Author Archives: alanconrow

Predestination: Three Views

Posted on by • Posted in Faith, God • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • 3 Comments

A few weeks ago I wrote a post in which I attempted  to answer how predestination is compatible with free will. But later (after reading a few FB responses), I realized it may be helpful to let people know that my view is not the only view on the Evangelical platter. In fact, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, God-glorifying Christians have at least three options to choose from when it comes to their understanding of predestination, each with strengths and weaknesses, but all attempting to be faithful to God’s Word.

Before I dive into the different options, it should be noted that all Christians agree on at least two things when it comes to predestination. First, predestination refers to God choosing to do something, before the creation of the world, that pertains to each person’s salvation. Second, predestination is biblical (Romans 8:28-30, Romans 9; Ephesians 1:3-11, see also the Elect).

But this is where the agreement ends, because Christians disagree about what the “something” is which God predestined.

Some Christians believe God predestined an inheritance, others believe God predestined the hearts of people, and still a third group believes God predestined worlds. I know it sounds crazy. Let me illustrate.

God predestined an inheritance. In general, Christians traditionally known as Wesleyan or Arminian believe,“Predestination is not the predetermination of who will believe, but rather the predetermination of the believer’s future inheritance” [1]. What is the future inheritance? It is to be  holy and blameless in the sight of God [2]. In this view, God is not choosing who will go to Heaven or Hell, that’s left to each person’s free choice. Rather God has chosen what will become of each person who puts their faith in Him through Jesus Christ.

God predestined the hearts of people. On the other end of the spectrum are Christians traditionally known as Calvinist/Reformed. This group asserts that every part of salvation is an act of God. Not only did God predestine the inheritance of believers, He also first chose to change their hearts. Why? Because, in their view, original sin has affected every part of a person, including a person’s mind and will. It is therefore impossible for anyone to choose God on their own. Thus God must first do a work in a person’s heart which enables that person to choose God. In other words, “God…actually brings about a willing response from the person who hears” the gospel [3, p.693].

God predestined the world. Sometimes called Molinist, this group of Christians seeks to present a third option to the two views above. They believe that God, before creating anything, thought about all the possible worlds He could create. Then, He thought about all the possible choices of every creature, in every situation, in every possible world. After considering all the choices and outcomes of all the situations in all the possible worlds, He chose to create the world which He liked best. That is the world (a.k.a universe/reality) that we are living in today. How does this relate to predestination? As William Lane Craig writes, “God knows in exactly what circumstances people will freely respond to His grace and places people in circumstances in which each one receives sufficient grace for salvation if only that person will avail himself of it” [4]. The point is, God, by predestining the world we live in, has also predestined the opportunities for each person to encounter Him. The view seeks to maintain the ability of all people to choose God, while maintaining God’s grace as a necessity for their choice.

So which view resonates best with you?

No matter what view you hold, the doctrine of predestination is intended to be of great comfort for Christians. It reminds us of the grace God has shown us (Ephesians 2:8-9). It motivates us to go where God sends us (2 Timothy 2:10). It encourages us that God has a purpose for each of us, even if we can’t see it (Genesis 50:20). And ultimately,it humbles us, knowing that no one wanting to come to faith in Christ will be left turned away (John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9).

I hope these summaries have been helpful. For those interested in learning more about the above Christian views, here’s a list of recommend resources:

 

Calvinist/Reformed

Molinist

 All of them (and some more)

How You Might Be Leading Your Friends To Hell

Posted on by • Posted in God • Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , • Leave a comment

In a recent interview, billionaire and long time atheist Ted Turner, said, “I don’t want to go to Hell.” The soon to be 75 year old, still considers himself to be an agnostic, but now he is open to the possibility that “somebody is out there.”  And to show that he is serious about avoiding eternal damnation, he has, in his latter years, focused on doing good. He has been very generous with his wealth and has become an advocate and supporter of many worthwhile causes.  But is all his good deeds enough to get him into Heaven? Jane Fonda, an openly Christian women, who also happens to be Turner’s former wife says, when it comes to Heaven, Ted Turner is a “shoo-in.”  Why is she so sure about his eternal security? Here is an excerpt from the article:

Fonda said she believes Turner’s childhood traumas left him so protective of himself that he had trouble opening up emotionally. But, she said, he does want to get into Heaven. And, she said, he’s a shoo-in.
 
