Vain endeavors has served me well.. for as long as I’ve used it. But, I’m moving my blog to Facebook. Join it here:
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For you who don’t have a Facebook.. sowwy 
Sad dai: Changing blog locashn
Written by admin on May 5th, 2011The biggest reason for lack of Christian growth; how to better glorify God, become more like Christ, and win at life(yay)
Written by admin on April 9th, 2011Many times. I’ve wondered.
Why is it that some Christians are steadily and significantly growing in Christ-likeness, and some not?
I’m not judging anyone. I’m not saying I’m better than anyone or looking down on anyone. And before I go on, I’d also encourage you try avoid these things while thinking about such matters with me. Granted, there aren’t two black and white camps into which all Christians can be divided, one for Christians who grow and one for those who don’t. But I’m sure you’d agree with me… some Christians grow like bamboo while others grow like Asian gymnasts. So what exactly is it that determines the ‘rate of growth’ for a Christian? lol.
Surprisingly, there kinda is a simple answer; in short, the reason that Christians grow slowly or not at all is because we are passive. It’s not something bad that we’re doing, nor something that we’re involved in… It’s what we don’t do and don’t understand. We don’t approach maturing in Christ intentionally, consciously, and actively. But heck, I’m not writing this note to tell you that Christians are passive. I pretty much said that passivity is the reason Christians don’t grow in the last note. Before I introduce you to the idea which I want you to interact with and help me flesh out, some more observations:
I observe many throughout the church who are clearly passionately and sincerely worshiping God, who are ferverent in their prayer, who spend time with God and in His word… and yet, they seem to be making little spiritual progress. They’re most certainly well-intentioned, but true growth in their character is infrequent and unsteady. A particular bad habit or character trait of theirs might be changed radically during a significant event, but these mini-transformations simply don’t happen consistently. I’ve come to distinguish between people who consistently, intentionally, and actively mature(we’ll call it “active growth”)… and those who only mature according to the circumstances imposed on them(”passive growth”). Such imposed circumstances, including retreats, sermons, songs, and exhortations from other Christians, move these ‘passive growth’ people to make a resolution to change. They grow based on whether or not they hold true to these resolutions.
Again, obviously, there aren’t two clear-cut camps of growth by which all Christians can be categorized. But it remains that well-intentioned, passionate, God seeking people can be found in various places on the ‘active/passive growth’ spectrum; some grow very rapidly and consistently, many grow infrequently and almost solely according to what is done to them. Now to the point of this note. What is it that primarily determines how well a Christian is growing?
One’s ability to think. I think that the primary reason that Christians are passive in growth is because we haven’t been taught how to think well. The cause of passivity is ignorance, the solution to ignorance is thought. So flipping that around, an inability to think well causes ignorance and ignorance causes passivity.
So, why do I say that one’s ability to grow is dependant on his ability to think? Well, let me first define the ability to think well. Thinking well consists of constantly wondering questions relevant to your immediate or broader circumstances, desiring the truth behind these qustions, and seeking the truth behind these questions. (stop and think about that if you need to) Maybe that definition isn’t exhaustive, but it’s at least a crucial part to thinking well, the part which I want to discuss. So how is this relevant to growth?
This is how (posivitve) spiritual formation works: We come to realize that an area of our life needs changing. We determine what the change should look like(we determine what we’re trying to change into). We resolve to treat this change intentionally and consciously(we decide to change). Finally, we determine what needs to be done to make us change(we develope a plan). All of these steps of Christian growth require good thought. If you couple a desire to become more like Christ with the ability to think well, you end up with a sin-slaying powerhouse. Through thought we proceed to analyze ourselves and find subtle(or maybe radical) changes that we could make to become more like Christ. Throught thought we are trying to change into. Through thought we figure out how to tackle our problems(or figure out who or what to go to in order to do that). And through thought we finally convince ourselves to take action and make a decision to change.
All of these steps require thought, but the first step in particular(or rather a lack thereof) is what seems to be the hardest blow to Christian growth. We Christians don’t examine themselves. We don’t seek out where we err. Constent growth requires us to be constantly questioning our motives, our conduct, our habits, our thoughts… our character. If we don’t question ourselves, we don’t find out what needs to be changed about us. Thus we rarely even realize that we need to change.
Let mel tell you why I think we Christians fail to recognize the necessity of applying thought to growth. It’s more interesting than beneficial… but interesting is good. So. We fail to recognize the importance of thought because we have a warped view of grace. We believe that it is up to God to change us; we believe that character change depends on God ‘giving us grace.’ Accordingly, we deal with our problems by praying about them, waiting for God’s grace, and blindly and passionately ‘resolving to change.’ In order to deal with this misunderstanding of grace, let me make a pretty straightforward statement that I read somewhere which changed my whole understanding of grace after salvation:grace enables, it doesn’t change. Grace *allows* us to change. It doesn’t change us. Thus we’re not to sit around, praying and waiting for grace in a certain area of our life. We need to take active measures to change. We need to tackle problems with prayer and thought, with learning, planning, and discussion. A passive understanding of grace and how God works in character formation leads to a misunderstanding of thought’s place in character formation.
If we are thinking well, if we are examining ourselves through thought and prayer, seeking the truth about ourselves passionately… we simply can’t remain complacent. Sin will come to light. And when it does, by golly, we’ll fix it by God’s grace. As a sidenote… I don’t want you to think that I’m advocating some independent treatment of our problems apart from others. Seeking someone wiser or consulting a book isn’t ‘failing to do the thinking yourself’; if this will be beneficial, it is approaching the problem in a smarter, more thoughtful way.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strengthand with all your mind.”
Let me just add that thinking well, in addition to being extremely beneficial, is terribly enjoyable. My favorite times are the nights where I think and talk with others late into the night over a cup of tea, preferably in a Lagan’s hot tub. Though discussion usually goes downhill in the tub, not through a fault of my own or of my long-haired companion. When Jesus said “The truth will set you free,” he wasn’t kidding. Not that He was ever kidding, but here’s He’s especially not kidding. Ignorance of sin and ignorance of the means to escape sin is quite simply shackling. It prevents us from experiencing the freedom and the utter joy of a life which is structured around intentionally and consciously seeking to glorify God by becoming more like Christ. And seriously… VUT. A joy it is.
Instead of spending more time goofing around, let me quote Richard Foster’s introductory paragraphs to his sweet chapter on “Study” in his sweet book, Celebration of Discipline:
“He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body. He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is in the right road to kowledge, provided that in scrutinizing the hearts of others, he neglects not his own.”
~Caleb Colton
The purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines is the total transformation of the person. They aim at replacing old destructive habits of thought with new life-giving habits. Nowhere is this purpose more clearly seen than in the Discipline of study. The apostle Paul tells us that we are transformed through the renewal of the mind (Rom. 12:2). The mind is renewed by applying it to those things that will transform it. “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Phil. 4:8, italics added). The Discipline of study is the primary vehicle to bring us to “think about these things.” Therefore, we should rejoice that we are not left to our own devices but have been given this means of God’s grace for the changing of our inner spirit.
