Calvin on Assurance: Comparing views on Assurance of Salvation between Calvin and Modern Websites

In the fall of 2015, I wrote a paper about John Calvin's view of assurance of salvation. It was a fun paper as I went through many pages of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. As I was writing the paper, I found some interesting differences between what Calvin had to say and what I had believed. So as a continuation of the paper, I want to look at three evangelical websites and compare their views on assurance with Calvin's view. The websites are Christian Answers, All About God, and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

When looking through these three websites, there are some common threads in their teaching. They all understand that a person must believe in Christ as their savior from the sins. Secondly, they agree that assurance is possible in this life.

Christian Answers and All About God say Christians need to have evidence or be doing something about assurance. However, Calvin does not agree with such a statement. Christian Answers says that "(w)e can be encouraged that we do have eternal life (read: assurance of salvation) because God says so, because changes have taken place in our lives, because we want to share Christ with others, and because we desire to live lives that would be pleasing to God." Note the last three: change in life, sharing Christ, and desire to live godly lives focus on the human action. The website says earlier in the paragraph that these are not a test of salvation. The problem surfaces when they offer a list of evidences for a Christian.

Looking at All About God, it gives a long list of actions that can help someone with assurance problems. These all are a great help as they are means of grace that God uses to gives us assurance. But examining their list places a focus on the human ability to keep themselves. On the Billy Graham website, the "4th pillar" of assurance moves in a different direction with less actions for but a looking back. This pillar must be taken with the other three in mind. Evidences of a changed life is seen better when we trust God, seek the Savior, and receive the testimony of the Spirit.

As I move into Calvin's view on assurance, this will move us to something that is missing in Christian Answers and All About God, namely the Holy Spirit's role in assurance. Before understanding Calvin's view on assurance, we must know that assurance is embedded into faith. Little faith equals little assurance and the much faith equals great assurance. Calvin defines faith as "a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit.¹" Assurance can be seen in "firm and sure knowledge" of this definition. Any idea of works is missing from the definition as faith and assurance can be found only in the triune God. According to Calvin, Christians only know assurance when we ground it in God's work of salvation. Commenting on Philippians 2:13 in his Commentary of Phillippians, he says, "Farther, we must take notice, that, as believers repose with assurance upon the grace of God, so, when they direct their views to their own frailty, they do not by any means resign themselves carelessly to sleep, but are by fear of dangers stirred up to prayer. Yet, so far is this fear from disturbing tranquillity of conscience, and shaking confidence, that it rather confirms it. For distrust of ourselves leads us to lean more confidently upon the mercy of God." In the Institutes, Calvin in 3.13.3-5 explains that our consciences cannot stand before God with our own righteousness but faith in Christ allows our consciences to stand before God. The authors of Christian Answers and All About God allows our works to become some standard of our salvific standing instead of founding our faith and assurance resting on Christ.

Since Christian experience does include a perfect assurance, Calvin helps those who suffer with doubt to look at the promises that God has made to the believers. Calvin writes:

(W)hile we teach that faith ought to be certain and assured, we cannot imagine any certainty  that is not tinged with doubt, or any assurance that is not assailed by some anxiety. On the other hand, we say that believers are in perpetual conflict with their own unbelief.²

Calvin notes that believers continue to fight assurance so what does offer as the solution. It is the Word of God. Faith increases as Spirit works through promises as revealed in the Word of God. So Christians take heart in promises like he will never forsake you (Heb 13:5) and nothing can separate a believer from God's love (Roms. 8:31-39). Faith cannot be separated from the Word.

Calvin promotes something different then what can be seen in most other articles about assurance. I should also note that the Puritans start moving away from looking at assurance directly related to faith. In J.C. Ryle's book, Holiness, he offers many quotes that move away from Calvin's teaching. However, they do not depart from the fact that assurance comes from trusting God's promises in the Word and not on our actions.




END NOTES:

1. Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, 3.2.7

2. Ibid., 3.2.17

Where I Have Been.

