Salvation

MINDSETS

I hate religious labels.

We are confronted with thousands of decisions every day... And over time we have grown efficient at making these decisions in order to adapt, to survive and thrive.  Our brains are wired this way, we create shortcuts based on the knowledge we've gathered to make daily decisions.  Some people are more systematic, others more impulsive, but either way, our brains compute in a certain manner to fill the gaps in the information. These quick fills create what we call biases, stereotypes and even mindsets… critical judgments based on patterns, expectations etc.. Whatever have you.  Sometimes we group certain peices of information together to form those baises, sterotypes and mindsets which we rely on time and time again unless we allow new information to regroup those thoughts.  In a way, it is a necessary mechanism to thrive in life.  The problem is that we fail to recognize that with so many different minds, experience pools and interpretations, these biases and mindsets dominate our decision making, leading to incorrect decisions on a daily basis.  So in terms of religious labels, when you declare yourself one or the other, a certain mindset takes place for most people.  For a Christian religion that stands for love, peace, and grace we hope those initial associations are positive but this is not always so.  Information is grouped and labeled to a certain brand/description.  A Baptist, a Presbyterian... a Calvinist, and Arminian... a charismatic and fundamentalist.  And without healthy and open-minded discourse, the brands/description and what it stands/what we think it stands for bring up certain points of contention, sometimes immediately.

Don’t get me wrong, I love knowing what I believe in... It is VERY important to seek truth and understand the "labels".  Many times, there IS a right and wrong, a black and white so to speak, especially when you drill down.  But as imperfect people with imperfect minds, people who make incorrect critical judgments daily, I believe we must understand how to use truth, prioritize information and spread/communicate that gospel effectively and lovingly.

PREDESTINATION

Ever since I started following Christ, natural questions always arose in my mind.  And I was hungry to know if a satisfying answer existed.  One of the big ones from a theology standpoint was the issue of predestination and salvation.  I read up on it, search the scriptures, and reasoned in my mind what made the most sense based on the information I had.  I reviewed the different sides and ultimately decided (time to label here) that Calvinist theology seemed the most BIBLICAL (not necessarily the most logical or made the most sense from an blank presupposition point... if such a thing exists).  I mean, Paul, the most influential author of the new testament HAS to be a Calvinist right? (besides the fact the he precedes the theologian the theory is named after) How can you read Romans 7-11 unbaisly and assume anything else?  Right?

However, ultimately I decided this... for some it may be very important to clearly be on one side of the fence or another... but to me it isnt...  the education of election vs free and salvation will usually help to STRENGTHEN ones faith but during the course of  debate and discourse of predestination, there exists potential to create a dangerous environment of conflict due to our human nature and sinfulness. 

Getting into it further, when you drill down the two theologies, I feel as though there still remains a huge element of mystery as to the true character, decisions, and orchestration of God that we cannot know for sure in this lifetime.  Calvinist say that due to total depravity and sin nature, we do not partake in the salvation process... we have nothing notably positive to bring forth to the table.  Salvation cannot be incumbent upon our free and righteous decision, even if it makes up only 1% of the picture.  Jesus's atonement once and for all completes salvation for the elect.  He does not merely create a MEANS... or a criteria of salvation through faith in which we are free to choose... The blue pill or the red pill so to speak. Our faith is given to us through sovereign ordination.

If you drill down further, regardless of the timeline of God's decision to elect and reprobate (supra vs infralapsarianism) you get to the individuals perspective and the issue of foreknowledge and foreordination.  If God knows how we are to respond to the Gospel and his election is based on our response, does that defile, or make less valid saving Grace and the work of the cross?  Or if God foreORDAINS our response (in effect, pre-deciding our salvation) to the gospel (whether it is presented to us or not) does that rob us of our choice and determination, and therefore becomes predestination anyway?  Does one have to truly contradict the other because logic disallows the cohesion and possibility of both at the same time?  I don’t really know if the mystery of Gods omnipotence and the inner workings of how he orchestrates his beautiful redemption story is meant to be cracked in this lifetime.  Is it foreknowledge or foreordination? Within the realm of our existence do we truly exercise free will or are we not autonomous to make decisions ultimately because God is the divine orchestrator and predetermines our salvation response through some sort of mysterious intervention or regeneration?  I get how one logically contradicts the other... or that if God pre-elected salvation and reprobated most even before existence or sin (from the perspective foreknowledged individual yet to be born) that it seems unjust.  Does original sin (however you understand it to be) truly justify supralapsarianism?  It is easy to see why these are points of contentions and sources of disagreement... but perhaps we aren’t truly meant to know the mysteries of His orchestration in this lifetime.  We can always use the basis of scripture but in the end the gaps have to be filled with an element of human logic, understanding or explanation... which is truly divine?  Then my next logical question is, Why has God reveal some things and not others? I will have to wait to ask that one.

You hear individual testimonies, one from a DVD I just watch entitled Nefarious: Merchant of Souls.  A dark yet hopeful look at the sex trade/trafficking industry. A particular story of one former prostitute, at the brink of being murdered and coincidentally or divinly saved... later on she would be raised out of the depth of hopelessness and abyss (that most will never experience) and have a powerful testimony of Grace. When I hear a story like that, I cant help but see a bit of divine intervention, divine ordinance.  A sense of purpose and reason for events that are out of our control and decison making.  Or perhaps it was all chance in the autonomy of free will and God uses the random, the ugly, and weaves a perfect story without preordinance. Or perhaps what is truly random and free will untouched, is also divine ordinance all at the same time.

I bring all this up and believe that most Calvinist and Arminian's alike would agree, that while God desires us to know truth, and exercise our given intellect, more important is the fruit of transcending peace (Philippians 4:7) that of knowing God will bring forth his kingdom and display his magnificent glory through a great story of redemption and ultimately supremecy... regardless of these dogmatic differences.  Only God is God and the mysteries as contradictory as they may be, doesn’t confuse the ultimate truth... that we are still yet sinners and God in His love involved his creation in a beautiful story of redemption through salvation, through the cross... for His ultimate glory and our profound joy.