Many Christians remain in bondage to fears and anxieties simply because they do not avail themseles of the Discipline of study. They may be faithful in church attendance and earnest in fulfilling their religious duties, and still they are not changed. I am not here speaking only of those who are going through mere religious forms, but of those who are genuinely seeking to worship and obey Jesus Christ as Lord and Master. They may sing with gusto, pray in the Spirit, live as obediently as they know, even receive divine visions and revelations, and yet the tenor of their lives remains unchanged. Why? Because they have never taken up one of the central ways God uses to change us: study. Jesus made it unmistakably clear that the knowledge of the truth will set us free. “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). Good feelings will not free us. Ecstatic experiences will not free us. Getting “high on Jesus” will not free us. Without a knowledge of the truth, we will not be free.
This principle is true in every area of human endeavor. It is true in biology and mathematics. It is true in marriages and other human relationships. But it is espeicially true in reference to the spiritual life. Many are hampered and confused in the spiritual walk by a simple ignorance of the truth. Worse yet, many have been brought into the most cruel bondage by false teaching. “You traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matt. 23:15).
Let us therefore apply ourselves to learning what constitutes the Spiritual Discipline of study, to identify its pitfalls, to prace it with joy, and to experience the liberation that it brings.
I know your’e not gonna buy it even if I recommend it, but I highly recommend that book. Even if you only get it to read the rest of that chapter, it’s worth it.
Alright, I said what I set out to say. Before I finish up, these are the points which I’ve sought to communicate:
-Many Christians aren’t maturing in Christ and becoming more like Him consistently and significantly
-There is a reason for this
-The primary problem is that Christians can’t think well, and thus they don’t apply good thought to their Christian life
-This causes many growth-related problems, the primary problem being ignorance of our own sin and bad character through a failure to rigorously examine ourselves
So, people don’t and can’t think well. And this causes passivity. However, this problem, as with all other human problems, can be fixed. You can learn to think well. You can train yourself to think well. Unfortunately, the point of this post isn’t to show you how to think, but is rather to stress the importance of thinking. And so. I leave it up to you to figure that out. Or maybe I’ll just write another note 
Here’s what I want you to walk away with, no matter who you are or how well you think you think. Growth comes through rigrous, conscious, intentional thought and effort. So train yourself to think.Realize that this is necessary in order for you to effectively fulfill your human purpose.I’m constantly consciously trying to learn to better think. If you don’t consciously stress learning how to think in your life, let me suggest that you do. It really does set you free. And it’s sweet. And the places you get to through thought are sweet. Learn to *love* thought. Often times we pit thought against emotion, joy, and all things fluffly and delicious. Let me just say that thought magnifies these things. Through thought you can attain to consistent joy, life, and glory. And who doesn’t want consistent joy, life and glory?
Finally, before I let you go, I need your help. I honestly think that the lack of emphasis on thought and a misunderstanding of the same is a HUGE, TERRIBLE, SHACKLING fault of the church. It is the reason that many many Christians are plunged into failure, constant loss of ground to struggle and temptation, and a general lack of joy and maturity. This idea has been forming in my mind for a number of months now… and man oh man, I just wish I could *truly* bring my fellow brothers and sisters to an understanding of its importance. So that’s where you come into this all. Recognize the importance of thought. For me. Learn yourself some good thinking. When you come to recognize just how crucial thought is to the Christian life, help others understand this fact. I can’ts do it alone.
Concerning Intriguing Questions, True Personality, and the Greatest Threat to Christendom
Written by admin on April 7th, 2011So. I was thinking today. And I came upon a question that’s still fascinating to me now. What would I be like if God stopped watching me? What would I do if God wasn’t looking? How would I treat people if I knew that God had no knowledge of me and my behavior? After thinking about it, I come to realize that this question isn’t just interesting, it’s also very revealing. Before I say more on this…
If you’ve thought about it or studied it before, you’ll know that character is a hard thing to figure out. Character is what distinguishes individuals from each other. I am different from you because I have gone through different circumstances and made different decisions, the product of which is my unique set of beliefs, habits, and conditions. This unique set of things is my character. There is a direct correlation between your actions and your character. This is something that I find not many people agree with me upon. People think of actions as being completely separate from character; you would probably say that our actions are “just what we decide to do,” and that they can either be consistent with or at odds with our character. You might add that our character has influence over what we decide to do, but my guess is that you believe that ultimately, we can ‘decide’ to act in way that is consistent or inconsistent with our personality. Well, I find this to belief to be wrong, and further I find it to be very misleading. You ready for this? The actions of every person on this earth are determined by that person’s character. We can *only* act in a way which is consistent with our character. We are what we do.
“wha… hode on dere” you say. Listen up. It’s true, I says. However, there’s a bit more to it than that. Before you pass judgment on what I just said, hear me out a little further. One thing that might come to your mind after some thought is something to this extent:
There are two men. One is a depraved, cold man with a dead conscience. The other is a godly, Christian man who loves God and loves others. Both these men are married. One day, the first man comes home. He’s very hungry. When he gets home, his wife has no dinner waiting for him. The man yells at his wife. On the same day, the godly man comes home. He’s very hungry. When he walks in the door, he find that his wife has no dinner waiting for him. This second man yells at his wife.
In this example, you’re probably thinking: Man 1’s behavior is consistent with his character… but Man 2’s behavior, if not completely contradictory to his character, is at least more at odds with his character than Man 1’s behavior. And you can probably think of other realistic examples where two people might do the same thing, but where one person’s behavior is more consistent with his character than the other. On these grounds you’d probably reject my claim, “if you make a mistake, you are the type of person who makes such mistakes.” Here’s my response. Every person and every action has unique circumstances. Every action has a very complicated, deep context consisting of a person’s unique amounts and forms of pressure from different sources, unique incentives, unique memories and past experiences, unique habits… The example above(and any example that you might pose against what I’ve said) is unrealistic in that it doesn’t consider the details of each situation. In real life, Man 2 wouldn’t have “just” walked in the door with an empty stomach and yelled at his wife. Perhaps Man 2 just got fired, his mom just died of cancer that morning, his car got keyed while he was in work, and a legion of sparrows came out of nowhere while he was walking up to his door and dumped truckloads of poop on his head for fun. Such a context wouldn’t change or justify the actual action of him yelling at his wife, but it would make his action understandable. But what do we mean by “make the action understandable”? We mean that the context reconciles the action to the person’s character. Man 2 might not be the type of person who yells at his wife all the time, but he *is* the type of person who yells at his wife when he gets fired, receives depressing news, gets his car keyed, and gets pooped on by fun-loving sparrows. If you consider the unique context of actions, I don’t think that you can support the claim “it’s false that we are what we do”… at least using this method. Considering context, the actions of any realistic example that you could come up with are only to be expected of the people hypothesized in such an example.