“Given his childhood,” Fonda said, “he should’ve become a dictator. He should’ve become a not nice person. The miracle is that he became what he is. A man who will go to Heaven, and there’ll be a lot of animals up there welcoming him, animals that have been brought back from the edge of extinction because of Ted. He’s turned out to be a good guy. And he says he’s not religious. But he, the whole time I was with him, every speech — and he likes to give speeches — he always ends his speech with ‘God bless.’ And he’ll get into Heaven. He’s a miracle.”
 

The interviewer then summed up the article this way:

 The old Ted Turner — the one who made billions and won the America’s Cup and the World Series and launched CNN — probably would have tried to buy his way in. But the do-gooder Ted is earning his way in by saving bison and other endangered species and fighting for the oceans and preserving 2 million acres of ranch land and standing up for women and supporting causes near and dear to the United Nations.
 
That Ted Turner gets into Heaven, by Jane Fonda’s accounting.

 

Now, I am sure Jane Fonda was just trying to be nice. And maybe she plans on having many more salvation conversations with her still-good-friend Ted Turner. But if the CNN article is an accurate description of her beliefs, then sadly she is not only keeping Ted from Heaven, but inadvertently leading Ted to Hell.

To be fair it is hard for any Christian not to think that somehow the good deeds of their non believing friends or family might get them into Heaven. But the Bible is clear, no amount of good works gets any person into Heaven.

Isaiah 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

Ephesians 2:8-9  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Titus 3:5 [God] saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.

How then does one go to Heaven?

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

There is only one way to Heaven:

Repent of your sins, confess Jesus as Lord of your life, and thereby receive God’s free gift of grace and forgiveness.

Matt Chandler once wrote, ““the idolatry that exists in a man’s heart always wants to lead him away from his Savior and back to self-reliance” Our good works are often just a veiled form of self-reliance. But the good news of Jesus Christ is that we no longer have to rely on ourselves (especially for salvation), instead we are now able to rely solely on the grace of God. We were made to be God-dependent, not independent.

On the cross, Jesus did all the good work necessary for you and me to go to Heaven. There is nothing we can or need to add to that.

So for all of us who, like Ms. Fonda, have friends and family like Ted who don’t want to go to Hell, let us not give them false hope in their good works. Instead, let us lead them to the One True Hope, Jesus Christ, because their good works can’t get them into Heaven, but they can lead them into Hell.

 

 

 

Reader Question: How is it that God has predestined me, and yet, I have free will?

Posted on by • Posted in God • Tagged , , , , , , • 4 Comments

kayak_in_the_river-wide

Imagine you’re kayaking down a river. What choices are available to you?

First, there are choices concerning what you’d like to do in the kayak. How you would like to sit. What you would like to think about. If you’d like to sing like a rock star.

Then there are the choices concerning what you’d like to do with the kayak as you paddle down the river.  You can choose to turn right or left. You can choose to go with the current or against it. Or you can choose simply to spin in circles for a while.

But of course there is also a river.  And ultimately that river determines where you end up.  You clearly have some say in your experience of the ride, but, in the end, there is a destination waiting for you.

If free will is the actions of a man kayaking down a river, predestination is the river.

Predestination says your destiny is determined and free will says you are able to make many choices before you get there.

So the answer to the question “how is it that God has predestined me, and yet, I have free will?” is that God, by His mercy and grace, according to His good pleasure, called you out of a “river” leading to death, and set you in a “river”  leading to life, by which you would be led to Him (John 6:44), see your need for Him, desire to know Him, follow Him, and ultimately do the good works prepared for you by Him (Ephesians 2:10).

This does not impede your free will because you, like the man in the kayak, have, at every point, choices available to you.  You have choices over what you’d like to do with yourself (thoughts, physical actions, etc.), and you have choices concerning how you would like to steer your life (how you interact with and react to people and situations which come into your life).

Yes, there is a destination, and yes, God assures that you will get there because, at the end of the day, God has chosen you.  And salvation (every part of it) is chiefly about God and not you (Ephesians 1:3-14).

Actually, your whole life is not about you, but about God’s work through you.  This is why, as we journey down the river of life, God the Father has given His children a Guide, called the Holy Spirit, whose job it is to point us and conform us to the Master, God’s Son, Jesus Christ.  And it is why the chief end of man is to glorify God (make Him known) and enjoy Him forever.  For it is God’s joy to see His children participate in the revealing of Himself to all people.

Thus, the doctrine of predestination is not so much a doctrine about limited choices as it is a doctrine about God’s grace.

