RESIST SOCIETY'S "DEFRAGGING" OF GOD

God does not need to be compacted, or even re-organized to gain efficiency. Yet, that's what modern man is always doing. In some way God is portrayed as either taking up too much of our limited space, or not moving properly through that space. And so it "defrags" God into a form that will better serve us. It is thought that the God of the Scriptures needs some kind of overhaul to be better adapted to a society on the fast track that has downloaded too much of itself and no longer has room for what Francis Schaeffer called true truth.

WHEN BELIEVERS SERVE SATAN

One of the most difficult realities for me to come to grips with in the Christian life is the reality that Satan will spill my "soul's blood" using other believers to do it. In general, it is easy for me to say (i.e. the tally isn't even close) that I have suffered emotionally and spiritually more at the hands of believers than I ever experienced from unbelievers. Most of them may be ignorant and apathetic ("I don't know & I don't care"), but they rarely cut me to the heart.

Little did I realize when I began my walk with the Lord as a teenager decades ago that most of the "flesh and blood" realities of Ephesians 6:12 would be from other believers.

Do I sound a little jaded? Well, I am! I just returned from one of the most disillusioning experiences of my life. My cynical flesh reminds me that I should have anticipated this, but I didn't. I was thoroughly blindsided, and I'm still reeling from it and embarrassed for others.

I don't "suffer fools" well, so I have an even greater difficulty forgiving them. I find it easier to forgive immorality than I do stupidity, but my course is clear. My flesh wants to ridicule them, give them a piece of my mind, and warn my flock, but my heart knows its duty. If the Lord has bid them "Be dumb!" I must give way.

ISLAM'S VS. CALVIN'S PREDESTINATION

1. ONLY A SURFACE SIMILARITY

One of the features of Islam, whether one agrees with it or disagrees with it, is that it presents Allah as a god whose great power brought forth all things. That he is the ruler of the universe whose will all things must obey. Samuel Zwemer called Islam the “Calvinism of the orient. But do Islam and Calvin agree on the nature of predestination?

2. DIFFERENCES

In Islam, second causes are practically ignored. It finds no place for the uncoerced activity of the human will. Allah‘s will, like fatalism, is not merely an inevitable necessity, but implies an arbitrary automatic control over human wills, an unchangeable pathway each person will walk, a control-over-but-no-involvement in human affairs, and a capricious mood-driven unpredictability. It is a predestination of ends with little-to-no regard for ways and means or purpose

“A ship crowded with Christians and Muslims was ploughing through the waves. One of the passengers fell overboard. The Muslims said, ‘if it is written in the book of destiny that he shall be saved, he will be saved. If not, he will perish.’ The Christians said, ‘perhaps it is written that we should save him?’”

Many of the terms may be the same, the results of their reasonings are far apart. The further one probes each doctrine, the more superficial does the resemblance become. Islam reduces Allah to a category of will and makes him similar to an oriental despot, whose stance toward humanity is remote and uncaring. Submission is not just the ultimate issue, but the only issue. The Islamic god can be held to no standard, even one dictated by consistency to his own being.

Zanchius wrote that Islam’s kind of predestination is a sort of blind, rapid, overbearing impetus which, right or wrong, with means or without, carries all things violently before it, with little or no attention to the peculiar and respective nature of second causes.

In Islam, there is no understanding of the Fatherhood of God and no purpose of redemption to soften decrees and give them focus for the benefit of humanity. The attribute of love is absent from Allah. And the notion of a personal relationship between God and man is a strange, blasphemous idea to a Muslim.

But, due to Redemption and the Fatherhood of God – religion clothed in the warmth of relationship - Christianity affirms that the sovereign, predestinating God has an awesome cosmic power that is guided by wisdom, compatible with human agency, has Trinitarian connectedness, and is directed toward destruction for rebels joy-overflowing for the redeemed!

PREDESTINATION IN ISLAM

HALLOWEEN IS NOW A SEASON

I grew up having Christmas exploited by Mdison Avenue as a "season." And, somewhere in my early days, Easter morphed into a "season." But because each of these had some association with "religious" thinking, however distorted, I guess it just seemed natural to my boyish thinking.