It is has been a couple of years since posted here. While I wished that I was able to blog more, the fact remains that life becomes busier as I seem to get older. Family, church, school, and work become a mad dash to keep commitments. While I have sat down and wrote some rants about different topics, all have been discarded because the events expired and no longer required a response. I am, however, currently writing and editing a piece about assurance of salvation looking at a couple of websites and what John Calvin had to say about the issue. I hopefully will write some more in connection with my classes and my podcast, for which I am a co-host.  

How Biblical Theology is done at Kosmosdale.

On Feb. 28th and Mar. 1st, I went to 9 Marks at SBTS. It was a great experience and learned a lot about how to better incorporate biblical theology in areas where I teach. However, I am not the only one that teaches biblical theology. Our pastors teach us biblical theology every week, and you might not even know it. So, this conference helped me to appreciate Pastor Mitch's preaching even more, and his faithfulness to the text. So I want to help you understand what is biblical theology and how Pastors Mitch and Tim teach us it within their roles.

What is Biblical Theology?

Biblical theology is theology as it found in the Bible as a whole and in books individually. Biblical theology is not systematic theology, e.g. Grudem's Systematic Theology. Systematic theology connects different passage that talk about different themes while also looking at historical development. Some examples of these truths are: God's attributes, the person of Christ, and a doctrine of sin and man.  From these understandings, it is applied to today's context for further growth.

Biblical theology, however, looks only at how the Bible develops theology within itself. Different theological concepts, like temple imagery, what the Messiah will do, and God's plan to save the world, are repeated throughout the Old and New Testaments. An example from Pastor Mitch's sermons is the new exodus, which is found in Christ. We have learned that this theme is developed from the Old Testament and Jesus embodies the exodus story in His own Life as the "Son of God."

Pastor Mitch's Preaching

I want to explore is Mitch's preaching first, and I will use the Mar. 2nd message as an example (listen here). This sermon was about obeying Christ's preaching from the Sermon on the Mount. I want to recall two distinct references to biblical theology in his sermon. The first was the rock, and the second was the storms. In both references, he went back into the Old Testament and showed us where these illusions were found. Mitch made it clear that Jesus is not just thinking up an illustration. Instead, Mitch explained that the rock represented God as a constant refuge from judgment. The storms, then, represented the judgment of God. Jesus uses this illustration to enforce the seriousness of following His teaching, which they would have already known.

With that, Mitch's preaching connects the whole canon as one storyline with Christ as its beginning, middle, and end. Every sermon develops the different themes found that the Biblical authors before and after also talk about. When he preaches, we learn where the authors are developing their idea before them and also how other authors after them develop the idea further. This helps us also study the Bible by finding these same themes in other passages and seeing how the Bible relates to itself.

Pastor Tim's Sunday School

Tim also demonstrates biblical theology in his Sunday School class. Currently, Tim is teaching in Old Testament narrative. Like Mitch, Tim brings the whole canon together by showing the development to Christ. So while reading through David's life, he places the stories within the storyline of the Bible and connects its developments to Christ. An example is Samuel growing in favor with God and man (1 Sam. 2-3). Luke will use a similar wording when he describes Jesus in Luke 3. Tim also pointed out that King David did some actions we would expect priest would do. The author Hebrews, as we have seen from Mitch's series, shows Jesus as the ultimate priest. 

Conclusion

These are two examples of biblical theology at Kosmosdale. My hope is that you see what they are doing and how it is important for a fuller understanding of Scripture. The Bible is multiple books with one storyline with many developments. Biblical theology helps us to understand the Bible better and not allowing us to forget or neglect parts because we do not found relevance.

As church members, we can also learn biblical theology. This is a consistent study of the Bible and knowing it by reading both Testaments and also the Holy Spirit illuminating our minds. It is knowing the Old Testament stories and the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to see these connections. It is looking at the footnotes of quotes and going back to the stories that are alluded to and seeing how the biblical authors understood Scripture. A resource that can help understand better biblical theology is a book by James Hamilton called What is Biblical Theology?. There is also a 9Marks book called Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church.

N.B. This was originally posted at Kosmosdale Baptist Church's Blog.

Reflection from Missiology Class.