So to be more accurate, maybe rather than saying “if you make a mistake, you are the type of person who makes that mistake”… I should say, “if you make a mistake, you are the type of person who makes that mistake in the circumstances you were in.” This is why Jesus can say in Matthew 7, ”So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” People’s actions, not their words, are indicative of the state of their heart. And it is the state of our hearts that is the basis for God’s judgment.
You’re still probably not ready to accept what I’ve said concerning character. You might point out that when we as Christians sin, it is contrary to the identity and person we are in Christ. We are made new in Christ, we have a new nature. Well. This newness which is in us, that which has been redeemed in us by Christ… is simply not our character. Our salvation should have an impact on our character, granted… but what salvation does for our character is it simply starts it on a journey of growth towards Christ likeness. In salvation our nature is transformed, but it’s a rare occasion that our character is radically transformed then and there. Salvation deals with our nature, sanctification deals with our character.
Why is it that so many people want to draw a hard line between our actions and our character? I guess my simple answer is that really, it’s nice to think that you’re more than what you do. We want to think of ourselves as good, loving people, and that’s a hard thing to do if we believe that we are what we do. But further, people confuse our identity in Christ with our character. There’s a distinction. Our identity in Christ is not our character, but is rather the basis for God’s treatment of us(or something like that… haven’t really thought about what it is, tbh :P). It is that which God will consider when He judges us. Though it has implications on our character, it is very distinct from our character. After salvation, we are still left with many of the same heart-beliefs, the same habits, the same inclinations… the same character.
Now. Here’s where it starts getting practical. Maybe you still disagree with what I’ve said. In which case, I’d love to take this up in discussion with you. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of that in the comments after I post this. But I haven’t just said this all to voice my antithetical opnion, or to sound “smart and booby”. I say this because a right understanding of character leads to a better approach to becoming more like Christ. If you recognize that you are how you act, you’ll recognize that you need to change. You’re not as good as you’d like to think. Mistakes that you make aren’t “just” bad decisions. They’re results of bad character. If you yelled at your mom, you’re ‘not respectful enough.’ If you twisted the truth while talking to your friend, you’re ‘not honest enough.’ If you said something you shouldn’t have, you’re ‘not careful enough.’
Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not being legalistic. Honest. lol. I’m not saying that you should all of the sudden get depressed about how bad you are, or that you should lose heart or hope in God’s love for you… God’s love is unconditional. That’s fact. He’ll love you no matter your actions or your character. But often times we become content with where we’re at. We see ourselves as “pretty good, maybe not perfect… but pretty good.” Often times we’ll blame the devil for our failures. We might make a mistake, but we’re comforted in the fact that it was just a ’slip up’, and that we’re ‘really’ a better person inside. A right understanding of the relationship between our actions and the ‘type of person we really are’(the condition of our heart) blows these problems out of the water like the guys in secondhand lions and the fish.
So if my point is not to make you feel unloved or depressed… what is my point? My point is that we can and should use our actions to analyze ourselves. We can look at our mistakes and use these to pinpoint areas in which we can improve–the areas where there’s room to become more like Christ. A divorce of action and character too often leads to complacency and passivity. And I think I’d be justified in saying that passivity is about the greatest problem and threat to us as Christians. Through passivity, people fail to take hold of the ***joy*** of an active relationship with God–one of consciously and intentionally trying better love and serve God by becoming more like Christ. People fail to recognize that God wants them and intends for them to grow more, and radically more at that… They fail to recognize that God desires for them to live a much, much more peaceful, joyful life flowing from a better, more Christ-like character. So. I guess my point in writing this is ultimately to do ideological battle with the idea that we can act ‘in spite of’ our character… which I believe is simply false and leads to passivity. It leads to these things because we have a distorted image of who we are, of what we’re really like.
NOW. The original question. I guess the question at this point isn’t and won’t be central to this note. It’ll just compliment what I’ve written in the past 94 paragraphs. But before I do that, I guess I have to provide a little more context before I treat the question. Let’s talk about… PREDESTINATION.
…I kid, I kid. So. My question was, “What would I do if God wasn’t around to watch me? What would I be like and act like?” I think that that’s a very interesting and cool way to reinforce a better understanding of our true character. However, it’s kind of hard to come up with an answer to this question. It’s hard to be honest with ourselves and determine what we would do in any given situation. And that’s not necessarily just because we’re dishonest; it’s legitimately hard to see into our character–our heart. But. A thought occurred to me earlier today. Which I think is just the coolest thing. Check it out. You know how sometimes when you’re dreaming… you’re aware that you’re dreaming and like conscious in a sense… and you can kinda do what you want within that dream? Well, that. Is a clear picture of what you would act like if you thought that not even God was watching. Think about it. What you do in such dreams is what you would do if you thought that God did’nt care about what you do. We give ourselves permission to act freely in such dreams, and thus we end up doing horrendous things that we could never see ourselves doing in real life. You know what I’m talking about. I know what I’m talking about *This* is what we are really like. What we would do if not even God’s justice or law was a factor… that is what we are really like. It’s removing all restraints on our actions, even God’s approval… and when all restraints are removed, I think it’s pretty fair to say that our essence really is exposed.
Now I won’t get into whether sinning in dreams is actually wrong. Long story short, I guess I’d say it is, but that’s not the point. The point is, regardless of whether it’s wrong, it reveals who we are in a clear way. And I just think that’s the coolest thing.
So yeah, that was my cool question and my thoughts concerning my cool question. Now, to summarize this mess.
I’ll say it again. I think it’s extremely important to understand the relationship between our actions and character. If you truly believe that you are what you do(and even I have yet to truly and thoroughly take on this belief in ma heartz)… I’m assured that it will radically change the way you approach your life. You’ll be humbled. You’ll see sin as more than just the muck that clogs up your relationship with God; you’ll use your sin as a window into your heart. And understanding your heart is valuable. Mayber better said invaluable. But man. Your heart. Is sooo hard to get. lol. You’re gonna need all the help you can get to understand your heart, so my suggestion in this note is that you use your sin to help you do this. Realize that your heart is central to your character… and if you can target problems in your heart and consciously attack those problems with prayer and thought… oh man. It scares Satan out of his mind, I’m sure. Click to continue »
Project: TORE ESHAY(Torrey Onors Riting Essay, Expecting Smashingly Happy Attitudes YAY)
Written by admin on January 19th, 2011So. For my application to a sweeet program within Biola that I kinda neeeed to get into, the Torrey Honors Institute, I have to write and submit a “5-8 page argumentative work.” Even though I’m generally a fan of such “argumentative works”, and (use to) publish that style of writing often enough on my blog… I just don’t have the motivation to git down and dirty and git the job done. I suppose I have the motivation to write what I do on my blog because it’s an interactive experience; I’m writing so that others can read my thoughts and interact with them. On the other hand, I’m writing this application essay thing with the end of giving the Torrey admissions board a sample of my thinking capabilities. Not terribly motivating, for me at least. But on top of that, the way the admissions for this program work, it’s basically that they have a certain number of slots, and they stop admitting people when they fill the slots. So it’s not like there’s even a strict deadline by which I have to apply(aka finish this eshay).