But now the "money muse" wants me to accept Halloween as a "season." I look forward to Easter; I barely tolerate Christmas, but can I bend so far as to look the other way when the minions of hell, superstition, and therapeutic scare are given their own "season," too?

What has the spirit of the age done to Reformation Day? Why isn't it a "season? How can the Church bear to see a recovery of such religious significance buried underneath costumes, candy, and haunted houses? How the mighty have fallen! How Belagosi has thrived!

WHEN WAR IS THE ANSWER

The beleaguered economy is down-sizing, or at least running "lean and mean," to try and weather our current economic mangling. "Fat," in the form of expendable jobs, overtime, benefits, insurance, over-inflated pay-scales, gratuitous bonuses, over-multiplied middle management, etc., are either being eliminated or diminished.

As usual, the "establishment's ways of dealing with its systemic problems are ruthless, unfair, and not a little self-serving, but my purpose here is not to comment on earth-dweller morality.

The business scramble to stay alive reminds me of the situation of the Church here in the West. We're too comfortable and too fat. After decades of pampering ourselves by ignoring biblically supported priorities in favor of some baptized form of the American Dream, we've life-styled ourselves right out of the only pursuit in life – glorifying the Lord.

The Lord will still get His glory and will still achieve His objectives – a perk of sovereignty. We are the losers – "fiddling while Rome burns," so to speak.

Do I have any suggestion? Yes! One in general: "Trim the Fat." I was tempted to say: "Self-Denial," but that's too big a jump for us. We're too flabby and out of shape, myself included. Trimming the fat seems like a do-able compromise. We've turned the Christian life from one of combat, with its "ripped" warriors, seasoned sages, servant leaders, inviolable codes, and heroic sacrifices into that of pageantry, with its pomp, costumes, garish norms, and hero worship. Re-tooling for war is the only answer!

SNAKES AND STONES

In illustrating how good God the Father is to His children, Jesus gave an example of an earthly father who, though being evil, would not think about giving his son a rock if he asked for bread, or giving him a snake if he asked for a fish. The logical connection is that if evil people act benevolently towards their own children, then God, Who is all good, will take care of His children all the more so.

But what if God's children DO ask for a snake or a stone? Would a the "good father" model have Him give these? No! The good father paradigm would prevent Him from so doing. Aren't you glad?

When the Bible asserts that God answers prayer, you shouldn't understand that as if there were no content conditions assumed. A good father would never categorically promise his children to give them anything they asked for - Higher Life teaching notwithstanding.

COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM

Our Christian tolerance should not encourage us to deviate, in our recreations or diversions, from the principles of God's Word. There we read that the desires of the flesh, and of the eyes, and of the pride of life, constitute the "spirit" of the world, its way of pandering to the unsaved mindset, which stands in direct opposition to His grace. Those who do not perceive this opposition to many of this world's usual pursuits and pleasures are some way or another defective in their views of the gospel.

That Christianity which does not engage the whole heart for the Lord is Christianity in name only. The new nature and the old nature each have their proper nourishment, suited to their respective appetites. Natural life that has undergone little to no worldview change feeds the natural man. Sanctified pursuits feed the spiritual man.

The best that can be said of those who undiscerningly involve themselves in the past-times of earth-dwellers is that, if they are not entirely dead, they are at least lamentably sick. They either have never had a savor of divine things, or have forgotten their sweetness. Parents, teens, young adults – all who associate yourselves in any way with Jesus Christ – our lives must be lived on a different plane from this world. Our diversions must have godly point. Give yourselves no rest until the entire life has been brought under the Lordship of Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord!

THE ETERNAL GOD IS THY REFUGE - DEUT 33:27

"...the word rendered 'refuge' signifies more generally a habitation: or, as we say, a home. The eternal God is the believer's dwelling place. This dwelling place I consider in two respects: First -- a hiding place; and this like-wise two-fold, -- a sanctuary from guilt and punishment, and a castle or place of security from enemies. Second, -- a resting place, where provision is made for every want, and such satisfaction is enjoyed as the world cannot afford...a believer, like a snail, go where he will, has his house with him and is always at home, because he dwells in God." -- John Newton