Theology

Someone once noted, “A savior that is less than God is a savior incapable of saving.” It is understating the matter to say that if our Lord Jesus was not God incarnate He was unqualified to be savior of the world. Only God has the power, the capacity to save. Did God create the Son and send Him on the Father's behalf to redeem us? Could a finite being, no matter how powerful, redeem every person throughout all of time? And what of the numerous passages in the Old Testament where God reminds Israel (and through them all of mankind) that He alone is Savior, and beside Him there is no other? Did He change His mind, or was He mistaken? Was God unwilling to come to this earth and do what He promised in Scripture? If God did not come through the incarnation to partake of human misery and redeem us from our own sins personally, then we must conclude that He delegated another to do this for Him, who vicariously accomplished the task. In essence, God is still unknowable and remote, never having entered our world, and apparently desirous not to.

God, Free-Will, and Sin Part 2

God was not caught unaware by sin's development in our first parents. He was not shocked. The Bible plainly states that God made provision for our rebellion and sin by erecting the cross of Jesus Christ before the world was formed, Revelation 13:8; Titus 1:2; Ephesians 1:4. God selected the Jews as a people through Abraham because He needed a people by whom Christ would come according to the flesh, Romans 9:5. He placed the Roman Empire as the head of the known world so that when the time came, Jesus would die the death that had been predicted for Him, John 12:32-33; Deuteronomy 21:23. If evil exists, why has God done nothing about it? The very real fact is that He has. He came in the person of Christ to abolish sin and death, and bring life and immortality through the gospel. The sins of the Old Testament saints were overlooked before the cross, because God looked ahead to the consummation of His payment for their sins, Romans 3:25. The sins of New Testament saints are forgiven in Christ, who is our satisfactory payment, and already suffered the punishment our sins deserve, 1st John 2:2. Christ is the solution for a hurting world, but the world at large rejects the solution God offers and strives for its own, all the while being very liberal in their blame of God for the reality of evil in this world. This is a hypocritical stance, and a poor method to resolve the reality of evil and suffering. Instead of accepting God's explanation for our current state we dismiss Him as though He does not exist. But now the atheist has no moral grounds to stand on. Without the reality of God, good and evil fall completely into the realm of subjectivity. There is no authority to set standards with which to measure either. God was the ground for absolute moral truth; without Him we can have opinions about what we prefer, but we cannot declare anything “good” or “evil” any longer. What is good to someone is evil to another, so now we are reduced to personal preference. If it works for you, do it: the ultimate pragmatic philosophy. But don't do it if it is detrimental to me, because I wouldn't like it!

God, Free-Will, and Sin

Why this world? Why is there evil? Why do the wicked prosper?

These questions and more abound in the modern mind and in the minds of men since time immemorial. One of the simplest, most fundamental questions that can be asked deals with the idea of the reality we live out day by day. If God—that is, the Judeo-Christian God—exists, why too does evil exist? Why is there a physical and spiritual hardship across the globe, even among those who claim to be children of God? This Post is not meant to be an exhaustive treatment on the topic of evil; far from it. I merely wish to convey to the reader something to contemplate when hardship arises, and we look for answers. For more biblical study I would suggest Psalm 73, the Book of Job, Habakkuk, and Ecclesiastes. Though Ecclesiastes does not deal with the exact question, Solomon explores the idea of “life under the sun” and how pointless such a life is.

Genesis Chapter Five

5:1 the book of the generations of AdamThere are proponents who suggest that Genesis was transcribed by numerous ancient authors, beginning here with Adam. Though Moses wrote the book of Genesis, this theory suggests that he merely compiled the books of the various genealogies, having received them from his kinsmen, the Jews. The outcome then was the complete book of Genesis as recorded by its various authors as they lived through the passages described. Accordingly, proponents for this theory point out that Moses is never directly attributed as the author of Genesis in the New Testament. The second theory is divine revelation; that God on Mount Sinai revealed to His servant Moses not only the four books of the Law, but the foundation those books rested on with this book of beginnings. While the idea of numerous genealogies passed down from antiquity is possible, the passages that state, “the generations of” may merely draw the reader’s attention to the fact that the people spoken of in Genesis’s narrative are transitioning.