Monday, February 07, 2005
The Foolishness of God
Weapons of Warfare has a wonderful post regarding apologetics.
"In the end, all the evidences and proofs of the existence of God will come to naught if God himself does not work in the heart of the person hearing. No argument, however logical, will suffice to bring anyone to salvation."
I want to link this statement to the current post at Evangelical Underground regarding gay marriage and polygamy, because the two are connected.
As Paul said in Corinthians, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men and that it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. What an odd concept. Why not simply plead to the intellect of men regarding salvation or even to what is godly living?
Well, remember the Sinai experience? God came down from heaven onto Mt. Sinai in full majesty (as seen in the face of Moses) and power (thunder, earth shaking) and the people feared, but did not believe. The people saw the law as repressive, as being handed out by a terrible God and his blinding mediator. Their fear sparked rebellion, not submission.
The law was obviously meant to keep the people from harm, and what is more logical than the 10 commandments? But the people loved sin and hated the law for what it exposed in them. So much for pleading to the intellect of man!
So what do you do as a deity with a bunch of people who won't listen to reason? That deity pleads, not to the carnal mind, but to the heart, the eternal spirit. After all, God is a spirit. No wonder the Gospel seems like so much crazy talk to the non-believer, it's not rational to them. The spirit must be made ready by God's power to accept what the mind says is foolishness. How is that spirit made ready? By the grace of God. The grace that holds-up all the universe.
We should see Jesus and him only. We should only view God through the prism of Christ and leave the rest to the "wise". So when someone asks if gay marriage is right or if polygamy should be legal I think it's best to return with something like "all is naught, all is emptiness, vanity and chasing after the wind without the cleansing blood of Christ". They will think you're a fool, but you'll be in good company.
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"In the end, all the evidences and proofs of the existence of God will come to naught if God himself does not work in the heart of the person hearing. No argument, however logical, will suffice to bring anyone to salvation."
I want to link this statement to the current post at Evangelical Underground regarding gay marriage and polygamy, because the two are connected.
As Paul said in Corinthians, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men and that it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. What an odd concept. Why not simply plead to the intellect of men regarding salvation or even to what is godly living?
Well, remember the Sinai experience? God came down from heaven onto Mt. Sinai in full majesty (as seen in the face of Moses) and power (thunder, earth shaking) and the people feared, but did not believe. The people saw the law as repressive, as being handed out by a terrible God and his blinding mediator. Their fear sparked rebellion, not submission.
The law was obviously meant to keep the people from harm, and what is more logical than the 10 commandments? But the people loved sin and hated the law for what it exposed in them. So much for pleading to the intellect of man!
So what do you do as a deity with a bunch of people who won't listen to reason? That deity pleads, not to the carnal mind, but to the heart, the eternal spirit. After all, God is a spirit. No wonder the Gospel seems like so much crazy talk to the non-believer, it's not rational to them. The spirit must be made ready by God's power to accept what the mind says is foolishness. How is that spirit made ready? By the grace of God. The grace that holds-up all the universe.
We should see Jesus and him only. We should only view God through the prism of Christ and leave the rest to the "wise". So when someone asks if gay marriage is right or if polygamy should be legal I think it's best to return with something like "all is naught, all is emptiness, vanity and chasing after the wind without the cleansing blood of Christ". They will think you're a fool, but you'll be in good company.
# posted by Joe Florida @ 6:48 AM 
