical mind game used to try and draw the intellectual crowd. No, rather, “Rejoice! You are freely chosen by God for salvation through the work of Christ on your behalf! Weep for joy at the mercy God has granted you!” Paul emphatically shows us the vastness of the love of God precisely in predestination with the letter to the Ephesians!
The next point we need to see in these verses is that in great, infinite, eternal love, the Father predestined us for adoption as sons. Adoption into the family of God is what we were meant for as believers, from eternity! When I think about where I should have gone had it not been for the work of God to first change my heart, and then see that I am not only accepted by God but brought into His family, it makes me cry with joy in my heart that He would do such a wondrous thing for me, when I deserve nothing but eternal torment in hell. We have been predestined for adoption into God’s family. There is nothing greater than to be adopted into the only family that will ever matter, God’s. How wonderful!
But how did God bring about this great work to change those sinners (who justly deserve hell) whom He has set His unconditional, loving affection upon? He brought it about through the work of Christ on the cross. This was the plan from the foundation of the world. Several times throughout this passage, Paul makes the statements, “In Christ,” “Through Christ,” “In Him”. Predestined for adoption through Christ is the short way to say the verse. Our election is never out of sync with the infinitely valuable work of Christ to redeem His people whom He fore-loved. Our election is right in line with the cross. Our election to salvation is accomplished through the cross. Jesus stated in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” In love, the Father chose a people before anything had been made (v. 4, Revelation 13:8), sent His Son into the world to live the perfect life they could never have attained (Romans 8:3-4; John 17:19), died the awful eternal death they should have died (Revelation 5:9, John 10:11, Mark 10:45), gave them His perfect record and righteousness through faith (Romans 5:1), historically rose from the grave by the power of God (John 20), and in due time in history, effectually called His people (by the work of the Holy Spirit) whom He has chosen from every tribe, language, people, and nation for salvation through the indiscriminate preaching of the Gospel to all people (John 11:51-52, Romans 10:14-15). This has been the plan all along.
In America, we prize our free rights. It is exalted in the public square as something we are owed. Conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, independent, it doesn’t matter. Our society operates on the “personal rights” principle. “If you interfere with my rights, I’ll take you to court.” So the idea of a sovereign God in our culture is absurd (which is where you get all the open-theists popping up in the church now, even amongst some theologically conservative denominations). And even further than that, the idea of a sovereign God who elects fallen men to salvation is just unfair and evil on the part of God. Why? Because it interferes with what we deem as fair in our democracy, and it interferes with our “free, deserved rights.” Why doesn’t He save all we ask? All we can answer is that His purpose, desire, and prerogative is to save who He wants. Who are we to talk back to God concerning this? Most American Christians, being that we live in a democracy, when presented with just the concept of predestination immediately say, “I didn’t vote for that!” And unfortunately, the church has in most part adopted this thinking as well. The most common way of getting around the predestining work of God is to say God chose us because we first chose Him, based primarily upon a poor exegetical analysis of Romans 8:28-30 (i.e. they fail to take into account the historical and Biblical use of the word, “Know.”
But if God’s choice is based on our choice, what kind of a choice is that? It’s not a choice, but simply a default reaction, and in no way exalts God for His power and might over all things, including salvation. When Moses asked God to show him His glory in Exodus 33:18-19, to show him the essence of His power and might, God’s response to Him was, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” Or in other words God is exalted and glorified the most in His freedom to dispense mercy upon whom He chooses. His response is basically, “I choose who to have mercy upon. This is the essence of my glory and freedom.” And this is the exact passage Paul uses in Romans 9:15 to defend the predestination God and His justice (rightness) in it. This is the glory of the grace of God! Loving election! The Lord is free, unbound, especially by sinful man! And unfortunately, the predominant thought in American Bible studies when people arrive at Ephesians 1, Romans 8, 9, 1 Peter 1, John 6, etc, is that God chooses because we first choose Him. It’s like Tommy Nelson from Denton Bible Church has said in talking about this error, “God votes for you, Satan votes against you, you make the deciding vote.” So God is dependent upon the sinful will of man, that is dead in sin and will never choose Him? I don’t think so. Arrogance. Have we been that conditioned in our free democracy that God must bow whenever we so choose? God is the sovereign One. We are not. The heart of this thinking is rebellion against God as the sovereign One.
