IF I WERE A CALVINIST

In some of my posts I have tried to explain why I think man has free will to either accept salvation or reject it and I have been verbally assaulted for my efforts. That doesn’t bother me until it becomes the goal of those who do so. If that is their goal then Bible study is not. No man can honestly defend himself from slander because all men sin. I am somewhat guilty of anything said about me, so if that is your goal I concede.

Those who believe Calvin seem to forget Christ. By that I mean they do not obey the second greatest commandment. (Mat 22:39 NIV)  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Which is accomplished when you (Luke 6:31 NIV) Do to others as you would have them do to you. I am quite sure you do not want to be called the things that I have been called and it would help the study if everyone refrained from name calling.

Perhaps not all Calvinist forget the second commandment, but it seems as though all who have commented on my posts have. I even had to explain to one that he was not welcome on my blog. I don’t know if that bothered him, but it really bothered me and it still does.

If there are any Calvinist out there that would like to present their views without a condescending attitude I have a few questions that if I take a Calvinist view I either have no answer or do not like the answer that I come up with.

First and foremost is that if I believe Calvin then, “How would or could I be sure of my own salvation”?

Perhaps someone that believes in a Calvinist type of doctrine could tell me how.

DID GOD SAY, “YOU MUST DESTROY ALL THE PEOPLE THE LORD YOUR GOD GIVES OVER TO YOU”?

Well, no I don’t think that He did! He didn’t say that in Exodus. I would print the verses here, but it would only make this post long, so read Exodus 23:20 to 32.

These are the words of God and He does not say kill anyone. He also does not say destroy the cities. The only thing God said destroy were the gods of the people that lived in the land, His land, which He gave to Israel. If I were to interject my feelings into this command it would be that the gods made by man should be destroyed by man. They are too defiled for me to ask God to destroy.

Anyway, no one had to die! The closest God said about destroying the people was when He said, “I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you”, but even then He did not say slay them, only drive them out. No women or children had to die, they didn’t even have to suffer stings from the hornets, because when the men left they would have gone with them.

Now when we read Deuteronomy 7:16 Moses said, “You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God gives over to you”, but God did not say that. If Moses had remembered what God had said or if he believed God then he would not have said that.

It seems to me just another case of God being blamed for what man does. If God wanted to destroy men to protect Israel He is quite capable of the deed Himself. He demonstrated that when He destroyed the army of Pharaoh.

Israel, just like the people of today, had to take things into their own hands and defile what God planed for them.

I am purposely not going to study any farther on this subject now. If you see some place in the Bible where God told Israel to destroy the people and or the cities please write a comment. This is supposed to be a Bible study, so if you really want to study I think this is a worthy subject. The more I learn about God the more awesome, fair, and wonderful He is shown!

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE COUNTRY FROM A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE.

As I understand our current problems it seems only a natural or worldly process. We have been a democracy for over two hundred years. For all of this time we have been choosing other men to serve as our masters. Think about that: servants that are masters of those who they are supposed to be servants of!

This is a dichotomy that is only one when viewed from a detached or spiritual position. Citizens who are voting for the man of their choice never think that they are making a man their master. But they are granting that man the power to make decisions that will not only greatly affect their own lives, but as we can see now, greatly affect the lives of their children as well.

The politician never thinks of himself as a servant, but as a master. It is politically correct to claim to be a servant, but politicians serve themselves first and when they absolutely have too they may do something for the people.

As time goes on those things that are done against the people as a result of what is done by the politicians for themselves add together until there is nothing left for the people to give. The taxes that are piled on our backs are never taken off. If a tax has a set time to end it will be put on the ballot again and if it doesn’t pass there will be a special election, time after time, until it does pass.

Christians know that all men are bound over to disobedience (Rom 11:32 NIV) and yet we choose one to lead us! Actually we choose many masters. And we even tell each other that we should all choose (vote)! Doesn’t anyone realize that to choose a man to reign over us is to reject God?

We can see that Israel made a mistake by wanting a king to lead them because we are detached from the situation, but we are in the middle of this democracy and we can not see the trees for the forest.

After much thought on the matter I have reached a conclusion. Government is a matter of faith. If I believed in democracy I would have to believe in the goodness of man and I do not. God has let us have this democracy to show us beyond a doubt that we are not qualified to lead or reign over ourselves. If you do not understand this yet just wait a little while, because I believe everyone will understand before God ends or lets this mess end.