 

What are your thoughts about free will and predestination?

Could God Make a Rock So Big He Couldn’t Lift It?

Posted on by • Posted in God • Tagged , , , , , , , , • 2 Comments

Peak_of_the_Matterhorn,_seen_from_Zermatt,_SwitzerlandLast Tuesday night at youth group Carlos, a freshman in high school, asked me, “Could God make a rock so big He couldn’t lift it?” His atheist friend had posed the question to him, and Carlos was not sure how to answer it.

The answer is no.

God could not make a rock so big He could not lift it.

Now it is true, that because God is all-powerful He could do the following two things:

Make a rock of any size, and lift a rock of any size.

But God could not make a rock so big that He could not lift it. Why? Because, God does not lift things like you and me.  God is Spirit (John 4:24). This means that God does not have a physical body. Therefore, God does not use physical strength to make things move.

When God wants to move something, He simply commands it to do so. God’s power does not come from His physical might but from His words. That is how He created the entire universe. He simply spoke things into existence (Genesis 1, John 1:1-3).

So no matter how big He made the rock, if He wanted to lift it, He would simply say to the rock, “Rise!”

The question “could God make a rock so big that He could not lift it” misunderstands who God is. God cannot be overwhelmed by a physical object (like a rock) because God is not physical. God is not a man (Numbers 23:19). Though to save us, in the person of Jesus, He became one (John 1:14).

So what about Jesus (The God-Man)? Could He make a rock so big He couldn’t lift it?

Yes and No.

Yes, He could make a rock so big that His human body physically could not lift it.  But, on the other hand, as God, He could not make a rock so big that He could not lift it, because He could always use His divine power to say to the rock, “Rise”.

What is crazy is that Jesus tells His disciples that, by God’s power (the same power He used), they too can use their words to move a rock, even a rock so big it’s called a mountain (Matthew 21:18-21).  

Review of Evolution vs. God

Posted on by • Posted in Faith, God • Tagged , , , • Leave a comment

Evolution-vs-God-movieThe other night I watch a short thought-provoking documentary entitled Evolution vs. God.  In the film Ray Comfort interviews students and professors from well-respected universities who believe in Evolution but don’t believe in God.  Using a few  simple questions Ray attempts to show that believing in Evolution is a belief based on faith rather than science, and therefore the belief may be dubious.

The video is worth watching. The questions Ray asks are insightful and the responses he receives are interesting. But the film has one flaw. It gives the impression that belief in God is incompatible with belief in any kind of Evolution. And this is simply not true. As the chart below illustrates, there are at least three different ways someone could believe in God and still believe in Evolution.

Views On The Origins Of The Universe

The point is not that Evolution is true, but rather belief in Evolution should not be a road block to belief in God. As Christians we are free to believe a version of Evolution or to reject Evolution in all its forms. Our job is simply to go where the evidence leads and believe (by faith), the view that makes the most sense in light of who God is, and what He has done.

Just One House

Posted on by • Posted in Discipleship • Tagged , , • 4 Comments

On our second day in Detroit we were all set to pick up trash again, this time in a neighborhood on Chandler St.  We started walking down the street with trash bags in hand (we had also managed to score a weed whacker at the registration tent). Our goal was simply to pick up the trash on the sidewalk, whack down all the grass and weeds around the sidewalk, and then brush it all clean. It was a good plan, except for the fact that compared to yesterday’s sidewalk on W. Euclid St., there really wasn’t much to clean up. It appeared we were in for a less-than-fruitful day.

But then an elderly woman named Jules called out from her porch and asked if we could cut down some weeds around her house.

“Sure,” I said, being eager to do anything significant at this point.

So we started cutting down her weeds.

After the weeds, Jules asked if we would be willing to move some junk from her backyard.

“Yep, no problem we would love to do that” I replied.

So I gathered our group and we started cleaning the backyard.

Jules was thrilled at this point.  She had a lot of junk in her backyard that needed to be removed. And to show us that she was eternally grateful, she bought us lunch from KFC.

Though, as it turns out the KFC might have just been her way of buttering us up for what was next.  Jules’ husband had died in May, and in her house (on the top floor of course) were two rooms full of her late husband’s stuff. She asked if we could remove almost all of it.

“Yeah, we can do that,” I said.

We spent over four hours with Jules, and often heard her saying, “Thank you Lord, I am so blessed!” By the time we were done, her neighbors had come over to see who we were and what we were doing. They too were surprised and grateful to hear about why we were there and the work of Life Remodeled.

