The Reason for God

I recently wrote a post for my church's ShelfLife website (our online theological book club if you will). Different members have written posts for each chapter of our current book, Tim Keller's The Reason for God. My post is about chapter 8, where he discusses different "proofs" or "clues" for God. You can find it here: watermarkblogs.org/shelflife/

This book is a great basic introduction to apologetics. If you want to learn how to defend the faith, you should definitely grab a copy. Reading it might be a good second step :)

What Does Sovereignty Mean?

In this post, I really just want to ask a question. Is God sovereign? And what does that mean? I know that most of us have strong opinions on this (even if we don’t realize we do). I definitely have my own opinions on the matter, but I want to hear what other people think. I think that there are difficult questions for either side, so don’t just give a yes or no, but try to answer (as best you can) the difficult questions surrounding your view. (Please include other questions if you can think of some that I overlooked).

If you do believe that God controls everything then (1) how do you still account for human responsibility and (2) how do you account for evil? Is God responsible for it?

If you do not believe that God controls everything then (1) is he truly omnipotent and omniscient (does he know the future?) and (2) is it possible that his ultimate plan could fail?

Keep it friendly :)

American Patriotism or Worship?

In ancient Rome the line between patriotism and worship was often non-existent. This was not so much a unity of state and religion as we conceive of it in Medieval European terms. It was not the religion that the emperor chose to support, but the popularly accepted way of understanding reality. Naturally, the state used these emotionally packed symbols and beliefs to encourage loyalty among it’s populace. Dead emperors were even sometimes declared to be gods.

As I learn about the Roman popular cult, I naturally compare it to America. We pride ourselves on our separation of church and state (meaning that we have no state-sponsored religion), but where do we draw the line between patriotism and worship? When do our use of emotionally packed symbols and our glorification of past leaders and generations become cultic? It’s interesting by way of example to see what is engraved above ol’ Abes head in the Lincoln Memorial: “In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.” Note the consistent use of religious language.

As Christians I believe we are called to submit to the state and to serve it when necessary. But we need to be sure to “give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matt 22:21; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25)

So far I’ve only really raised the question. I haven’t quite got the answer yet. Something to think about.