This past December, I took a J-term with a former missionary for the IMB, who is now lead's their theological education. This class covered a different perspective from what I received at Liberty. It was theological and practical, which was theologically founded. Here are some thoughts from the class:

1. The church needs to become mesmerized with the gospel again. Missions flows from people that believe in the saving power of the gospel. American Christianity has a problem that people attend Sundays and maybe Wednesday but they really do worship God every day. Now worship is more than singing songs. Traditionally, worship included singing, praying, and listen to God speak through His word (thus hearing and listening). The Bible shows the pereminates of the gospel as God's ordained way to bring sinners to life in Him.
2. Worship, Theology, and Missions are completely interdependent of each other. Simply put, Worship without theology is idolatry, Theology without worship kills the soul by lead to pride, Worship fuels missions, missions is needed because worship is not, theology is the basis of missions, in missions, we teach theology. When one of these is missing, the church becomes ineffective in this world. Now this also displaces the people are too heavenly minded to be earthly good. Theology is the foundation of doing anything good in the world.     
3. The American church as a whole fails to see the importance of missions in the daily life of the church. Missions requires us to to give up and lean on Jesus. It requires a devotion that cannot be found in money or possession. It calls us to die to self and follow Jesus even through suffering. It calls to rethink our possession and be more willing to give for the advancement of the gospel.

These are some quick comments about my class but there needs to be output. All of these require a response of obedience to the call of missions. All of these reflect a deficiency with my own life and most likely yours too. God desires to save the nations and He has accomplished it through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son when people repent and trust in Him. 

A New Semester is Here!

So this week starts a new semester as I finish my second year. This semester's courses will provide more than enough problems with reading and translation. I finish learning the basics of Hebrew and I take a more advance Greek class. All of this will provide me some background for Historical Theology class.

All of this last night made my freak out last night as I look at all of my syllabi for this year. There is tons of reading which I am not good at but this also provides a great opportunity to force to find my strength in Christ. This has been the biggest lesson I have needed to learn while at seminary, that and time management. This next semester will provide abundance opportunity to realize that I am weak.

There are a couple of passages that come to mind while I think about the great strength that God gives to those that trust Him. 1 Samuel 16 provides a great example. David and Goliath, a well know story for sure, shows that God is faithful to His promises and will deliver them in mighty ways. David knew the promises that God will provide the land and he trusted God that he would deliver Israel from their enemies. God provided the strength that was needed for David to kill Goliath. So with my pending semester, God can provide the power to push and learn more about Him. He must the strength that I lean upon as a weak vessel.

Another verse is Matthew 6:25-34. Here Jesus explains that God provides the necessities for living. He tells His disciples that all they need to do is trust God and seek after Him and the things they NEED will be provide. This need part is important because God does not promise that He will give everything that we feel we need. He gives to us what we need to live in this fallen world. This may be different items but everything comes a gift. Yet I do not worry about how this semester is to go because He will be with me and provide for me always. I need not worry but to trust Him fully.

As my pastor said yesterday, a good theology is needed before bad times hit so you can come to Him boldly in prayer and get help in times of need (Heb 4:14-16).

3rd day of Christmas

Hopefully for the next 12 days, I will blog about Christmas looking at the good gifts that God gives spiritual and physical. This idea comes as I think about church tradition and the lack of celebratory element that this time deserves. Now, I know that Jesus was not born on Christmas but it is a good time to think about the impact this event has on the world. It is the one of the few days that has complete impact the world.

This third days is based off what I meditated on this morning. It is about the speech and knowledge that God has given to me. Now I am not as wise as Solomon was but I know more that I did a year ago. One thing about knowledge is that sinful humans use it to justify themselves as better. Yet, my missions professor showed us that knowledge without worship is prideful sin against the One that gives the knowledge. Knowledge should drive a better worship of God because we get to know him better, whether from the Scriptures or watching the world around as it displays His glory and majesty. 

2nd Day of Christmas

Hopefully for the next 12 days, I will blog about Christmas looking at the good gifts that God gives spiritual and physical. This idea comes as I think about church tradition and the lack of celebratory element that this time deserves. Now, I know that Jesus was not born on Christmas but it is a good time to think about the impact this event has on the world. It is the one of the few days that has complete impact the world.

