Ecclesiastes

If you read the book of Ecclesiastes, it will tell you to enjoy life. Rather than telling you to accumulate material things so that you can enjoy life, it describes the emptiness of doing this. When Jesus calls on the rich man to give his wealth away, he is not being cruel. By accumulating wealth, the rich man has accumulated fear of losing it. If he found good places to give his wealth to others, he would be poor, but he would be happy. He would only have his needs met, not his wants, but that is all he had before. But now in addition, he has his need for love met as well.

To give your wealth where it is needed and only have what you need, this is not burdensome as long as you have Jesus to enjoy life with.

Romans 9:25-33 // Righteousness By Faith

As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. 26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; 33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. (Romans 9:25-33)

Jesus trips Jews up. Jews are offended by Jesus and Christianity, but if they believe on him, and some of them do, they would no longer be ashamed because the Hebrew Scriptures are not discarded but fulfilled in Jesus and Christianity. The Jews tried to obey the law by will power and multiplying rules, they were supposed to obey the law by faith. That is, to submit to the Spirit's leading and ask for the Father's mercy and meditate on the works of Jehovah as played out in the Hebrew Scriptures and not focus on their own sins or virtues but wait patiently for God to do a work in their hearts leading to righteousness. This is what the Gentiles, the Christians that is, have been doing; and they have obtained the righteousness that the Jews failed to obtain. Christians have mostly fallen away from this into antinomianism (doing away with the law) however.

Sometimes it is hard to know in detail what God's law teaches, but to major in majors: to focus on the points his word teaches us to focus on, this is a good place to start.

Love and War

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. (James 3:17)

The desire to fight and win comes from Satan, the wisdom to love comes from God.

Romans 9:19-24 // Predestination and Theodicy

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (Romans 9:19-24)

The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. (Proverbs 16:4)

So here I am, muddling through the parts of the Bible that most strongly seem to support predestination.  It is not because of Romans that I am skeptical of predestination, but because of the rest of the Bible. I am also familiar with another text that I have used to teach predestination, which I have pasted above. So why don't I believe in predestination? Well, I sort of do. I believe in a kind of predestination, but not a kind where God actively chooses some to be lost. Maybe nobody teaches that, I hope they don't. But that is the distinct impression I have got from people and it is also the impression that these texts give. I want to show that the latter of these impressions is untrue.

So the fact that God hardens some people, that could make us feel like we can blame God for our sin and justify ourselves. Paul is not saying this is valid, he is only anticipating this objection to his teachings. Paul meets it interestingly, he breaks from logic for the first time in this book, and goes to dogma, though it is logical dogma. Paul says we should not question God, and hammers that point home. This is very good advice. If God is really all-powerful, all-loving and all-wise, it is just dumb to question him, since we are none of these things. So Paul doesn't address predestination here, he basically says we shouldn't question God on the subject.

So Paul could have replied, God is not unjust because the wicked chose to be wicked before God hardened them and God simply knew this would be the case beforehand, he did not choose it for them.

But sinners who are going to be lost because they will always refuse to be converted are least damaging to God if they are really obviously his enemies. The man who uses profanities and gets drunk every day is less of a threat to God's reputation than the charismatic pastor who teaches lies or is a hypocrite. Likewise sin operating to the full will fill us with a hatred of sin that we would not have without seeing the consequences of it. Without evil consequences of divorce we would not understand why God says he hates divorce. Without evil consequences of oppression we would simply call it good business practice. Well, maybe we do call it that. There are many sins that our society does not see as sinful because the consequences are hidden or compensated by wealth, technology, government and probably other things as well.

God does not choose some to be lost. God does not force anyone to choose him or to reject him. God chooses to save everyone and some choose to avail themselves of this salvation. God is love.

God will pay the wicked back for the wrong they have done to us. God will not let the evil of the wicked be in vain, he will make it an illustration that will help eradicate sin from the universe forever. God's ways are just.

Arguing On The Internet

It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling. (Proverbs 20:3)

It is right to stand for truth and justice and to speak for those who cannot. But in doing this we ought to be circumspect, considering whether we are really contributing to the solution or to the problem.

Blessing of the Words

May your words be the kind that you can acknowledge with joy in front of God and all humanity.

Romans 9:14-18 // God Hardened Pharaoh's Heart

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. (Romans 9:14-18)

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us- ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

This part of Romans is where it starts getting really troubling for me, because I used to believe and to teach that this means God chooses some to be saved and some to be lost. That is still the way it seems to read for me, but it cannot mean this because the scripture cannot be broken and 2 Peter 3:9 makes it clear that God's will is to save everybody. So what is Paul talking about?

Verse 16 seems to summarise the point of this passage. God's will is supreme. But what does he mean when he says he has mercy on who he decides to and hardens who he decides to?

This whole chapter is about the fact that the Jews are not God's people any more. The fact that they are descended from Abraham does not make them the subjects of the promises made to him, because the Arabs are also his descendants but not subjects of the promises. The Jews like to think that they are God's special people, so do the Muslims, so do Christians, does God allow every religion that claim it to be his genuine true people on Earth? Of course not! Only one group can represent God perfectly.

God can choose his own criteria for the people he will call his own. He is not bound by genetic descent, or the desire of religious leaders, or apostolic succession; that means he can show mercy to gentiles or Jews, which is the point of this book. On the other hand, just as God can decide who can be his representative, he can also decide who can be the Devil's representative.

Pharaoh is a good example, people wax verbose in criticism of God for "hardening Pharaoh's heart" as is mentioned in this passage. But let me ask you: Did Pharaoh initially want to let them go, or initially refuse?