Bleh. I’m currently working on getting over my procrastination habits, and this little flibby flubbit ‘o nuggets aint much helpin. I’ve got this huge project on my hands which seems like it was basically designed just for me to procrastinate on. So what’s the solution? The solution is to use ma creativ jooses to build meself a good ‘ol plop of motivation. And when your creativ joose brainer container is as juicy juicy as mine, that aint so much a problem. In fact. I already have the makings of a solution.
Ima make this project an interactive one, as I’ve done with my blog posts. I’ll choose a topic that’ll be engaging and interesting, and I’ll be periodically publicizing my work as I write it. That way I can have feedback from the masses, I can feel like I’m contributing to the popular image of my ingenuity, you can be entertained, I can re-liven my blog, aaand I can have my long needed motivation for this project.
And now teh real quest bekins
Herro. Herro! U may remember me. I are teh person hoo u wer jus reeting.
Meeshin 1: Find Teh Topic
Teh topic will have to meet a few criteria. It has to be argumentative in nature. It has to be inherently and objectively interesting. Maybe there’s no such thing as something that’s objectively interesting. If there isn’t, I’m gonna make it up right now. And. It has to be a topic which I have enough knowledge concerning to write a good 5-8 pages on. It CANNOT concern itself with knitting. For all you damsels. And no politics. As much as I love politics, I hate politics.
Processing… Processing… Proces..
DING DING DING DING(A quote from Mr. Hegwig[yes, the guy from church] to all those who are familiar with the rockin bloke). But actually, no, I’ve got no dingdingdingdings for u. Dis be where you help out and tell me what you’d find interesting in an extended blog post of sorts(my essay). Off the bat I’m gonna say that something concerning God’s existence would definitely work with me. I’ve already thought about the topic, read about the topic, and know some stuffs about it. But at the same time, I don’t want this to be an overdone topic, and I’m gonna guess a paper simply proving God’s existence is nothing original as far as these application essays go. However, I’ve thought about variations I could do on the question of God’s existence and here’s something interesting I came up with: my essay could be an informal, ‘personal’ letter written to the unbeliever. I could write the letter from the perspective of a sympathetic Christian who is writing a letter to his non Christian friend, making a case for Christianity, but not strictly appealing to logic(logos). It would be of a much more personal tone, appealing to personal experience(ethos) and perhaps some good ‘ol emotional manipulation(pathos) as well as giving strictly logical ‘evidence’ for God’s existence.
There’s one idea. Another idea is I could write a sort of mini book on ’spiritual formation’ based on my experience… directed towards people my agey.
What are your thoughts? What would be an interesting and engaging topic on which I could write a 5-8 page argumentative work? Input and feedback would be greatly appreciated, guys. Thanks in advance.
Day 2
Written by admin on November 16th, 2010I’m thankful for life…
…Life is beautiful.
Reasons for thankfulness: First reason
Written by admin on November 13th, 2010Alright, so I decided I wanted to go with the flow and make a succession of blog posts to describe fourteen things I’m thankful for. In light of the big thankful crescent roll day.
Journaling.
I’m thankful for being able to write cool stuff in my various notebooks, to gossip to my future self about ridiculous stuff my friends said or did, to moan to my future about how shtinky my past was, to laugh at the nativity of my past journal entries, and to record significant events in my life.
It makes for a good read a year later.
Prayer
Written by admin on November 5th, 2010In my experience, prayer tends to be in a large sense misunderstood and overlooked by many of us modern day evangelicals. Don’t get me wrong, I know that your pastor or the book you’re reading often tells you to pray for one reason or another. I realize that your friends are periodically asking you to pray for various things in their lives or another’s. I’m sure you’ve at least once asked another to pray for you. “Prayer” is all around us. People vaguely understand that “prayer is important”, but we might not necessarily know why it’s important or why one ought to pray. Consequently we’re left to grope around in the dark, assuming that we’re fulfilling the purpose of prayer by spending 5 minutes each day asking God to grant us, our friends, or someone else’s needs. I don’t know, maybe you have a much broader perception of prayer than wish-fulfilling. In fact, I bet you do. I’m sure you’ve heard something to the extent prayer is more than “asking God for stuff,” and I’m sure you believe it, too. But… just what IS prayer all about?
What is prayer? Let’s start off by establishing what prayer is not. Prayer is not closing our eyes and making a speech ending with an “amen”. In fact, anything that comes out of our mouth is almost irrelevant to prayer itself. Prayer is when our spirit communes with God. It’s something that happens very deep inside us. It’s more passive in nature than active. It doesn’t require spoken words as we often perceive it to. Rather, words are a result of prayer. I heard prayer defined as being real with God. I think this well sums up the essence of prayer. Let me tell you why.
I said that prayer is when our spirit communes with God. “Nice poetry,” you may think, “but what the heck does THAT mean?” Think of the matter of salvation. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 - No one would say that if you merely speak the words of the sinner’s prayer, you will receive God’s grace and forgiveness. Everybody agrees that you have to “mean” it. This idea of genuine meaning refers to the condition of our heart. (btw, I’ll be using “spirit” and “heart” interchangeably from here on out) We can say whatever we want, we can talk to ourselves in our heads all day… but really, true belief is a matter of the heart’s condition. It’s not a matter of mind nor mouth. What we say we believe, what we tell ourselves we believe or consciously “think” we believe isn’t always what we really believe in yo heart(forgive the fact that this sounds like I’ve copy pasted random excerpts from the box ‘o cliche luv phrases©). If belief is considered the ‘knowledge of our heart’, think of prayer as the ‘conversation of our heart with God’. When our spirit moves and we have that deep “feeling” towards God, that is prayer. Again, the words spoken by your beef eater are *not* what prayer is. The words follow from the movement of our spirit. If we all of the sudden feel that “God is good”, something from our mouth often follows this feeling(a spoken “Hallelujah,” for example). If we are deeply concerned for a friend’s circumstances, we verbalize this concern to God, asking for God to help our friend. And this is why I think “being real with God” is an excellent definition of prayer. For prayer is experiencing deep feelings and expressing these feelings to God. Making the distinction between the way you express it and the actual feeling is important.
So that’s what prayer is. But if prayer is passive, when and why do we pray?
