Posted: September 17th, 2009 | Author: James Duncan | Tags: Evangelism, Sovereignty | 24 Comments »
Oftentimes when NewSpring marks important spiritual moments like salvations and baptisms, its members and ministers celebrate publicly by announcing that they’re running up the score against the devil, as Noble did recently and Cooper did last night. Three questions:
If someone dies without being saved by Christ, who has scored?
Does it mean that God lost, however briefly?
Who’s ahead on the souls scoreboard right now?
UPDATE: Commentator Shane had the best answer:
The scoreboard is down. The drinks are put away. The bases are picked up. It is finished (I think my Jesus said that). He wins. Done and Done.
Posted: August 24th, 2009 | Author: James Duncan | Tags: Obama, Sovereignty | Comments Off
A couple of weeks ago we noted how a local minister was thinking that we could use our technology to help God out with his kingdom building. Now the same kind of thinking has reached all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Last week, President Obama told a group of rabbis, “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death.” Besides being a devastating way to refute Sarah Palin’s death panels argument (that’s sarcasm, Albert), it prompted this fine bit of theologizing from Andrew Klavan.
I would like to make a subtle theological point: No, we’re not. For those of you who aren’t versed in the finer points of theology, let me try to simplify that for you: No. We’re not. Or to put it even more simply: No. We. Are. Not.
…When God tells Jeremiah (1:5), “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,” or when he sarcastically asks Job (38:17), “Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?” does that sound to you like a guy discussing matters with his partners? To me, God really seems to be suggesting there that we humans know sweet suffering goose-egg about the greater mysteries of life and death. Indeed, he seems to feel that the understanding of those mysteries is reserved for him alone and their disposition in his sole power. It’s possible, if properly understood, he might include even Barack Obama in his list of people whose partnership he is not soliciting in these matters.
Well. Said.
HT: Instapundit.