I have lots of seemingly unattached thoughts roaming around my head this morning, as I sit here at my kitchen table, cup of coffee nearby, and I'm trying to sort them out, tie them down and expand upon them, but it's just not happening. So, I'm going to let them out here and see where they go from there. If some of them find their way to you and you think on them for a bit, add to their growth and re-direct them back to me. If some of them never return, I'll know they probably weren't worth keeping a tight fist upon anyway!
Random Thought #1––Romans 8 & Losing Your Salvation
I had lunch yesterday with a pastoral friend. He was telling me about a recent discussion with a parishioner who had, in the back of his Bible, twelve references which seemed to indicate pretty clearly, in his mind at least, that a Christian could lose his salvation.
Lots of questions about this situation: the list, the man, etc. However, having spent the better part of six months(?––come on, Cornerstone class students, help me remember how long) in Romans 8, I must draw this conclusion:
If we can lose our salvation; if you and I can throw it all away, whether by willful choice ("I'm not doing this anymore. I wanna live the way I wanna live, not God's way!") or through sinful neglect of our souls––if that can happen, then it seems clear to me Romans 8 needs to be taking out of your Bible. You have no right to it. No claim to it. And it has nothing to offer you. If you can undo all that God has done––past, present and future––to secure your salvation––then tear those pages out of your Bible immediately (and probably a good many other pages, as well!). They have nothing––ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for you.
Yeah, I get a bit animated over such nonsense as this.
Random Thought #2––Christmas is Here!
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,
Services aren't ready yet and that's a fact!
Argh! Why do all my well-intentioned plans go astray? ("Oh, I don't know, Pastor Kevin; could it be because you have people to care for, to visit, to minister to?") Well, today I'm getting those things done––after a breakfast appointment, three phone calls, worship team practice, bulletin prep, worship prep, a high school choir concert and…oh never mind.
Random Thought #3––Still Dealing with Universalists
Just when I think I had a way to filter out the constant stream of comments from a certain universalist, another sneaks by the filtering process to land upon my eyeballs:
“The terms translated ‘forever’ and ‘everlasting’ and ‘never’ are human perversions which could never have deceived us if they had been consistently rendered. They denote definite divisions of time called ages or eons. All together they form a distinct portion of time called eonian times. Destruction, like salvation, is eonian. It is not the end or aim of God. God destroys nothing that He will not restore. He loses nothing that will not return to Him laden with praise and glory for Himself. Destruction is a passing process, not a finished goal. Through God it will work out the welfare of all of His creatures and the glory of our Savior."
What does that even mean? When you have to put your brain through all kinds of aerial gymnastics in order to explain easily understood words/concepts like "forever" and "everlasting" and "never" then I'm sorry, but you speak not the truth. You are a liar, a deceiver, a false teacher and you are to be rebuked in the name of Christ. Eonian times, my eye.
Random Thought #4––Romans 9–11
After the first of the year, our adult Sunday School class will venture into Romans 9. There's lots and lots and lots and lots of wonderful things in this portion of Scripture (did I say that there were lots really great truths here?). I don't want to spend a year in this whole section, however. I have some guideline questions that could get us through in just a few weeks. However, the rub comes here:
"But it is not as though the word of God has failed." Romans 9.6a, ESV
What Paul is saying is this: if God's sovereign will has been stumped by Israel's falling away and the gospel's coming to the Gentiles; if God's election and predestination have been undone by this, then God's Word fails, His promises are all for naught and we'd just as well close the doors and go home.
I'm sure we can cover that in one 45-minute class. No worries.
And the guy in random thought #1 wins the day.
And we all lose eternity.
So, as you see, nothing running around in my head at all.