On this second day, a great gift given is my wife. I praise God that I received a wife that loves Him and desires to serve Him. There has been many times my wife has saw my sin and pointed it out. She has helped shape who I am now in now a short 3 years that we have known each other. As our vows say, I don't need her, I need Christ. God has provide a wonderful wife and I cannot think of a better person to be paired up with for ministry.

First Day of Christmas!

Hopefully for the next 12 days, I will blog about Christmas looking at the good gifts that God gives spiritual and physical. This idea comes as I think about church tradition and the lack of celebratory element that this time deserves. Now, I know that Jesus was not born on Christmas but it is a good time to think about the impact this event has on the world. It is the one of the few days that has complete impact the world.
First is God coming to earth in the form of a man. He entered the human body and lives among sinful people experiencing what sinful people experience. He went through the pains of losing people and the joy of marriage. He say true wickedness when He was sentence to die without committing a crime and yet showed true love by showing compassion to needy people.
As we celebrate the His birth, it looks forward to His second coming when He sets the captives free from all sin. He brings them into the new heavens and earth and they receive the upmost joy, peace, love, and hope that can only come through the Godhead when we dwell with Him forever.

Broken Down in Nashville

I have noticed people broken down on the side of the road. There are lots of emotions that people will feel while they figure out what they are going to do. It is even worst if you are no where near home. I have to say that we did not break down on the side of the road but in an airport parking lot trying to get a rental car because we wanted to assurance that my wife and the dog would be able to get home safely. So at least we made it a place to park the car. Here is the story of a faithful God in a bad situation.

My wife and I were on our way home from Florida this past June. We stopped for the night at her grandparent's home in Kingston, TN. We were ready for church early so we left to go to McDonald's for breakfast and we noticed a sound. After talking to her dad and grandfather, we concluded it could be a bearing. Since the bearing just started we concluded that we might be able to make it back to Louisville to get it fixed. Hindsight will prove that this was a wrong decision. So as we drove, the sound was getting worst. About 30 miles from the airport, the sound stopped. I was hoping that it started to roll without any problems. As we were trying to get into the Nashville Airport, the car started to catch. The bearing seized.

That night after my wife left for home, I stayed the night with the car. It was uneventful. That next morning, I was able to find a Christian mechanic and the tow truck driver was also a Christian. It was great working with these people. The mechanic got the car fixed after trying to get an entire housing and it working. I was able to drive to Louisville thanking God for the people that I meet.

What brought great comfort during this was knowing that God is sovereign throughout the whole matter. I received encouragement talking to the driver and mechanic. Everything was perfect for us to pay and not have a big set back in our finances. God showed us great strength in the middle of situation. Having a God in complete control knowing the future and orchestrating events is what brings comfort to any situation similar to this. The god of Open-Theism cannot be helpful because is only reacting to the situation. The God of the Bible knows the future and ordains all things so we could Him the glory when bad situations happen and He teaches us to trust Him more even when everything seems to be going wrong. That is where "Theology meets Life." 

God's Love for People.

I have been reading The Joy of  Calvinism by Greg  Forster. In Chapter 2, he talks about the love of God as sacrificial, like the love that humans have towards each other. Now he defines love as how one behaves towards something. He mentions that this not a new idea of love instead we like it when people do or don't do things for us. He connects this with God's love for humans. Not in a general sense but in a particular sense. God love humans to save them. He says "(w)e all know that the test of my love for God is whether I'm willing to sacrifice other things I love for God's sake. But the test of God's love for me is exactly the same" 74. This is most evident when we consider the cross, as Forster notes. Jesus willing went to the cross (Jn 18:11, Matt 26:53-54) as God have gave His only son for our salvation (Jn 3:16). Jesus did think that He status as God was something to be used for His advantage but gave it up to become a slave and rescue his people (Phil 2:6-7).

This element of God's love to those whom He saved is really magnificent. God loved us  so much that we are His top priority to save us. This comes out in the promise that God works together all thing for good for the people who love Him. That God calls us to love Him in the same way that He has loved us. This is not so feeling based emotion. That is not true love, true love makes sacrifices for those they love.

