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About Me
- SelahV
- I NOW blog daily @ TYPEPAD. I have several blogs that I try to maintain, including the ones below. As a simplified introduction of myself, I am a baptized believer of Jesus Christ. Married to a Southern Baptist minister who pastored in the South for 23 years, having been called to preach from a Southern Baptist church in New England. I began writing as a child. Am published in various Southern Baptist magazines; Methodist devotionals, Country Woman, etc. Enough about me. Come on by and let's talk about you. SelahV
6 comments:
Selah,
Christ said, "This is eternal life (salvation if you will), that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." (John 17:3)
Grace to you sister,
PTL
PTL: been thinking alot about what you said yesterday on the other question of Calvin and beheadings and why you call yourself a Sovereigntist. I totally understand where you are coming from in light of Calvinistic roots. So if I understand Founders correctly, are they Calvin-rooted or Reformed without Calvin? I'm gonna have to go to seminary to understand all this, I'm afraid.
Dr. Ascol answered a question for me yesterday and I must have asked the wrong question of him because I surely didn't think the answer I got was one which would naturally follow my question. So I rephrased and started with another question. He did explain to me that in order to answer my question, he first needed me to understand that there were six ways of looking at it and six ways of answering it and so NOW at least I am beginning to understand why I can't get simple answers to what I think are simple questions. Maybe I am more complex than my husband says I am.
Oh well, what did I ask you in this post? Just realized I was rambling on. But since it is MY blog, I can do that. And since you are kind enough to give me a few moments every now and then, I figure I can take a few liberties to background my thinking. You may not be familiar with Founders theology, but I thought you might know. Another thought will follow on your post here. Don't want to confuse it. selahV
PTL: I agree with your verse entirely. Eternal life is knowing the true God. Chapter 17 of John may very well be my most favorite passage in the Bible. I think perhaps because according to my "red-letter" edition, Jesus said it ALL but the introduction to His Prayers.
Don't you wish John had video and audio and multimedia back then? I'd love to hear every tone and rise and fall of Christ's voice with it. I'd love to see Him pointing to His disciples and then to the believers at large when He spoke.
Verse 20 is what has always grabbed me. "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message." That's me He prayed for. ME!
That is so profound. Their message. His disciples. The ones who would go on and proclaim Who Jesus was. The ones who would bear witness to His words and deeds. The ones who would falter, reject, stumble. These Jesus knew would bring Him to others via their testimonies of actually being with the Master of Masters. The King of Kings.
And here we sit, pecking out ideas, and discussing what one really means by what seems to be so simple: Jesus having full authority granted over all people that He might give eternal life to all those God the Father had given Him. "Now, this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, AND Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." vs 3.
How do we, dear brother PTL, share this simple truth to an uneducated, person without seminary training in the doctrines of theology? How do I share this? How do I, a simple lay-woman, explain to several people who are asking me that eternal life is just what Jesus said it is? That Calvinism, Arminianism, and whatever-ism (that teaches Jesus is Lord of all and sent from the One true God to attone for their sins) are just vehicles to ride in on their trip to heaven. I don't think there is on this earth, one human-thought-produced theology that can explain all the mysteries of God. And no matter which vehicle you get on, they will have passengers with them in that vehicle that see the trip from entirely different perspectives.
How does a Reformed Church accept or receive "enlightened" followers of Jesus Christ? How does the Arminian get off the Arminian bus and get on the Calvinist bus? How does a born-again Bible-believing person like myself get a ticket to ride their bus? Those are my questions. Not whether the bus is the bus to my eternal destination.
Whew...I think I should have made this a blog question. selahV
Selah,
I can't imagine the enthrallment of sitting at Christ's feet - but, by the Grace of God, I hope to experience that some day. :)
I've come to believe that it is not my duty or obligation to try to get others to believe the way I do. That's God's job. I can only express why I believe what I believe and let the chips fall where they may. I think most of the antagonism between Christians in the blog-world revolves around us being so arrogant as to think that we've got it all figured out and anyone who disagrees is demon-possessed and heading straight for hell.
I am quite comfortable resting in the assurance that God knows exactly where each of us are in our walk and that He's quite big enough to accomplish His will in spite of our juvenile rantings.
I think maybe that's the best part about being a 'sovereigntist' - that I'm 100% confident that God is in complete control and that He's going to work it out how He wants it worked out in spite of me or anybody else. Every beat of my heart is a miraculous gift from God.
To your question about the Founders and Dr. Ascol, I do believe there is a difference between 'formal Calvanism' and 'contemporary Calvanism', but I'm not quite sure what it is. I think maybe that 'formal Calvanism' would adhere to the 'sufficient/efficient' doctrine of the atonement, but not sure.
PS - Reading someone's rambling about the incomprehensible Goodness of God is MUCH more pleasant than reading someone's rant about another Christian.
grace to you sister,
PTL
PTL: It has been good to be in the presence of God tonite. Thank you for coming by. I will be posting other questions and want you to be assured your input would be most welcome on any of them. selahV
Just a short note,
I want to say that I appreciate your writings and your sincere search for clarity on the doctrines of Grace. I have been wrestling with them for some time now and have become convinced of the reality and depth of them. I encourage you to continue your studies and enjoy the abundance of grace.
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