If you do not understand then read 1 Sam 8:7-22 and when the word king is used substitute the word authority for it. That is if you are reading the NIV. There is no real need to substitute if you read the KJV, because it makes clear that it is the one who reigns that is the difference: man or God.

We chose a man to reign over us. Actually we chose and choose many men when you consider all of the legislators and they do worse things to us than the king that God chose for Israel. God said the king would take ten percent for himself, but this government takes half and gives it to whomever they choose. The truth is that by borrowing from other countries they have taken everything we have and everything our children could have had and given it to those who are not even citizens of this Country.

Those who defend this type of government by saying we can vote this man out of office and replace him with a man that will govern fairly do not yet understand. The man that we vote into office does even worse things than the man we voted out and we are still left with the taxes, restrictions, and debts that the first man obligated us to.

The truth as I see it is only God could save us and He might, but He told Israel that he would not help them. (1 Sam 8:18 NIV)  When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.” If He wouldn’t answer Israel will He answer us?

I am sorry if I sound so negative, but we have and are sinning greatly and no one seems to understand. Can we ask God to rescue us when we do not even admit that it is our actions that got us here?

IS MONEY THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL?

(1 Tim 6:10 KJV)  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

(1 Tim 6:10 NIV)  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

There is a slight difference of 1 Tim 6:10 in the King James Version and the New International Version of God’s word. Though there is a difference I view them both as correct however it does make one ask the question, ‘is the love of money the root of “all” evil or only “all kinds” of evil’?

While exchanging comments with me someone said that if the love of money was the root of all evil then David would have committed adultery for money! The claim was slightly off because the verse says money is the “root” not the “cause”, but still it does make one think.

If David was not rich then he would not have had a palace with a high roof where he could have seen Bathsheba bathing. The love of money was not the cause, but it made the very beginning of adultery possible.

Do not defend the rich by saying some of them only have money, but they do not love money. It is not necessary to totally love money to have some love for money. Anyone can sell everything they have and give the money to the poor and then follow Jesus. No one “has” to be wealthy.

Very few examples are repeated in all four Gospels, but the idea that in order to be perfect one must sell everything and give the money to the poor is repeated in all of the Gospels.

I have to admit that I struggled with this. It is the lack of faith and the fear of a hard life that kept me from it. That is not to say that I have wealth, because I do not, so it should be easer for me to attempt to be perfect than for someone with wealth.

Two of the verses say sell “everything” and as I pondered the act I realized that I own the clothes that I am wearing and I would be guilty of indecent exposure if I sold everything. Well, maybe I was looking for a way out! I am not a salesman and I am sure I could not interest anyone in the clothes that I am wearing anyway.

Well, after thinking about it for a while I have to admit that I do not believe that I could stay perfect. I am only a man and not Jesus. I do believe that God could keep me perfect, but I do not understand why He would. He has already kept one man perfect and that was for His plan of salvation. Anything that I could do would not be as important as that and if God were to make and keep anyone, other than Jesus, perfect it would only distract from His plan.

Anyway I no longer feel as guilty of not trying to be perfect as I once did. It helps when I realized that I do not own anything. Everything belongs to God so I really have nothing to sell, although that does not release me from my obligation to help the poor.

Sorry, I kind of got off the question of “all” or “all kinds”, didn’t I?

As I think about money it becomes clear that money is an idol and therefore against God. It is not like most idols, because it actually has power. The whole world believes in the power of money. Even those who claim there is no God worship money.

Without money there would be no way to convert wealth into satisfying evil desires. It may not be the cause of evil, but it certainly is the vehicle by which it is committed.

So, what do you think? Is money the root of all evil or just all kinds of evil? As for me, I have a propensity towards “all” evil, so if I do not agree with some of your comments please be patient with me. I am only a student and I answer from my understanding and that is not to claim that I am any better student than you. Students sometimes sound like teachers, but this student is no teacher.

Well, I do have a big mouth and I do not know when to keep it shut: well maybe I just don’t keep it shut!

I think the NIV is a good example of the root of all evil. It is copyrighted! Think about that! Man has found a way to copy write the Word of God! You don’t pay, you don’t play! I don’t see anything wrong with covering the cost of making the translation, but I do not understand why the cost continues.