This plays into how we treat God in our daily life. We show our love to God by obeying His commands because we sacrifice our own desires (Jn 14:15 c.f Matt. 16:24-25). This love is best seen within our hearts are we joyfully obey without any rebellion in our heart. Augustine makes this distinction in his treatise, The Spirit and the Letter (note that this is the title page, click next to continue to the text). God gave Jesus for our salvation and Jesus willing gave His live. We are called to do the same. Our love for God is not feeling based but is a reflection of our obedience to Him. The amazement of God's love for us should break our wills and force us to repent of our sins, our lack of obedience. We obey because of the the great love that God showed toward us in saving us through Christ. 

Ask for Wisdom

This is not normal for me to post about my morning devotional time but I needed someplace to collect thoughts. James 1:5 says "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." What caught my eye was "without reproach." In the original language it is a participle connected to God. NASB adds an "and" which is in the original. So the thought is connected to God who is a generous giver. The word reproach means to exploit a fault to belittle a person or it could mean to find a fault because the person did something wrong. The text warrants the first definition. One reason the exploiting a fault works best is because verse 5 is connected to verses 2-4 which talk about trials in life. The people are suffering therefore it makes the most sense to understand reproach as the first definition. This means that God is not using the trial to punish a person for not having wisdom. Notice it that God "gives generously to all without reproach." God does not belittle us when we lack wisdom but gives it joyfully. He does not require us to pay for the wisdom that we receive. So next time when you are in the middle of a trial, pray for wisdom and remember that God will not humiliate you because you lack it. 

Meditation from Habakkuk 2:3

      For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
      it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
                  If it seems slow, wait for it;
      it will surely come; it will not delay.

Reread the verse understanding that it is talking about judgment. There verse is a scary verse to read. God's plan for judgment will come and it will accomplish. Starting in verse 6, 4 "Woe to him" against the army that God is building up for judgment of Israel.

Though this is for a particular people, it still speaks today. God has promised a final judgment of the wicked and of the saints. His judgment will not terry. Like a thief in the night, so will God come in judgment. That is why Paul tells his readers that today is the day of salvation. These verse should also drive us to start witnessing our faith. We do not know the day that Christ will return. We cannot share the gospel with people in hell so the time is now. Even when the apostles were focus on Christ's kingdom, he told them to be His witness throughout the land. That is the same call today. Will you go?

Meditation from John 2:19-28

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 

Here in verse 19, John moves to the testimony of John (the Baptist) as he connects it with 1:6. This is the first witness that John (the Baptist) would have towards Christ. D.A. Carson notes that the fact John did not deny shows a positive look towards Jesus as the Christ. The rest of the story unfolds as the priests and Levites question on who John is and why he is baptizing? John is showing us that John (the Baptist) is doing testifying towards Christ. He does not deny that the Christ is coming but that he is preparing them before he comes. Here is what we are called to do also. Christ will return and we should shout "[m]ake straight the way of the Lord" as John did. When Christ came after  John, he did not come to kill but bring peace. When Jesus returns, we will destroy the ungodly. The time is now to act. God will come like a thief in the night and we must be prepared for His coming. Like John, our testimony points to the one that is greater than us.

SO, what are you doing to spread the danger to come? Everyone that is without Christ will perish in hell. Yet God stands ready to save those that come to him in faith and repentance. So Christian, if you have failed to obey God now, (like I have) seek forgiveness and go out preach the gospel to a lost and dying world.

1 John 4:7-10

Beloved, we might love, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been begotten from God and is knows God. ⁸ Everyone who does not love is not known by God because God is love.⁹ In this the love of God is manifested in our case, because God sent His only son into the world in order that we might come to live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he has loved us and sent His son as a propitiation for our sins. (My translation)