Which explanation exalts the glory of the grace of God as Ephesians states? That God is dependent on our choice OR that we are utterly dependent upon His? Is this not what differentiates the message of Christianity from all other religions, that salvation is a work of God, not us? Predestination brings theological depth to that message all the more. Who gets the decisive credit for salvation in both explanations? Man retains control over his life if God chose us because we first chose Him. And that feels nice. And that is what is preached more often than not. Rather, according to the Scriptures, God chose us, “according to the purpose of his will,” (v. 5) “according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” (v. 11) God gets all of the glory, not 99%. And if you think about it, if we get credit for that 1% decisiveness, who really gets credit for salvation? We do. God did most of the work, but with what strength we have we latched on with our “righteous” choice? We pulled ourselves up into the power of the cross? I sure didn’t. This is works-based salvation at its core. Rather the cross gave me life when I was dead. And this was the core issue right here in the Reformation.
Predestination is for the glory of the grace of God (v. 6), according to His purpose (v. 5), which He brought to fruition in the Person and work of Christ (v. 4). It is a beautiful doctrine meant to sustain us who believe because we see that the roots of our salvation begin in God, not us. The roots of grace go into eternity past with God. What is grace even? An undeserved gift. Is this not what salvation is? The only reason you chose Christ was because He was pleased to reveal Him to you in power. Your story as a believer may not be like mine (or Paul’s on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians for that matter), but all of us were saved in this way. It may have been a process of years that you came to understand the Gospel, just like a seed that is watered and gradually grows. But it is a definite event that occurs, just as seed planting and watching a tree grow as a result. People are saved in different ways. Nevertheless, if you have trusted Christ for salvation, at some point you saw the beauty of Christ, not because you were smarter, wiser, more spiritual, born into a Christian family, but because God worked in your heart in order that you would believe in Christ for salvation. He didn’t leave you to your own wavering sinful will, but effected salvation, made sure it got done. How wonderful is the predestining work of God to save sinners like me! How unworthy I am that He would set loving affection on me when I had turned away so violently. The point of predestination is humility before the throne of your Maker. I am a ruined sinner before the throne of the Creator! Is this not what conformity to Christ ultimately looks like? Humility? Poverty in spirit? If predestination does not produce this in the life of the believer, it has not been understood in the Scriptural sense. It is meant to squash pride, produce humility, and bring about tears of joy, weeping at the wonder of God’s unfathomable mercy in the cross of Christ!
http://www.westerfunk.net/archives/theo … Calvinism/
For those of you who claim to be Calvinists (or even if you don’t really), this is a must read article. So you’re a Calvinist. Alright then: have you seen God, been shocked by His glory and your utter unworthiness before Him, as to why He would have mercy on you through the work of Christ and not another?
Here are some quotes:
“I say by way of application, do not talk about being a Calvinist simply because your itch for logical consistency has been relieved by Calvinism’s theological system. Have you seen God? Have you been brought near to Him? That is the issue. I remind you of the words of B. B. Warfield: ‘A Calvinist is a man who has seen God’.”
“The expression, a proud Calvinist, is a misnomer. If a Calvinist is a man who has seen God as He is high and lifted up, enthroned, then he is a man who has been brought to brokenness before that throne as was Isaiah. A carnal Calvinist? Another misnomer! The enthroned One is the holy One, and He dwells in conscious communion with those who are rightly related to Him as the enthroned One and as the holy One. These two things are brought together beautifully in Isaiah 57:15 where the prophet says: ‘Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and a humble spirit’. What is contrition? It is the reaction of a sinner in the presence of a holy God; and, what is humility? It is the reaction of a subject in the presence of a sovereign. Isaiah never forgot this vision, and he says, ‘This great God dwells in that high and holy place, with him also that is of a humble and a contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’”
“If your understanding of Calvinistic thinking has led you to the place where you can, as it were, boast in your liberty and use it as an occasion for licence, then you have never become a biblical Calvinist. God makes Calvinists today the same way he made them in Isaiah’s day.”