Once we have an understanding of what prayer is, it shouldn’t be too hard to see why we pray. Our circumstances often cause deep feelings of pain, regret, sorrow, joy, thankfulness, or compassion in us. This happens to everyone. Prayer is when our heart expresses these deep feelings to God. Now why would our heart express its feelings to God? We express our heart’s pain to God when we believe that He will comfort us. We express our thankfulness to God if we believe that He will appreciate this. We express the compassion we have for a friend going through hard times if we believe that God can help that friend. Notice, all our different prayers depend on beliefs. If we don’t believe that the expression of our feelings to God is good, then we simply won’t express our feelings to God. If we do believe that expression of our feelings will be good in some sense, we will express those feelings. Prayer starts to become natural as we learn the joy and good of expressing all of our feelings to God. If we understand our complete dependency on God, if we know that God has unending riches which He’s just waiting to give us if we come to Him, we won’t be able to help but run to Him with whatever’s on our heart. Finally, recognize that ultimately, prayer isn’t supposed to be a means to an end. Communion with God is the end. God created us in such great need so that we would constantly have to come close to Him for help in our weakness.
We know what prayer is. We know why we pray and under what circumstances we pray. But so far, this post has been purely speculative and not very practical. So what’s the practical side to all this? How ought one go about prayer?
Prayer is an exercise, a discipline just like all disciplines. If we want to become Arnold Schwartz, we’ll have to spend an insane amount of time working out and eating steak. If we want to become a good artist, we’ll have to learn the technical skills that all artists must learn before they can begin express themselves creatively. We can exercise our ability to pray by consciously making God our first resort rather than our last resort. All too often, prayer comes only after we’ve exhausted all of our resources, when we’re almost to the point of despair. See, God becomes our first resort after we start to treat Him like one, even if we don’t trust Him at first. Remember, prayer is the expression of feeling towards God. Thus, just because you don’t trust God doesn’t mean you can’t pray to Him. Prayer is “being real with God”. Thus if you don’t trust God to give your dad a job, tell Him! Tell Him about your lack of faith, yet also about your deep desire for you dad to find a job. Thus if we want to exercise our prayer-power, we do this by praying. We will form the habit of being real with God, and through this we will learn to love Him and trust him more fully.
Finally, what prevents us from prayer? The answer is very clear: dishonesty and pride. It’s incredibly hard… sometimes evening frightening to admit to God some things. But it’s even more relieving when we become real with Him. See, you can tell God all you want that you did no wrong in your discussion with your parent or friend, that it was all “their fault”. But until you admit to Him and yourself that you could have been more Christ-like in your behavior, prayer isn’t going to come. Your heart is in the wrong place, and you can’t express your heart if you won’t admit where your heart is. This is why Calvin famously says that the key to prayer is repentance. Until we repent, we really cannot be “real” with God. If we’re not being ‘real’ with God, we’re not praying.
Well, it’s time to wrap things up. And I’m gonna tell you… I’m somewhat annoyed. I’m annoyed because this has turned out to be more of a set of theological propositions than a practical exhortation to prayer. That’s not what I intended to write. See, I write this… because so many people misunderstand prayer(just as I have for all of my life), and consequently approach it all wrong. God made us lacking so that we might be compelled to come to Him in prayer. I’d venture to say that prayer is *the* purest expression of our relationship with God. No… it *is* our relationship with God. Put it together, and you find that God made prayer so that we might be compelled to intimacy with Him. Prayer isn’t just important; it *is* the time spent with God! They say that a good marriage relationship depends on good communication and expression of feelings between husband and wife, right? Well, why would you expect it to be any different with you and God? If you’re not learning to express your heart with God, in what sense can you grow in your relationship with Him? With prayer comes intimacy. Again, compare this with marriage. Say we pray 5 minutes a day. That’s the equivalent of spending 5 minutes of your day with your wife. Sounds crazy, right? See, your prayer is your time with God. And I’m not saying all this to try to invoke your conscience, or to convince you that you have to go take 4 hours out of your day to pray with God(though that would be awesome). I want you to see prayer in perspective; in God’s eyes. Prayer is beautiful. It is a beautiful way of loving God. Prayer leads to intimacy. Don’t miss it.
The Other Quest
Written by admin on May 7th, 2010Greetins yo, ma sis, ma bro
I’d have ye hear my tale to tell
But force ye hear, I’ll not m’dear
I’ll just… suggest… you listen well.
Within the groves of Euronoves,
A forest full of bouncy beasts,
There lived a Chap named Joseph Sapp,
His species: moth. His liking: feasts.
This furry fellow of temper, mellow
Oft’ flew flights in the mist of morn
He’d get out of bed, comb the hairs on his head,
Get food, be off, come back, eat corn.
This moth one day, went walking, gay,
(And don’t you dare, say “Sam u perv”
You know what I mean, you mindless bean
Go back to your basement and eat soft serve)
Well anyhow, he passed a cow
A puffy pal, called “Caleb Lay”
The Jo squeaked “hi” as he passed him by,
Adjusting his locks, cow turned to say,
“Oh how my hair gleams, in the sunlight, it seems,
One could live his life sustained by the sight
Its glory shines forth, from the South to the North
And surely ‘twould brighten the darkest night…”
He blabbed like a fifer, ’till he spotted a heifer
His locks he licked, his eyes shot up
He flexed his biceps, abs, and triceps,
And with beefy complexion he grunted, “sup”
The Cow left behind, to flirt with his kind,
Jo fared forward into rising rays,
Of sunlight gleaming, seemingly screaming,
“It’s going to be a jolly good dayz!”
He then passed Nicole, who lived in a hole,
Where weeks went by with that wombat within,
In mysterious fogs she worshiped small dogs,
Though we all know they’re dumb she insisted, “they’re win”
On past that hole, Jo found the old mole,
Who sat in the sun finding rest on a rock
Slowly beating a gong to a depressing song,
He mourned and wept and wailed like a sock.
Trying to cheer mole, that mournful old soul,
Jo solemnly said, “a deer just died.”
“Hurrah!” Caleb said, “Something’s dead!”
And off he went, his heart blessified.
Continuing trek, Jo heard the woodpeck,
A big brawny bird by the name of “Grace B”
Jo followed the sound through the woods to the ground
Where Grace stood a’peckin an old oakwood tree.
They started to talk about shearin and chalk
But passing such panter they drove to debate,
Jo knew he would win, but said Grace with a grin,
“rebelution.com”, and sealed Joseph’s fate.
Jo left in shame with ruined name,
but fast forgot that shameful sham
For next he flew by kangaroo
A kindly kanga, “Egg Hannam”
This jumpy girl like caffiened squirrel
Would chomp on chocolate every hour
Mike Boobl, her fav, to him a slave
She was, although his tunes sound sour
Jo stopped by the ‘roo, Hannam counted to two
And with much momentum she bounced off a bluff
So down the ‘roo fell, aint much more to tell…
(Hannah don’t really do that, that’s just made up stuff) [authors note: maybe]
Jo stood there and blinked, then he said, “well that stinkt
‘fer Hannam.” That ham… what lousy life-end.