John continues to drive home that love and the Christian's life are together as one. Verse 7 gives the substance of our own love. Those that are in Christ love because God loved them. His is the one that gives us love. Also notice that love characterizes the one that is "begotten" and "knows" God. This relates to John 14, where Jesus mentions that love for him is equal to obeying Him. The action of loving others identifies one as a Christian. Private devotion does not shows one to be a Christian. This is not to neglect these things because that is what God uses to help Christians grow in love. The negation in verse 8 just repeats what is said in verse 7.
Lets not move to quickly past this. The way we act towards others show much. In Lane and Tripp's book, "How People Change," they explain that how people react in situations reveal their hearts. Other people and situations do not case a person to act in certain ways. As Christians, when we act in a not loving way it reflects bad on the goodness and love of God. Now, this is not a excuse for those that do not believe. A life that is characterize as not loving shows that they are not really from God. This is noticed in the difference in verse 7 and 8. The verb "knows" and "known" are the same verb is different tenses. For the sake of simplicity, the first is present and the second is past tense. This difference in the tenses show a great deal. It is the difference is one knowing God and the other never knowing God.
Finally verses 9  and 10 starts with a common phrase in 1 John, "in this." John uses this phrase to connect different arguments. It is used 14 times in 1 John and it means from this past information this next set of information is also true. So here,  John is saying that we know this love of God because of He sent His son on earth. This was done so that Christians can have life. Verse 10 then gives us an explanation of this, using "in this." God's love is demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus as a "propitiation for our sins."
What does this mean for our life? We love as a continuation of His love to us. Our love reflects the love of Christ. This love is based on the new life that we have in Christ. Christ who acted loving all the time, is our example of what love looks like. It is not a self-seeking love but a love of others. Christian life is not about me but about Christ. As we learn more about God, it should cause us to love others more than self. It is seeing Christ as the one that bore our sin and then living accordingly to others. Love is not seeking revenge for sins committed against us but forgiving others. Love seeks to bring life and forgiveness restores the broken life we have with others. 

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Our circumstances don't cause us to act as we do. They only expose or true condition of our hearts, revealed in our words and actions." Lane/ Tripp's book How People Change.

Mediation for the day.

In my Greek class, we are working through 1 John. I started reading it more throughly from the Greek. I was in 1 John 3:14. The ESV reads, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death."

The last part the verse struck me. I translated the Greek, "He who loves not remains in death."He remains there because he has not crossed over, or as the ESV reads pass over, from death. The one who does not love is still in their sins. Verse 15 confines the thought with "everyone who hates their brother is a murder." This connects hate with Cain. Those that hate are like Cain. This is a powerful statement and one that we should not pass by to quickly. As Christians, the way we treat other Christians show our devotion to God.
In what ways to we hate each other? This could be as simple was trying to be better then a fellow members. It could be seen as easily as not helping when someone is in need. Remember of you have hated, Jesus stands to forgive you (1 John 2:2).

Why Death is Better than Birth?

Today in my devotions, I was reading Ecclesiastes 5-8. As I was reading felt the need to understand better what Solomon is telling is in Ecclesiastes 7:1-5. He writes,

1 A good name is better than a good ointment, And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth. 2 It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every man, And the living takes it to heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter, For when a face is sad a heart may be happy. 4 The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure. 5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man Than for one to listen to the song of fools. (NASB)

This is not a up lift piece of the Bible but it does spread light into how we should look at our lives. Solomon ended chapter 6 talking about wisdom and fools. This leads to the 7:1 in say that a name is better that ointment and death is better than the beginning of life. This asks the question of why a funeral is better than a birth? This question is answered in verse 2b, "Because that is the end of every man, And the living takes it to heart." It is when someone dies that we realize that life ends. One day, we will be like the one that has not breath in their lungs. Psalm 90:12 connects this notion of realizing our days. The Psalmist says "So teach us to number our days/ that we may get a heart of wisdom." It is this reality that makes people more effective for God. It is understanding that I can not get caught up wasting time. This also means that taking a day of rest will help sustain life in the Lord. To stop work and rest in Lord to be refreshed until the final rest comes when Christ brings the new heavens and new earth. 

The Art of Debate and Why I Get no Where with It.

