Birthday Blog

Today I turned 22 years old. I worked a shift at Java Brewing Company, ate some delicious Thai food with a few friends, and studied at Quills for my exam tomorrow. A good day to be sure.

Man, life is moving pretty quickly. It's been a year since this, and two years since this.

Perhaps it was because I was in a collision with car just over six months ago, but the brevity of life has really been impressed on me as of late. Well more accurately, the fact that I live as though life isn't transient has been impressed upon me.

Take for instance this exert from Psalm 139:

... in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me...

The Psalmist seems to be suggesting that God has already predetermined every single day of our lives. Like this Psalmist I see God as the great author who wrote me into existence; a God who has a purpose for my life that he will accomplish. For some reason this plan included me being born on September 30th, 1987.

I love that.

Providence: Framing the Discussion

While discussing the Arminian view of providence in class Dr. Ware raised an interesting point. Traditionally, Arminian theologians (or Arminian Christians in general) tend to find Limited Atonement the greatest fault in the Reformed model of providence. Understandably, they are very offended by the idea of suggesting that Jesus died for some people as compared to others. It doesn't really seem fair.

However, Dr. Ware pointed out there is nothing exclusively Calvinist about Limited Atonement. Jacob Arminius suggested that election is simply God's foreknowledge of the free choices of his creatures; he chose to save those he knew would choose him. Philosophically speaking, the atonement could simply be the out working of this election. It is not fundamentally necessary in the Arminian model of providence that Jesus died for all of humanity.

The real issue is grace. Can humans choose to believe in Christ apart from God grace? Can humans reject God's grace? This is where the discussion belongs.