Anyhow, let’s move on, ‘git the grease fier, Jon!!!
Oh sorry, a greese fire was just ’round the bend.
At this point poor Jo, was traveling slow,
Weirded by wackos who flooded his flight
But alas there was more, for this moth-boi in store
Not knowing this fact, he went on to termite.
On his way to the nest where the termites thrive best,
He passed porta-potty in the thick of the trees
Where inside Grace Sapp with imac on lap
Surfed youtube for pleasure like nobody’s business
There at the nest Josif landed to rest
Talking to termites while resting his rump
Then along came Breunne, the most devious one
And she lit Jo afire, and Jo died on that stump.
No I kid, Josif found a small stream in the ground
So he crawled in the creek, deflaming the fire
When the flames all went down the moth started to drown
And he drowned to his death and his soul fluttered higher.
No I kid, for a stick floated by in the nick,
Of time, doomed death would wait a while,
Oh what a sad day, it was too far away
So he drowned anyway, like a fat crocodile
Forsooth! Kate McJo, saw the poor mothy go,
So she swam where he sank, and dived down, got the moth
Jo opened his eyes, and he started to rise,
And he kindly thanked Katie by eating her sloth
He turned, said goodbye, as he started to fly,
Bre bolted from nowhere and lit ‘im again,
This time, termite win, for the flames did him in,
And Mole stood by cheering and gave it a ten
Now listeners, tell, do you ever fare well
To trust the ‘termites’ of life with your life?
Truth is, suckers, no, this all goes to show,
That you never trust no one, your friends or your wife.
Live life on the edge, set to jump off a ledge,
Like Hannam the hoppy who crawled off the cliff
Flirt much as you can, if you can’t you’re no man,
Light fires, cheat, lie, steal stuff ’till you’re stiff.
Why Does Man Sin After Salvation?
Written by admin on March 4th, 2010So, man is good. Man is born sinless. Man falls. Man is now born sinful and guilty. Jesus comes. Jesus dies. Jesus’ death redeems man. Those who believe and confess are born again, back into man’s original uncorrupted state. So now man’s nature is what it was originally; good. And yet… we still sin. Why? Perhaps this is because man is still corrupted ‘to an extent’ after rebirth. This is how most would explain the dilemma; most would say something to the extent of, “Man’s flesh is still sinful, though his spirit has been regenerated”, or, “The corruption of man remains until it is worked off through sanctification”, or “We’re not fully regenerated until Jesus’ second coming.” But really, is that right? Is there still corruption in man after regeneration? It seems that the very nature of the terms “rebirth” and “regeneration” would suggest otherwise. What are we reborn into? Partial sin? Are we ‘regenerated’ to a state of less corruption than the state of corruption which we were born into? In addition, read chapters 4-7 of Romans. Paul constantly and heavily emphasizes the fact that we are “dead to sin” and “no longer slaves to sin, but slaves of righteousness.”
…So after salvation, is man’s nature still sinful and still corrupted?
I have yet to hear rational support for such an idea. I believe that if a man is saved from sin and is dead to sin, well, then he would be just that; free from sin; sinless. Doesn’t this make sense? In what sense could a man saved from sin and dead to sin still be sinful? And yet, everyone believes just this. Everyone wholeheartedly believes and says that “we’re still sinful”, “our hearts are still corrupted”, and the like. Why, why I ask?
Well, I know why. It’s because after salvation, man continues to sin. I won’t deny it; I can’t deny it. I sin. My friends sin. Those in my church sin. This seems to be a small dilemma… or rather an uncrossable chasm… in “my” neat lil theory. If after salvation we are born into a new, uncorrupted, sinless nature, why would we sin? We wouldn’t.
Hmm. This stinks. But wait. There’s more.
We have your average Christian, conservative, homeschooled kid. Let’s call him Nehemiah Ezra Rehoboam Dayson. Nerday for short. Nerd for short short. Nerdy for that perfect middle ground. Nerdy gets along with his siblings. Sometimes. Okay, no. He likes the outdoors. He likes guns. He likes formulating war strategies and talking about historical battles. He likes politics(aka badmouthing Obama). He likes to tuck his collared shirt into his darned pants. And it annoys his friend Samson Hayashida like the dickens. But yeah, like I said, Nerdy doesn’t get along too well with his sibblings. They fight over who’s turn it is to do the dishes, who used the milk last and ought to put it back in the fridge, and whose fault it was that little baby Nathan Onesimus Ohad Barnabus got locked in the basement. While mom was gone. For 10 hours.
The day after getting back from a retreat his youthgroup attended, Nerdy realizes that he doesn’t actually have a relationship with God, or at least not an intimate one. So he DOESN’T pray the sinner’s prayer(the speaker’s name at the retreat was Paul Cleaner[a joke you probably won't get unless you're really cool]), but he does actually place faith in Jesus’ resurrection, confess Jesus as Lord, and all that jazz. For all intensive purposes, Nerdy wasn’t saved prior to this experience, and is now saved after making this commitment and holding true to it.
Nerdy is excited. He feels so free that he must untuck his collared shirt from his darned pants. But then after twenty minutes he snugly re-tucks the shirt into his darned pants with a sigh of contentment. Blast. Nerdy feels that all those problems he had with his siblings will now be gone forever. A day goes by. Nerdy is sitting on the couch, doing Calculus 5. For fun. His younger brother comes up and cracks an unsuitable joke at Nerdy. Nerdy gets fired up and slugs that sucker, whose stunned carcass goes flying out the back window at the speed of light. Ok fine, Nerdy just slaps his brother with moderate force. They start bickering until their mom tells them to stop.
That evening, Nerdy, still angry at his brother, realizes something… He sinned. Nerdy wonders, “Why did I sin? Why did I get mad at John? Why did I slap him with moderate force? I havne’t changed at all… Does this mean I’m not saved from sin? Was I not sincere when I committed to following Christ?”
I don’t know about you, but this is exactly what has happened with me. After listening to a sermon or reading a passage in a book, I would “realize that I wasn’t saved”, and would break down in tears and beg God to enter my life. I’d think that everything would be changed, that my anger problems would be solved, that I would from then on be free from sin’s grasp and would be a complete “slave to righteousness”. The next day… or next hour… I’d sin, and would get very mad at myself, “realizing that I wasn’t sincere”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone through that routine. Assurance of salvation is something quite new to me; something that first appeared and has been growing stronger in me with the past 6 months.
You’re right. I’ve progressed nowhere. All I’ve done is I’ve introduced a wordy narrative portraying that which you already knew to be true. Well, here is where I make my foreign, “highly unorthodox” claim of the month. The reason why we sin after salvation is not, in fact, because we are still corrupted. Nor does the fact that we sin necessarily mean that we’re not saved. We sin after salvation out of habit.