I finished a debate. It went nowhere quickly, but that's getting ahead of the story. So I once made a facebook post about a very minorly controversial topic, which proved to be very emotionally charged when discussing with a friend of our family who is a believer. In a series a responses to that post, a sparring debate was lit over whether or not preaching about sin in churches was condemnation without love. To me, the need to preach about sin was very obviously the correct view, but I soon learned that my friend was driven by much more than just logic, and as I later view this post, I see that I was too. After a few, yet quite lengthy rounds of argument (all publicly displayed, I might add), I became exceedingly frustrated that my friend did not see the same truth I did. I pulled out of the argument in a way that might seem like a cop-out. I just claimed that my ideas must not be understandable because my explanations are not always the clearest in writing. Anyways, here are a few lessons that I have learned about debating on Facebook from this experience:

1. When using theological terms, explain.: In this post I used the term "antinomianism." That is a belief that one can continue to sin without regard of the holiness of God thinking that grace will pardon their sin. However, I did not clearly explain this to my friend when I tried to show them how antinomianism quickly becomes legalism. My failure to explain left my fried at loss. I then become an arrogant person by showing off my great knowledge. This is obviously not what I want to display as a Christian because it is a very prideful action.
2. Read other posts carefully before re-posting: After reading this debate again in preparation for make this blog post I realized that I should have replied with a completely different argument. I originally chose to debate the purpose of the law, but upon review, I see that I should have gone a different route by saying that people don't like hearing about sin because they enjoy their sin and do not want to repent.
3. Do not get emotionaly attached to the need to win: It is not about winning the debate. As much as this debate dealt with sin, righteousness, and the gospel, my tactics should have been loving and I should have depended on the Holy Spirit to convict and bring repentance. I focused too much on logical arguments and tended not to let the Holy Spirit convict my friend.
4. The point is to glorify God: This debate all together felt like a failure to me and I believe the root cause was my lack of love. This must be the hardest to write because it deals directly with my sin: my failure to love and spur another Christian towards love and good deeds. I could be off base with this a little but I am pretty convicted about it. I guess I get emotionally worked up about arguments like this because they seem to be an attack on the gospel, which I love. However, my friend must also have been worked up about it because they were holding their ground. Though I may have been right, when the debate became emotional, I automatically lost.

I think that those 4 points explain pretty well why I did not get anywhere with this debate. At the end of the day, it just felt futile. This could have been because of my pride. I felt like I should have won  because I have the truth, based on the Word of God through a line of godly people that openly proclaimed it.Don't get me wrong, I still believe that we should contend for our faith, but let's just say I've learned a lot about how to contend in love. So ends this post.

Holiness is Happiness

"Her ways are ways of pleasantness--and all her paths are peace!" Proverbs 3:17

The Satan-deceived world imagines that godliness is a thing of gloom--rather than of gladness; that it is something which the saints endure--rather than enjoy. On the contrary, holiness is happiness!

It is neither the mirth of the fool, nor the giddy gaiety of the thoughtless--but a "peace which passes all understanding" (Philippians 4:7), and a heart-satisfaction not to be found elsewhere! So far from piety robbing us of freedom, it conducts into true liberty--delivering from the bondage of sin. Christ's yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

God has established an inseparable connection between holiness--and happiness; between our pleasing Him--and our enjoyment of His providential smile.

Worldly mirth is at best evanescent--but the delights of holiness are eternal.

Only the One Who made us--can truly content us!

This quote is from Arthur Pink. Today it served as my devotional piece. As I reflect on this piece, I notice that I have thought that. Some how, I thought, I must be holy (on my own power). It was something I had to endured. God would reveal my work-righteousness but His mercy and grace. Now that I have understood more about the work of Christ Jesus, I see the pleasures of obeying God. It is no longer something that I feel tied up in. It is freedom and peace that cannot be know by any heathen.

God has been working on me to desire Him more, to find pleasure in Him, and to serve him with His strength. It has been, at times, like a miracle that I finished some of my papers. Now as I reflect on how this short work trip in Spain is going. I see the amazement of God working in my life. I have desired to prayer more, I have more of a desire to learn about Him through His word and through other godly men that have written about Him. This is all happen as I try to live a holy life with the power of God. I am not saying that I am at a perfect happiness because I am not. But I am happier to serve God and to obey His rules and to serve Him. Sola dei gloria.