Craaack....those are my misconceptions breaking.

G'day!

One of those habits being that I hardly ever blog any more. Sorry. Life is very full these days and I don't often have the time/desire/energy to blog.

After a three year bout with the basics of Reformed Theology, I finally lost. Haha. Holly's going to be intrigued. I'm not a total goner yet, but am getting closer by the day.

There are a few reasons why the shift has occured. I'm not sure I can explain them all, but I'll try!

First, I've come to terms with the fact that there are things about the nature of God (mostly the way he orders the world) that I will never, ever understand. I don't like typing it, even. But it's true. So by accepting that, I feel free to look honestly at these issues, and to hopefully keep my prejudices at bay long enough to see truth.

Second, I was attending an informal Bible study a couple of months ago that caused a major shift in thinking. The passage was Ephesians 1, the verses covering predestination and such. Something the teacher said clicked in my mind - it was a verse (can't remember the address at the moment) in which God was saying that all things exist for his glory. All things exist to bring glory to him. This includes people going to heaven (showing mercy and grace through the Cross), and people going to hell (showing justice and wrath).

Third, it's the most logical thing I've run across. If people are dead in their sins, then how can someone possibly seek God? Dead is dead. It has to be Him reviving one's soul.

Fourth, fore-chose and fore-knowledge. Every original language reader that I trust tells me it's fore-chose, as in, God chose people before they were born. And then they explain the difference in detail. Every Arminianistic (if thats is even a word) teacher I run across tells me it's fore-knowledge. Right after that they usually tell me that people can seek God of "their own free will." Um, no. See above. "No one seeks God, no, not one...."

I've not hammered out what else I believe yet, but this is still occupying most of my study time anyway. Yes, there are apparent holes in it...but show me where there aren't any in other sets of theology. Here, I can see that my ignorance is a major cause of the "holes." There, I'm smart enough to see obvious discrepancies that seem to be glossed over every time they are preached. Like, can someone who is dead in their sins seek Christ? Or does God have to do something first, even if it is just revealing Himself in some small way? Since the Scriptures issue an emphatic "No" to the first question and "Yes" to the next. I tend to follow that lead. I didn't always. I do now. Thank you to all the people that have kept on me to examine what I believe and challenged me on the why.

Adios!