EXERCISED STRENGTH

STRENGTH EXERCISED

Sunday, August 04, 2013
 

                Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father, who is in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, as in Heaven, so also on the earth.” Luke MKJV 11:2

Jesus explained “I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” John MKJV 6:38

The Apostle Peter, once upon a time anything but gentle, urged “… dedicate your lives to Christ as Lord. Always be ready to defend your confidence in God when anyone asks you to explain it. However, make your defense with gentleness and respect. Keep your conscience clear. Then those who treat the good Christian life you live with contempt will feel ashamed that they have ridiculed you. After all, if it is God's will, it's better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong.” (GW 1Pet.3:15-17)

  Arose this morning thinking I would continue rewriting and airing another DT from past STRENGTH series. Upon checking e-mail I read yet another sincere communication from Hal Toomer, different this time as he penned, other than a mild “you Bible thumpers”, without his usual combative style of name calling, ridiculing, changing the subject, or using crude profanity.

  So indeed I will write on strength again, but not in the vein I intended.

  Strength for the Christian is not realized by simply reading thru the Bible or attentively sitting in a Sunday pew, confirmation class, or Bible study. Strength for believers also requires 1Timothy 4:8 exercising; following the Word in His footsteps (Mt.10:34-39), and the Word written for our edification (2Tim.2:15-16; 3:16-17).

  Implementation in personal exercise is not so comfortable as pew, classroom chair, or my study room with garden view. The exercise of strength gained from hearing the Word involves heeding the Word embodied (Lk.22:42; Jn.1:1-14), the Word written (Isa.40:7-8; 2Tim.3:15-17) . . . otherwise when seriously challenged outside of comfort zone we too may do a John 6:66 walk away.

  Men such as Hal challenge our Christian sense and sensibility. It is his right. It is our privilege and responsibility to respond.

  Will you join with me in responding . . . or prefer comfort zone yours?

  Indeed there is step of Matthew 10:14 (A few already urge me to do so.), but not just yet.

  Read Hal’s letter shown below. If you decide to join me in exercise of response, please do so using [insertion] method. I’ll wait about a week or so for your input, then condense and compile, and then air our response to Hal.

  For today I offer to postal mail Hal the booklet that changed my thinking, 10 Reasons Why I Believe The Bible Is God’s Word. How about it Hal, are you up to the challenge to read it?

Sincerely,

Edwin Bennett Bullock 4^th

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  Any of you ever see the movie Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman?  In that movie the actor Strother Martin says the following line:  "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

  So do we, good God-fearing Christian friends of the DT Forum.  I think I am saying things that are rational and logical, but you seem not to understand me.  In response, you say things that are scriptural and I am clueless as to your meaning.  I think I understand what the reference in the scripture is about, but how it relates to what I said totally escapes me. 

For example, Ed said:

 

He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

 

  Here's what that Biblical passage says to me:  "If you do not believe in God you will be condemned."  I'm not sure exactly when a child reaches the age when they actually have to the power to believe or reject (as opposed to simply parroting what they have been told), but there is certainly an age before true belief is possible (surely at 3 years and below wouldn't it seem?  Although I think the age is higher.).  Are those children condemned (not my words) because they do not believe?  So I said in response:

 

“Anyone who dies in early childhood has never had the opportunity to believe or reject.  Either they are getting a dishonorably raw deal or an unfairly sweet deal.”

 

What I meant was (and what I thought was eminently rational and reasonable to say):  What happens to the children who die before they have the ability to believe?  

1.Either they are getting a dishonorably raw deal, meaning God condemns them because they do not believe (even though they have never been given the opportunity to believe).    

2.or an unfairly sweet deal, meaning they never have to go through the tribulations of life that the rest of us have to suffer that can try a person's faith in God.

In other words: the contest is rigged.  God cheats.  Some people (in this case young children) either (1) never have the opportunity to play the game by the same rules as the rest of us (they are automatically condemned) OR (2) they do not have to play by the same rules as the rest of us (they are automatically saved).  Does God have to play fair?  Perhaps not: his ball, his rules.  But that seems petty and unfair to me.  How is it possible to admire a Being like that?

 

Diane (NE) responds in the following manner

 

“Wow!  Hal must have had a sour childhood.  I can answer the infant death one his disheartening statement:  “Anyone who dies in early childhood has never had the opportunity to believe or reject.  Either they are getting a dishonorably raw deal or an unfairly sweet deal.”