“You’re epic claim was highly lame”, you say, also pointing out that your accusation “rhymes”. Well, let us think. Stop and think about what I said… We sin not out of the corruption of our nature, but out of habit. Fact 1. You think this sounds practically heretical, if not not practically heretical but inherently heretical. Fact 2. You have a strong craving for chocolate and peanut butter. Ignoring fact 2 for the mo(actually, forever), let me ask you. Why do you so strongly disagree with this idea I put forth? I admit, there is something in me which wants to say, “but man’s nature still IS sinful!” In saying that man’s nature is completely sinless and uncorrupted after salvation, I feel prideful, naive, unorthodox, and well, like a heretic. heh. But perhaps this is because you and I have been told that man’s nature is still sinful(in some weird, half sort of sense) after salvation since we attended Sunday school as preschoolers. And yes, I’ll give it to you that the fact that most of the Church supports MISSAR(Man is still sinful after regeneration) gives MISSAR a… lot of weight… and it probably means you should believe in it. But in this instance, I *really* see no reason to hold to the idea of MISSAR. Call me arrogant, but I think MISSAR is nothing more than an ill-thought through response to the fact that man continues to sin after salvation. I believe that Christ’s sacrifice not only allows man to be free of guilt, but that it also allows man to once again take part in a sinless, uncorrupted nature.
Romans 6:3-7
“(3)Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? (4) Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; (7) for he who has died is freed from sin.”
Now back to the concept of habit. Why do we continue to sin? We continue to sin out of habit. Nerdy got angry at and slapped his younger brother with moderate force because he had continually done this for the past 10 years, not giving a second thought about it. This formed a bad habit in nerdy, and this bad habit was not simply ‘destroyed’ in Nerdy’s experience of salvation. Yes, the sin and corruption of his nature was done away with, but not the habits he had formed during his non-regenerate life. This new idea of ‘habitual sin’ doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining; it’s a pretty simple concept that you probably already understand. But there are some important implications of it that I’d like to point out.
Habits can be changed. Man’s sinful habits can be changed into habits for good. Man can stop sinning. In this life. Completely. Stated otherwise, man can attain ‘moral perfection’(in a sense) in this life.
If that doesn’t make you want to throw your hands up and burn me on the stake, I don’t know what will. Except if I started promoting Gnosticism and/or Arianism. But I’ll hold off on those ones for now. “GAH. Sam, you dumby dumb dumb… you can’t be PERFECT. WHAT are you talking about? Then man would be able to be LIKE God, morally!!!!!” Hold up, hold up. Let’s make one thing clear. Man cannot and never will be able to reach the moral status of God. What I mean by “moral perfection” is merely sinlessness. God is beyond sinless. He is positively good, not neutrally good.
1—————–2——————3(———>)
On this chart, sinfulness would be the space between points 1 and 2. When you reach point 2, you get sinlessness, or what I have called “moral perfection”. However, you can be good beyond this point of moral perfection; goodness extends out infinitely to the right. God is infinitely good, not merely sinless or ‘morally perfect’.
I *will* wrap up now. Why have I told you this? Why have I told you that man can be perfect? Did I just feel like contradicting one of mainstream Christianity’s most major claims… for the heck of it? No. I have told you this so you can get rid of the idea that “I can’t be perfect; everyone sins!” Moral perfection isn’t some high pie in the sky fantasy which we are all to glance at every now and then and say, “meh, wish I had that.” No, the concept of moral perfection… of “being like Christ” is VERY real. And attaining it isn’t optional. You have a duty, an obligation to STOP sinning, completely. And I deny that no one has attained sinlessness here on earth. I’m convinced that there have been men to reach this status of moral perfection here in this life, on this earth. The idea that “we have to sin” is not only false… it’s just downright bad. It demotivates us to the point that we’ll stop trying to actively work against our sinful habits and will simply ‘accept’ our sin. And this is one of the main reasons why I have written this post. I write this post in an attempt to convince you to not simply ‘accept’ your sinful habits. You simply must not. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus bluntly says, “Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” You must actively be working against your sinful habits, and with God’s help, they will disappear.
Now know that I’m in no way promoting one of those silly “works-based salvation” concepts. I’ve learned to hate such concepts much more than most of you do. I’m not taking away from what Jesus did on the cross and saying “we need to perform works as well as have faith”. No, I’m doing quite the opposite. If I’m right, it much adds to the awe of Jesus’ sacrifice. It makes the difference between only the guilt of sin being gone… and actual sin being wiped out. No, I’m not saying we have to stop sinning to become saved. What I’m saying is that we as Christians have a very real goal which we are not only to strive towards, but which we are to reach.
MA SUMMARY: Let me restate the original question: Why does man continue to sin after salvation? I have set before you two answers to this question. The first, which the vast vast majority of Christians hold to is this: “Man continues to sin after salvation because he still lives in a corrupted body. Or something.” My answer to the question is this: “Man continues to sin after salvation because he has formed sinful habits as a corrupt man, and these sinful habits carry on over into his new, regenerate life.” If the vast vast majority of Christians are right, then in this life, we’ll always be inclined towards sin; sin will always be ingrained in us, and we will never be able to conquer this inclination… in this life. If I’m right, then we *will* be able to defeat this seeming ‘inclination’ towards sin, in this life. And not only will we be able to destroy our evil habits, but we will be able to form good habits, making our inclination towards good rather than towards evil. It will just be a matter of time, effort, and God’s help. And I suppose, at the core, this is what sanctification is. It is a matter of uprooting sinful habits and forming good ones.
Yes, I’ve faced reality. I know that you’ve probably stopped reading by now, and if you haven’t, you only skimmed the whole thing, and if you didn’t, you’re just plain sick of reading my silly “new ideas”. Though if you did actually read it and realize what I’m trying to say, comment… Tell me how much you still disagree with me. If you have reasons, list ‘em. If you have other comments, post ‘em. Well, whatever the case, I thank you for at least trying to cope with my noobish naivety, and wish you a good rest of the day. AND STOP SINNING.
The Trinity: Mysterious and Beautiful
Written by admin on January 12th, 2010Something I’ve been contemplating for a while is the matter of the Trinity. How can Jesus be both God and man? Does Jesus’ incarnation mean that God is in the flesh? Why is it that Jesus talks with God as if He is not God?
The Trinity is a fascinating field of doctrine. Beyond it being interesting, I am beginning to realize just how important it is to have at least a basic orthodox understanding of this doctrine. I would guess that more than half of the major heresies were(or rather, are) based off of misunderstandings of the Trinity. In fact, if I asked you to give me a summary of the essence of the Trinity, I wouldn’t be surprised if what you told me bordered on heresy. Heretic. lol
Most often, modern evangelicals view the Trinity as simply “a mystery.” They leave it at that, accepting the general idea that Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are one; basically, they deem the doctrine to be too deep for mankind to grasp. Well, there is certainly an element of mystery in this doctrine, but there is also a large part which we can understand, and very much should understand. I would go so far as to say that man is capable of understanding all truth. However, we will simply never know ‘all truth’ granted there is infinite truth… and time. But that’s another post. It’s important to realize that within Trinitary doctrine there is nothing contradictory. Non-Christians will often point at the doctrine of the Trinity as inconsistent, and rightly so; the way modern evangelicals portray it, it does seem inconsistent. Evangelicals will reply, “it’s a mystery”, which non-Christians take as, “Maybe it is contradictory, but I still want to believe in my religion”. I’ll say it again. There is nothing contradictory within the truth of the Trinity.