And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. 2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. (Exodus 5:1-2)

Pharaoh refused for the reason that he did not acknowledge Jehovah (or his existence we may say?) as a god to be obeyed. It was not until much later that God hardened Pharaoh, strengthening his resolve, so that God would be able to show the Egyptians how powerful he was, helping them to be saved as well.

God chose to harden one who did not believe, God chooses to have mercy on those who do believe. Paul and Peter do not disagree, God does not force anyone to be lost, he is doing his best to save those who will let him. But believe me, you don't want to be like Pharaoh.

Romans 9:10-13 // Favouritism and God

And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (Romans 9:10-13)

Paul is really getting enthusiastic here, and as usual when our friends are getting hyped up, we sit back and think, what is he thinking?

What Paul writes is true, he is writing under inspiration. But to base infant baptism, predestination and cheap grace on this text would be extremely premature (no pun intended).

God knew what Jacob and Esau would be like, he knew they would both be rotten in their own way. But he knew who would repent and put his trust in him (Romans 8:29) and chose him rather than Esau. The point Paul is making is that Jacob was declared righteous (sort of) before he was even born, proving that you don't need to do anything to be declared righteous. So the point is that salvation is not earned, it is given by God. God knows who will accept this gift, but this is not the point (indeed, it is completely useless speculation to debate predestination) the point is that the gift is not conditional on deeds, because no deeds were done when God already showed favour to Jacob.

This is why God can declare me righteous now. I am not truly righteous in my behaviour, but God is going to get me there. As a baby, Jacob was not truly righteous but God knew he was going to get there just like me. To be learning from Jesus, submitting, is to be on the path to righteous behaviour, to be on that path is to be declared righteous, and saved. Amen.

It is interesting that Paul says the unborn children had done no good or evil yet. This text blows the so-called doctrine of Original Sin out of the water, God's word has declared that unborn children have done no evil. They have not even done evil through their parents or ancestors. Unborn children have done neither good works nor sin, they have nothing to repent of, nothing to be saved from. The soul that sinneth it shall die. It is once we personally sin that we need a saviour, and personally sin we have, to our shame and discredit.

Romans 9:6-9 // Racism, Jingoism and God

Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. (Romans 9:6-9)

Simply by reading the news you wouldn't know it, but an enormous issue in the debate about Israel and Palestine is that a huge number of Americans believe that the Jews, or the Israelis, are the people of God and are subjects of the promises made to ancient Israel and Judah. The theory is that the United States must retain God's favour by supporting Israel in every way, under any conditions. I am not against Israel any more than I am against Lithuania or Congo, but is the nation of Israel really heir to the promises of God?

This passage shows clearly, that nationality and ethnicity are not important to God. Said another way: God is not a jingoist, God is not a racist. God makes promises, and he acts according to those promises. In this instance the promise involved Sarah, and so must the fulfilment, so Isaac was the ancestor of the Jews not Ishmael. More about that another time.

Paul is giving a lengthy explanation on who the people of God really are because most Jews were lost; and still are. He is explaining that God has not broken his promise by not saving the Jews, he never promised them unconditional salvation, it is because they have not kept their side of the bargain.

For those of us living in the West, it is very easy to demonise the Arab world, Russia and China, but God is not into that stuff. God wants everyone to be saved, and we ought to be doing our best to spread this gospel through the whole world without spreading western culture and politics in the process.

Romans 9:1-5 // Reaching Loved Ones

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5)

Paul has so great a burden for his own Israelite people that he would be willing to give up his own salvation for them.

Here is a love that I have trouble relating to.

Despite Paul's "burden" he was not called by God to work among these people, but rather to reach the Gentiles.

Sometimes the people we love most are the hardest to reach, the hardest to be patient with and persuade. Reach out to somebody else's loved one, and pray that somebody will reach yours.

Law and Order come to Church

I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. 10 Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. (3 John 1:9-10)

This passage is a helpful one, because it makes a number of things clear.

1) There are men in the church who are ambitious and/or rebellious, and not trustworthy.
2) There are men in the church who are supposed to keep other church leaders accountable.
3) There are people who are spiritual brothers in Christ that are not members of the visibly organised church.
4) There are people who have been disciplined by the church who were in the right.
5) Despite all this, there is not condemnation of organisation in the church.

Let all things be done decently and in order. (1 Corinthians 14:40)

Romans 8:37-39 // More Than Conquerers

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)

In all the trials that come our way we are more than conquerers. A conquerer was one who won a campaign, this would probably require him to not only win several battles but also take a city, which always took a lot of patience, cunning and sacrifice. A conquerer was highly honoured in ancient Rome. There would be a big parade on the streets to honour him and he would be allowed to build a monument to show future generations that he was a conquerer. What is more than a conquerer?

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. (Proverbs 16:32)

There is no military feat that makes a man greater than a conquerer, but to be slow to anger and to have your attitude (spirit) under control makes a man greater than a conquerer. Jesus is the one that makes us greater than conquerers. I know Paul may have just meant to emphasise that we can overcome our trials, but I think the parallel here is interesting.

We can be slow to anger, we can control our attitude, we can endure every challenge because nothing can ever separate us from Jesus and his love for us.

A final note. For most of my life I dreamed of military glory, of wounding and being wounded for my country. These dreams cannot be fulfilled in the armed forces, but only by exercising self-control in a crisis for my heavenly country. Only Jesus has the fulfilment of my dreams, only Jesus can fulfil yours.

Why not let him start preparing you to fulfil your dreams by accepting him into your heart right now?