Goodbye, Farewell, Blogger

Hello All

It has been a fun time on blogger; writing posts, looking at you guy's comments, and everything. However, as many of you who have dealt with Blogger before know, it isn't very user-friendly. Infact, it can be down right confusing. But now, I have been made new, I have discovered WordPress. It is another blog server that is way easier to use, not to mention it looks way cooler!

I have transfered all my previous posts and comments over to my new site and will continue blogging on that.

You can see it at...

www.bereanmethod.wordpress.com


So as far as this site goes...

So long... Farewell... I bid you all adieu...

uh, I can't remember the rest of that Sound of Music song, but you get the idea.

seeya

Caleb

Response to Comments on the "Incompatibility..." Post

I got two comments on my last post, and since I can't respond to them personally, I have decided to respond to them in a post. Also, both of these individuals basically said the same thing with different words. Here is comment 1:

Caleb, you've once again struck with a fascinating blog, and once again, I struggle with your logic. You state very clear that with man's evil nature, he cannot make the right choice, but that analogy doesn't really follow in things we know to be true. For example, a sinner, when faced with the choice of spending his money gambling or giving to a charity, may in some cases do the right thing. A non-believer may go to a church instead of joining a cult. You get the picture; just because man is bound to his sinful nature does not mean that he will make the wrong choice every time.

Here is comment 2:

I look at the logic of free will this way... A person is looking for something to eat, there are two meals available:

1. a stack of pizzas with everything on them and a few bottled beverages of the carbonated variety to choose from, 2. platters of fruit and vegetables and bottles of the purest spring water.

His gluttonous nature desires the "more enjoyable" meal - pizza and soda, but he decides to pick the meal that is healthy for him and what may be the "more enjoyable" meal to his taste buds- the fruit, vegetables, and water. No matter what his nature may be, he has the ability to choose whichever meal he desires to choose, the one that is bad for him, i.e. the world's way of life, or the one that is good for him, i.e. the way of life- Jesus Christ. After examining yours and Mr. Wesleys' viewpoints/arguments i would have to side with him on this issue.

Before I begin to answer these comments, here's some things to point out. First, despite the fact that I had numerous Scriptures supporting my post, neither of these individuals used a single verse to support anything they said. Second, I never talked about people never making a right choice due to their nature, as commenter 1 said. My post was regarding the decision of salvation, not decisions about spending and eating or any other choice.

Now, on to the real answer. The underlying premise in both of these comments is the belief that when a person, unbeliever or not, makes a "good" decision over a "bad" decision, he is somehow acting outside his sinful nature. Otherwise, he would eat junk food and gamble as their analogies put it. I must ask, "How do eating choices and spending choices relate to salvation?" Both commenters concluded that since people can choose the better option in earthly matters, they then have the ability to choose the better option in the choice of salvation. This is a vast misunderstanding of the Biblical definition of sin, blatantly stated by the verses quoted in the original post. A unbelieving person could spend his life giving 75% of his income to charity and never let an unhealthy bite enter his body, and at the end of the day, he is still a "slave to sin" (Rom. 6:20), and his "good" choices are like "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).

At the core, we are not sinners because we make wrong choices and commit sins. We are sinners because we are concieved in sin (Psalm 51:5) and born spiritually "dead in transgressions and sins" (Eph. 2:1-2).

Without a proper understanding of this, a necessary component in the beautiful picture of the Gospel is lost. For "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

The Incompatibility of the Free Will and Original Sin

Hello everyone, I'm back after a Christmas break hiatus. This is somewhat a part 2 to a previous post I did a couple months ago. This topic has to do with another commonly held contradiction in the minds of many modern evangelicals.

I will first clarify that if one denies the existence of original sin, he is totally and logically free to believe in a free will that is present in humans. However, there are many verses in Scripture contrary to this belief that will be discussed later. But the majority of evangelicals still hold to some doctrine of original sin AND free will. The contradiction of these two doctrines will now be shown.

Let us define what is commonly called the "free will". It is the uninfluenced and unaffected will to any outside force that is supposedly present in all people. Every person is totally able to choose whatever he/she desires. At first glance, this seems so obviously true, one can wonder why its even an issue. Yet, through this analogy, I hope to show that there is something superior to everyone, and every thing's will; its nature.

Here is the analogy, thought up by my pastor:

There is a vulture flying around looking for food. It is flying over a road looking for a new (or old) carcass. On the horizon, it spots a rotting possum down on the road, but right next to the road, it sees a strawberry patch in the prime of ripeness. Now, that vulture has all the ability and the will to fly over to the strawberry field and feast on the delicious berries. In fact, there is no outside obstruction to prevent the vulture from doing that. So why would a vulture always choose the dead possum over the strawberries? Because a vulture is bound by its nature which tells it that is a scavenger that feeds on dead animals.

Now, pardon me for attempting to compare us to vultures, but as with every other living thing, we too have a nature that binds all of our actions. The Bible is very clear on this nature as the following verses will tell. As Paul says in Romans 7:18, he cannot carry out what he desires because of his sinful nature. Of course, after salvation, we are no longer slaves to sin, but to Christ (Rom. 6:6). Instead, we enter into a lifelong conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. However, I am talking about the unregenerate free will decision of salvation that is believed by many. An unsaved person doesn't have the ability on his own to accept Christ. Referring back to the vulture analogy, our will is bound by our nature. In mans' unregenerate state, he is completely bound to his sinful nature which is at constant odds with God (Romans 3:10-18). So, what would an unsaved person's answer be when confronted with a decision to "accept" or "deny" Christ? It would always and forever be a resounding denial of the truth and power of the Gospel. God first has to change the heart of the person before he is willing to believe in Christ. He does this through the Holy Spirit and according to His timing of the salvation of His elect that He chose before the foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4-10).

The belief of an unregenerate free will is just one more way that we try to give ourselves more power and ability than we have. This is of course one of the many tendencies of the sinful nature. We are only as free as our nature will allow.