Jesus loves you.
He died for your sins.
God has a wonderful plan for your life.

I was disappointed to hear this lame and rather overused jargon again today. If good theology is the meat of the Word of God and if some are only able to drink milk because of a lack of maturity, then this is the marshmallow of the Bible. Not any marshmallow, mind you. This is the marshmallow that as a kid I shoved onto the end of a stick and held over a fire. I’d invariably hold the mallow right in the flame and I would be rewarded with a huge fireball on the end of my stick. Ten seconds later it was over and I had a huge, puffy, blackened gob that was crusty, then gooey, then raw. The mallow would then end up as a sticky mess all over my hands, shirt and especially my face… That’s the marshmallow I’m talking about here.

I guess I have a couple of questions. Does John 3:16 say that God loved everyone in the whole world equally, or does it tell how God showed his love to those whom he had chosen?

If Jesus actually died for the sins of every single person, why won’t every person go to heaven…or will they? Was Jesus death only able to bring about the possibility of the remission of sin or did it actually complete that remission?

Is God the great planner in the sky whose wishes are constantly thwarted at every turn by people who can arbitrarily decide their own destiny? Wow. We really are powerful then. It is we who stand in the balance. I have this vision of God. He’s pacing. He’s wringing his hands. He’s visibly concerned. He’s muttering as he paces. “Why did I spend all that energy making all these plans?” “Why can’t people just go along with what I’ve planned for them?” “I wish they’d just do what I want?” “It’s just so frustrating.” I guess the real question is if God is all powerful and if every molecule is upheld by the word of his power what difference would there be between God’s plan for us or God’s will and reality?

Another thing that I heard today was that the devil had conquered, or supposedly conquered, Christ for the short term, but Christ won when he was resurrected from the dead foiling Satan’s plan. Hmmm. I guess Isaiah’s writing that it pleased the Lord to smite him wasn’t really true. I guess God’s releasing his wrath toward sin on His son isn’t really how we are made righteous.

Anyway. Whatever.

Picture is of a wagon way back in a field over by Mendon, MI.

The Rise of the Romanists

There’s a new trend with young people today. We all need an authority over us in order to feel secure in our place, and we live in a maturing anti-authoritarian age. Parents have allowed children to do whatever the children want. Schools have labeled behavior problems “learning disabilities” and we reward the anti-authoritarian attitudes. The majority of evangelical protestant churches have taken a very anti-authoritarian approach in order to attract attendees. The gospel has been relegated from the central authority of our lives to a nice social and emotional addition to our lives.

I see the children of this era as wanting a solid foundation that is outside of themselves, and they are turning to institutions which are willing to provide it. They end up in prison, the military, the Jehovah Witnesses, and the Roman Catholic Church.

I know several friends who have ventured to the Roman Church as a means of finding definition and authority under which they might flourish. One of them in particular can be found at http://paleocrat.blogspot.com/

I’m not sure if this makes sense? Any comments?

The picture is a photo I took of the Roman Catholic Church in Mendon, MI.