It was just one morning, at one house, helping one woman in Detroit, but on that day on Chandler St., it really felt like we had made a real difference in the city.

It’s often not about the sidewalk

Posted on by • Posted in Discipleship • Tagged , • Leave a comment

photo-1Last week I had a great time serving with students for two days in Detroit as a part of Life Remodeled.  It was great because God used our small efforts to make a big impact.

On our first day, our job was simply to pick up trash and clean the sidewalk on W. Euclid St.  We were there for about four hours and filled about a dozen large trash bags– even though we only cleaned about a hundred feet of sidewalk.

But it was great because during that day three things happened:

 

1.       We saw God open the door to the Gospel

Ashley brought a friend Reanna. And while we were talking and picking up trash Reanna announced she was not a Christian. It turned out that Reanna had never heard about who Jesus is or what He has done.  Later that day I had an opportunity to share the Gospel with Reanna, and afterwards she said that when she got home that night she would pray to ask Jesus into her life.

 

2.       We saw God at work in the community

As we were picking up trash, a few people who were driving by stopped and asked what we were doing. We told them we were joining with other churches and volunteers to serve and bless Detroit. Every person who we talked with was thrilled to hear this. Most of them couldn’t believe we were just volunteers who wanted to help.

 

3.       We saw people inspired to join in

Some of the people who asked what we were doing were so thrilled about it, that they too wanted to get involved. We then pointed them in the direction of the registration tent, and told them how they could sign up. It was so cool to see people in the community inspired to serve by a handful of trash-picking high school students.

God used our meager efforts of picking up trash on a hundred feet of sidewalk to share the gospel, bless a community, and inspire others to join in.

For me it was a great reminder that when it comes to serving God—it’s often not about the sidewalk.

Share The Gospel Like a Farmer

Posted on by • Posted in Discipleship, Prayer • Tagged , , , , • Leave a comment

Share The Gospel Like a Farmer pic

I am not a farmer. In fact, I am not even that great at taking care of the flowers in my yard.  But when I want to see something grow, I need to think like a farmer. And that means thinking about what it will take for a seed to have the best chance to grow.

Any farmer will tell you, if you want a seed to grow, you need good soil.  And to make good soil, you need to do three things: remove the rocks, add nutrients, and provide plenty of water.

When it comes to sharing The Gospel, the same thing is needed– good soil. That is, a heart that is fertile ground for the seeds of the Good News (Mark 13:1-8).  And if we want to produce that good soil, we need to take the same three farmer-like actions: remove the rocks, add nutrients, and provide plenty of water.

What does this look like?

Remove The Rocks– Everybody has rocks in their heart.  By rocks I mean those barriers in a person’s heart that keep them from fully and freely worshiping Jesus with their whole life.  These barriers might be negative attitudes toward God, pain caused by other Christians, false beliefs, or idols that are ruling their life.  Whatever the barriers, they must be removed if the seeds of The Gospel are going to grow. Our job as ‘spiritual farmers’ is to discern those barriers (by observing, asking good questions, and praying) in order to ask God to remove them.

Add Nutrients– Good soil is also full of good nutrients. Without nutrients in the soil a seed will have little chance at survival.  As Christians, it is our job to make sure we’re doing everything we can to fill the soil of the hearts around us with good nutrients. By this I mean filling the hearts of others with the goodness of God.

Matthew 5:16– “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Luke 6:30-31– “Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”

Philippians 2:3-4– “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Imagine, if we lived out these commands, how open to The Gospel the hearts of those around us might be.

Provide Lots of Water– Rock-free, nutrient-rich soil is not enough for seeds to grow. Seeds, of course, need water.  Our water is the Living Water from Heaven– Jesus Christ (John 4:10).  Jesus is the well which never runs dry, He is the fire hydrant that gushes forth forever. But for some whose hearts are bone dry, His presence is too much. And as much as they might need to drink deeply from the Water that quenches all thirst, they might only accept the water that comes in drips. So how can we share this Living Water without scaring them to death?

Pray that Jesus would reveal Himself to them.
Pray that Jesus would care for all their burdens, needs, and pains.
Pray that you would be the presence of Jesus when you are around them.

 

Like the sun, only God can make things grow, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility to help the situation.  So the next time you’re frustrated by someone who is unreceptive to The Gospel, ask yourself, have I done the work of a farmer?  If you have, then don’t worry. In the proper time God will make things grow.