Underground Exiles

I swear if I see this bumper sticker one more time, I’m going to scream at the owner of the car - not because I disagree with the sentiment, but because it shows how much of the public lacks a basic knowledge of the English language - besides being intellectually dishonest.

I actually got an invitation today to join the COEXIST group on Facebook; so that is what led to the on-coming rant.  Here’s a description of the group from their profile:

This group is here because there is too much intolerance and blind hatred in the world. Too often do we let our cultural, political, and religious differences separate us. We are all members of one race, humans, and we’re all on this planet together. It’s about time we started learning to be more accepting of others, because the planet isn’t getting any bigger. Everyone has a right to believe whatever they will, and all welcome to share it.

I should point out that the folks joining the Facebook group and driving the bumper stickers around, that this is how “coexist” is defined by Merriam-Webster:

to exist together or at the same time.

Do I really need to point out that we already coexist, or is it as obvious as I think it is?  Furthermore, the mentality behind the sentiment is nothing more than a fuzzy feeling version of the old mantra that truth is relative, and there are many paths to God. (Cue Oprah theme-song here.)

So, what do we do when my truth says your truth is wrong?  Can we both possibly be right?  Or is it more likely that there can’t possibly be two contradictory truths - that my sister can’t be a mother and simultaneously not a mother at the same time?

My advice to those of you that are thirsty for spiritual truth or spiritual things would be this: even if you’re thirsty, don’t take a tall drink of toilet water.

Now that we’ve covered the necessary background to understanding salvation itself, we can move on to understanding what eternal security is, and defending the doctrine from its critics.

Before I go any further, there is a question that I think need to be answered, and then we’re going to plow into a few texts.

• Can true believers ever lose their faith completely?

This needs to be addressed.  Is continual faith through out ones life a necessary indication that one is truly “saved”?  To put the question another way, can one be a true believer and lose his faith?

My answer is categorically “no”; there are no conditions of any kind on our eternal security.  Salvation is an unconditional gift, according to Romans 11.29, and while continued faith and its fruit of good works is a manifestation of true faith, it is not a condition of it.

That being the case, then, what are the arguments for eternal security?  (I intend to answer the arguments against in a subsequent post.)  The Bible is absolutely full of affirmations that salvation can never be lost, and I’m just going to give you a sampling of these texts without attempting to be exhaustive.

Read more…

More likely than not, this post is going to get me in trouble with the elders in charge of H20, as well as an ex-girlfriend, and various other groups of people.

I was recently told that if I would just be a little more meek, my sermons would go down easier. A couple of weeks before that, I was given practically the same advice.

I was raised Southern Baptist, with this image of

“gentle Jesus, meek and mild,”

to quote the old hymn by Charles Wesley. Then I grew up and read the New Testament for myself, and it seemed like Jesus really enjoyed screwing with religious people.

Read more…

Here’s God’s providential timing for you:

Last night I posted about really needing an empowering work of grace in my life. I feel like my struggle with anger and arrogance is sin; there’s no other way to put it.

This evening when I got home from the job, I had a delivery waiting for me. Unbeknown to me, a buddy had ordered a copy of The Mortification of Sin by John Owen for me. At the moment I’m struggling, a friend that has no clue what I’m dealing with sends me a book about murdering my sin.

Then I’m trying to stay up to date on the other blogs I like by way of my feedreader, and I found this post, by Dr. John Piper.

I’m beginning to suspect that God is trying to get my attention.

I really would appreciate ya’ll praying about this, because I think it’s important.

It’s come to my attention, again, that my passion comes across as anger. I freely admit that for the majority of my life I’ve been a pretty angry guy. I’ve been described more than once as being emotionally closed off; personally, I’d disagree, not because it isn’t accurate, but because it doesn’t even scratch the surface.

There is one emotion, and just one, that I can tap at will. It’s anger. I freely confess that I’ve been an angry, angry guy for the majority of my life. It’s extraordinarily hard for me to contact any emotion other than pure, unadulterated rage. Because of this, I bleed anger, even when I’m not angry.

Five years in the US Army didn’t make any of it better, it just makes it worse. It added an arrogance to my personality that isn’t winsome or appealing at all. Now, what you get when you talk to me, despite a lot of work on my part, is angry arrogance.

Read more…