“I submit that a man has no right to speak of being a Calvinist because he can repeat like a parrot phrases brought to him in the great heritage of Reformed literature. He must ask himself, Has the Holy Spirit brought me to this profound sense of God that has worked in me at least in some measure the grace of humility. Has God endowed me with gifts and abilities? if so, what have I that I did not receive? Who makes me to differ? if God has endowed me with gifts and abilities whether intellectual or otherwise, I acknowledge that I have those because a Sovereign upon a throne was pleased to dispense them to me, and the only difference between me and that poor retarded child that moves the pity of my heart, is that He was pleased to make me different. ‘Who maketh thee to differ?’ The man who stands in the presence of a God upon the throne, and who has had this sight and sense of the majesty of God, recognizes that all that he has, has been given. Humility is not diffidence. Humility is that disposition of honest recognition: He is God, I am but a creature. All that I have comes from him and must be rendered to him in praise, and in honour. It will bring with it the submission that we see in Isaiah. He sits upon a throne; I have no rights to assert, but I have the unspeakable privilege of knowing and doing his will. Was not that the reflex action of Isaiah? The Lord is upon the throne; I am the creature. What else can I do but say, ‘Here am I?’”
Here is another excellent quote about the point of Calvinistic doctrine by James White:
“[The Doctrines of Grace] tell us that God is the one who saves, for His own glory, and freely. And they tell us that He does so only through Christ, only on the basis of His grace, only with the perfection that marks everything the Father, Son, and Spirit do. The doctrines of grace separate the Christian faith from the works-based religions of men. They direct us away from ourselves and solely to God’s grace and mercy. They destroy pride, instill humility, and exalt God. And that’s why so many invest so much time in the vain attempt to undermine their truth. The religions of men maintain authority over their followers by 1) limiting God’s power, 2) exalting man’s abilities, and 3) ‘channeling’ God’s power through their own structures. A perfect salvation that is freely bestowed by God for His own glory is not a ‘system’ that can be controlled by a religious body or group. And even more importantly, such a system is destructive of any sense of pride in the creature man, and if there is anything man’s religions must safeguard, it is man’s ‘self esteem.'”
Best explanation of Calvinism I have read (Another must read!): http://www.davidwesterfield.net/static. … =calvinism
This app makes it possible to save MMS (Microsoft) video streams into WMV files. So if there is some live web event in FoxNews or NBC5i, you can save it.
This is a screen shot of an advertisement on some website I was browsing. Ask.com just unveiled a new catch phrase for their site, “Instant Getification.” I came across these yesterday while browsing the internet and watching a show on TV and it really caught my attention. And another one I just thought of: the commercial where everyone is using their debit card in the fast-food line at the mall (or wherever) and someone gets in line using cash, and everything halts to observe the absurdity and display the lack of patience with such an act. “Don’t slow everything down, we’re in a hurry, got keep it moving, and using your debit card will make that happen for you,” is the message, playing upon the fear of other men becoming impatient with you because they can’t wait any longer. Just look at how much marketing there is by the media, websites, television, etc, that is getting us to drop the whole idea of patience and utilize some product because it will give you the least amount of headaches, or whatever. And wow how this thinking has affected our society. We have things at our disposal like a PEZ dispenser, within comfortable reach, more than any other time in history and if we don’t get it, we whine, cry, pop of at people, and grumble about it. The more humans obtain ease and comfort, the more we turn away from trust and reliance in Christ, and as a result, the more miserable we become because we assume we are owed it, because that is the non-sense we are drowned in daily. Our society (as well as any really) is just such a clear display that comfort does not solve the problem of sin, it makes it worse and makes people even more greedy because now they have a taste of abundance.