  An infant is already known to God the Father in this scripture i.e. “His Sheep know His Voice”.  This includes in the womb.  You only need to read the story of Esau and Jacob (in the womb) to know that God knows who he will bring to Heaven:

  Even since conception, their conflict was foreshadowed: "And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger." Genesis 25:22-23 And:  Psalm 139:13 New International Version (NIV)For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I hope this helps!  JLove IN Christ, Diane (NE)”

 

  Sorry to disappoint you, Diane (NE), but I have lived a charmed life.  Perfect parents, decent standard of living, good health, exactly the marriage I needed to keep me on my toes and away from boredom or complacency, and a brain that is better than most people's.  I have traveled fairly extensively and seen a lot of the world.  (Unfortunately, no artistic talents to speak of.)

  Now, if I am understanding Diane (NE) correctly, it sounds like she is saying that because an infant is already known to God that that infant will be saved, which is my #2 option above.  Did I understand that right, Diane?  OK, let's assume that is correct.  So that infant that dies is saved.  Sweet deal for the infant, but raw deal for the rest of us who have to sweat and toil for the same reward.  I cry foul!  God is playing favorites.  Petty, God.  Very petty.

  Then Diane (NE) goes on to talk about Esau and Jacob.  I know the story, but how does that relate to my objection to Ed's original statement?  In fact, it sounds like Diane (NE) is digging God a deeper hole to crawl into:    "You only need to read the story of Esau and Jacob (in the womb) to know that God knows who he will bring to Heaven:"  This sounds like Esau and Jacob were predestined.  That means they had no control of their own destinies:  God decided what their lives would lead to even before they were born.  Where does free will enter into this picture?  Is Esau pre-condemned?

  And this brings us full circle to my basic complaint about you Bible thumpers.  You folks give every impression of having absolutely no ability to think critically.  If it's in the Bible you swallow it whole with no consideration for whether it makes any sense or not.  In fact, a lot of the Bible is self-contradictory.  But you don't see it.

  And I suspect that many of you have no inkling what the heck I'm talking about.  I might as well be speaking Martian.

  Darlene (NE) says: "If Hal has looked for God and not found Him, this is not proof enough for anyone, including Hal that God isn’t."  And other stuff.  Well, Darlene, although I do not believe in God, I can believe in the possibility of God.  The Deist God, perhaps.  But not the Judeo-Christian God.  That God needs a psychiatrist.  He has too many internal contradictions.  I don't see any way in which a God can be both loving and all-powerful.  He could be loving OR all-powerful, but not both.  A truly loving God would not sit back and allow innocents to suffer.  Unless he had no power to prevent it.  Or, if he had the power to prevent it, but does not prevent it, He can't be very loving.

  Forgetting all the people for just a moment, consider just the animals.  In the Garden of Eden, all the animals lived together in harmony.  Lambs had nothing to fear from lions.  But as soon as the humans (Adam & Eve) screwed up, God took it out on the animals, too.  Watch your backs, lambs.  Seems pretty immature to me.  

  What about Tay–Sachs disease?  Invented by God, not invented by Man, unless you want to trot out original sin.  Tay–Sachs is a pretty nasty fate suffered exclusively by children.  Sure, let's talk about original sin.  Babies, thousands of years after Adam are still being held accountable by God for something they had nothing to do with.  That God of yours is one nasty fellow.  Petty, mean, vindictive, cruel.

  Before A&E [Adam & Eve] screwed things up for the rest of us, was the universe that God created a perfect universe?  If so, then are you saying that when A&E sinned that God intentionally corrupted His own creation?  Did he have a temper tantrum or something?  Or are you saying that the act of sinning gave A&E some kind of super-human godlike powers to introduce all the pestilence into the world?  Or did Satan do that?  Did God give Satan godlike powers?  And, who created this Satan fellow, anyway?  Didn't God create Satan?  Seems like God kind of screwed up there, Himself, doesn't it?  God's all on A&E's case for their screw-up, but it seems like the creation of Satan was an even bigger screw-up ... and God did that.  Kind of a double standard.  God is talking out of both sides of His mouth:  do as I say; don't do as I do.

  And what of regret?  The Bible says that God had regret.  It's in the book of Exodus.  After leaving Egypt, God wanted Moses to punish some folks.  Kill them, I think.  (This from the Fellow Who had only a short while before said "Thou shalt not kill.")  Moses talked God out of it.  God relented.  He regretted his earlier decision to punish them.  Now, when I regret something I did, I'm pretty sure that always means I think I made a mistake.  Did God make a mistake???? 

  So, you see, Darlene (NE), I don't claim that I can prove that there is NO God.  I only claim I can prove that YOUR God doesn't exist.  He is a festering mass of self-contradiction.  He'd self-destruct like the collision of matter and anti-matter. 

Hal