Christ Offered Himself

Hebrews 9 "Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins." 9:14 (NLT) Father God, There is nothing I can do, or not do, to be acceptable in Your sight. My good behavior will never cover my sinfulness. To think that I would have to do something of value to have worth in Your eyes would not only put me in bondage to daily striving to perform perfectly, but it would annul Christ's perfect gift offered for me. By accepting His payment on my behalf, He set me free to seek You in open fellowship.

Without A Cause

Without A Cause

My heart is burning with excitement, joy, and peace, the kind that words cannot convey. I am completely satisfied in God’s love for us.

A part of my joy is prompted by John 15.25:

It was to fulfill the word that is written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.' (Joh 15:25 NRSV)

Open Theism and Doubt

Open theism and doubt

I’m glad you found the place that fits your beliefs. Go of it!

Lots of people have doubts, some of them find a solution.

Thomas had doubts, it put him behind others, he could not experience God’s glory without a personal inspection. Doubt didn’t serve him well.

OPEN THEISM’S ATTACK ON THE ATONEMENT

OPEN THEISM’S ATTACK ON THE ATONEMENT*

 John MacArthur 

President and Professor of Pastoral Ministries 

Open theism arose in evangelicalism over a decade ago when evangelicals posited a God to whom one can easily relate and who is manageable in place of a God who punishes sinners for their sin. This they did by proposing a model of Christ’s atonement that was not substitutionary. To do so they adopted the model of the 16th-century Socinian heresy, which taught that God could forgive without the payment of a ransom.

The biblical doctrine, however, is that Christ’s atonement was substitutionary, a teaching that was not immediately defined in the early church, but which Anselm stated clearly during the 16th century. Open theists on the other hand tend to vacillate between the inadequate positions of Abelard and Grotius in their views of the atonement.

Good stuff

Here is wisdom

Why I Choose To Believe the Bible

The Bible is probably the most studied it book in history. Linguist, Christian and non-Christian, stake their reputations on the accuracy of the text that they use. The New Testament texts that we have are written within 100 Years of the original, therefore they are the most accurate documents that we can have and use

The errors and forgeries concept, that you mention, comes when people think that one translation is made from another translation that is made from another translation, that would in fact create errors. Those that advance that theory either don’t know how translation is done, or they are evil in their intent (or both)

Simon Greenleaf and Evidence

Simon Greenleaf is one of my heroes. He was a lawyer in Main and Massachusetts from 1806-1848 (The first wagon went up the Oregon Trail from St Louis in 1836). He was a reporter of the Supreme Court of Maine for 12 years and published nine volumes of their records (no computer!).

He was an intelligent man and one of the principal founders of the Harvard Law School and he was an expert on what was admissible evidence in court.[i] The thing that impresses me about Greenleaf is that he applied the principals of his profession to see if the Bible would stand up in court as reliable evidence. He applied the evidentiary rules to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and he concluded that the admissible evidence from these books was sufficient to prove in any fair court of law that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was indeed fact—not hoax, myth or fiction.[ii]