Although all of these small advertisements and statements out there in media and culture, on the surface at least, are just little sound-bites that really amount to nothing in themselves and can be brushed off individually, the problem is they all add up to a large bombardment of statements that make you and your gratification the center of the universe. They subtly change our thinking as believers. And like it or not, deny it or not, they affect us. Why has road rage increased? Impatience with the to-go line @ any number of restaurants just because they are five minutes later than they said? Anger at the support guy on the phone attempting to fix your downed internet connection? Because we all have a basic assumption that we deserve what we spend our money on (because, dang it, we work for it!), namely because we are in sensory overload with these statements getting us to abandon patience. Everything is, “I need this ASAP,” from bosses to ourselves dictating to everyone else how they should hurry up, keep moving, don’t slow down, “I needed this yesterday,” and it is making us a very miserable, godless society, because God is no longer God (we don’t need Him in a society like ours), we are our own sovereign authority.
It has affected the church as well. Joel Osteen, a very large mainstream preacher in the “Evangelical Church” (what that means anymore, I’m not sure) makes you and your gratification the center of the universe as well. As proclaimed by him, God is the means to an end, self-gratification, not the end Himself. Though each message varies with its approach and means, this is the same essential message preached by The Secret, Oprah, Dr. Phil, Satan even (in the Garden of Eden), and it is killing us as a culture. We are all running around like little gods fighting for each others’ crowns so that we can instantly gratify our sinful desires all the more. He’s very nice and friendly to his audience, but his message is one of self-importance, Your Best Life Now type of thinking, instead of Your best life for eternity before the face of Christ, enthralled in His glory, not yours. I mean his latest book is entitled, “A Better You.” Who, God? No, you. He denies he is a self-help brand of Christianity, but read the title again. Have we lost all ability to comprehend statements that we are so easily deceived by something like this on a large scale? It seems many are, because millions of people watch his show every Sunday and say he has changed their lives, with tears. And I won’t negate that making yourself the center of the universe feels good. for a time. It feels great in the here and now to sin by suppressing the glory of God and exalting your own glory above your Makers’ (who matters infinitely more than we do). But what about the long-term effects of such thinking? Ya know, eternity? It feels good for a time to sin, and then it creates a giant vacuum in your soul that is never filled up, like constant hunger pains, that if continue when you die, will go on forever.
What does the Scripture say about all of this? “In view of God’s mercy (and patience),” (Romans 12:1-2), “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, [bear] with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2) “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12) “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) “And count the patience of our Lord as salvation.” (2 Peter 3:15) I believe that last verse is where our focus needs to be. We are commanded to be patient, but we can’t be! We’re sinners in need of grace to be patient. Look at how unbelievably patient Christ has been toward us through His perfect life, death, and resurrection! It is God’s sheer grace and mercy that He does not destroy all of us at this instant for the way we treat Him, and how discontent we are with our lives. Christ was so infinitely patient that He went to the cross on our behalf so that we could have the best of all that exists, God Himself, not self-gratification apart from Him.
We find the greatest joy in selfless glorification to God through Christ. And it’s not merely that we imitate God’s patience toward us (of course we do that), but for me to say, “Be Patient,” is just another law that we cannot fulfill because of our fleshly sinful nature. It’s true that we need to be more patient, but we need more than just setting our will against impatience like the culture (and Osteen) tells us to do. We need something to galvanize us and change us from the inside out. We need the supernatural version of patience, from the Holy Spirit. We need the fruit of the Holy Spirit increasing in our lives by growing in the knowledge of the Gospel, because, as Michael Horton rightly notes, “We are swimming in a sea of narcissistic moralism,” and cannot possibly on our own counter the selfishness of our worldly culture. And this supernatural version of patience by the Spirit comes from the Gospel itself. This is where looking at the whole work of Christ working in our favor to the glory of God we see the infinite patience of God toward sinners and how because of His patience, we have been ransomed from certain eternal destruction and best of all, brought into the presence of God Himself to enjoy Him forever. Sit there and meditate on the mercy of God toward you, a sinner, in regard to impatience, discontentment, envy, covetousness, grumbling, things I struggle with as well in my life. With the patience of Christ in the Gospel at the forefront of our minds, how can we not be patient and changed forever, countering our cultures’ invasive bombardment that patience is overrated? Praise Jesus for the cross that frees us from the bondage and decay of this world!