The Trinity is both completely consistent and mystically beautiful. Its mystic beauty comes not in its doing of the impossible, but rather in its beautifully sound and unparalleled reality. And thus, so that you can walk away with a good, orthodox understanding, I shall summarize the doctrine as I understand it to the best of my ability. Perhaps I will later on post and make amendments to what I am about to post.
There are five prominent components to the Trinity:
- Divine nature
- Human nature
- The Father
- The Son
- The Holy Spirit
The first thing I ought to clear up is this: there is a difference, a distinction between “God” and “The Father”. People most often confuse the boundary between these two different ‘things’. “God” refers to what I just called Divine nature, and “The Father” refers to what you might expect.
Divine nature and Human nature are natures. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are persons.
What is a person? A person is, in essence, an individual consciousness. Philip Schaff(a reaaaally sweet, brilliant Church historian guy) defines ‘person’ in his creeds of Christendom as “the Ego, the self-conscions, self-asserting and acting subject.” It is nothing more; neither the soul nor the spirit, nor anything beyond consciousness is a part of the ‘person’. Suppose the following is a truth: “Jimmy Puff picked up a rock.” There are two truths which can be extracted from this ‘broader truth’. According to this truth, both someone and something performed an action. The something that performed an action was a human being; flesh, soul, and spirit… a creation of God, a large compilation of matter, a spiritual being. However, this is not all we learn from the Jimmy Puff truth. We also learn that someone performed an action. This someone, Jimmy Puff, is merely self-consciousness. This person cannot be described as what acted, but rather who acted. It can’t be explained any other way. There really isn’t much to it, yet, it’s taken me a couple months of contemplation to get the place where I understand the concept of ‘person’.
What is a nature? A nature is, in essence, everything else. A nature can basically be viewed as the substance of a being; the flesh, spirit, soul, mind, and qualities of a being. Schaff defines ‘nature’ as “the totality of powers and qualities which constitute a being.”
———————————————————————————
Let us start with the divine nature(’God’). The divine nature is everything which we view as God; ‘it’ is omnipotence, omniscience, love, mercy… all the qualities and truths of ‘that thing mentioned in the Bible, which guided the writing of the Bible’. Make sense? Now, how do the three persons of God fit in? The three persons are three, individual, completely distinct consciousnesses of the Divine nature. You may have started to get confused. The concept is quite simple, though. Think about it. One substance is simply conscious three times.
To illustrate, let’s take my body as an example. I have substance, I can think, I have a soul and a spirit. Now let’s say you hop out of your body and into mine. However, I don’t switch bodies with you, I stay in mine. Thus we have two indidvidual consciousnesses acting in one body. I would have the same body, spirit, and soul as you. It’s hard to say how control over the body would play out in this instance given the limits of matter… but imagine the same thing happening, but within the context of a supernatural being. This is, in essence, how the Trinity works. God is one substance, however, this substance is conscious three times.
The three individual consciousnesses are the three persons of God. The three persons of God are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And now we come to the matter of Jesus, and how human nature fits into the trinity.
The second person of the Trinity, the Son, has two substances. He has both the divine substance and the human substance. Jesus is not a mixture of God and man. He is not solely God, nor solely man. He is fully God AND fully man. Thus Jesus partakes in(is conscious in) the same nature as the Father and Holy Spirit; He has the same omnipotent, omniscient, just, merciful, loving substance as them. Yet He also has(is conscious in) a physical body, a human spirit, and a human soul. Stop for a moment. Think about it. Is there anything inherently contradictory in what I have put forth? Nothing so far as I can tell, and I encourage you to speak up if you think something is contradictory within this doctrine.
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Some common mistakes in anti-Trinity reasoning:
The Son is all of God.
The Father is all of God.
Therefore the Son is all of the Father.
This is an argument I’ve commonly run across. Here’s the mistake it makes: Both the premises are false. Yes, in one sense it makes sense and is correct to say, “Each of the three persons of God comprise all of the substance(nature) of God, and therefore each of the persons of God *are* all God.” In any normal, informal talk, such a statement is perfectly acceptable. However, when it comes to formal logic, you cannot equate the persons of God to the substance of God(Divine nature). Technically speaking, consciousness(person) cannot be equated to substance(nature), and therefore each of the three persons of God *are not* the substance of God. Rather they ‘have’ the substance of God.
Luke 2:52 says that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. This would mean that Jesus did not have complete wisdom. God has complete wisdom. Therefore Jesus cannot be God.
Another common argument. Here’s what’s wrong with this reasoning: it has the underlying assumption, “Jesus had only one nature.” It completely ignores the fact that in reality, Jesus had two natures. You see, Jesus’ man substance was not perfectly wise while at the same time His God-substance was perfectly wise.
There is one more major thing that results in confusion and seems to poke holes in the stability of Trinity teaching. When the Bible says, “God”, it is not necessarily referring to “The Divine Nature”; it is not necessarily referring to ‘all the substance which comprises the supremely Divine being’. No, often times when the Bible says “God”, it is referring to only the Father. Thus when the Bible says something suggesting that God is one, it is most likely referring to the Father. Take in mind that the mystery of the Trinity was not revealed to those of the Old Testament… and in the New Testament, there was no official, orthodox understanding of the Trinity until the 300’s.
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I find that in the end, God’s truth always prevails. I, being the person I am, was very skeptical of Trinitary doctrine before I had an orthodox understanding of it. However, as time has gone by and as I’ve contemplated(and argued for, haha) this idea, I find that it is perfectly sound. In fact, I’d go beyond this and say that the truth of the Trinity is beautifully sound. The more I contemplate its truth, the more I realize just how beautiful it is. Community… at perfection. Gah, I just can’t escape the word ‘beautiful’… God truly is mysteriously beautiful. The essence of the Trinity is so profoundly simple… much more simple than I ever would have thought. Yet, as I’ve begun reading Augustine’s 400 page book, “On the Trinity”, I’ve also come to realize just how deep its truth is as well.
My guess is that all I’ve done is confuse you more. And so, I command ALL of you, if you have ANY questions after reading this, comment and ask. Seeing as a blog post is in a purely informative format, the most I can do is give a summary of the basics. I know you all still have questions, so again, I ask you to inquire so I can respond to what needs clarification. I’ll(try to… meh) extend this post when I have a feeling of what needs to be written.