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Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

This blog will be written from an orthodox Christian point of view. There may be some topic that is out of bounds, but at present I don't know what it will be. Politics is a part of life. Theology and philosophy are disciplines that we all participate in even if we don't think so. The Bible has a lot to say about economics. How about self defense? Is war ethical? Think of all the things that someone tells you we should not touch and let's give it a try. Everything that is a part of life should be an expression of worship.

Keep it courteous and be kind to those less blessed than you, but by all means don't worry about agreeing. We learn more when we get backed into a corner.

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Opus 2025-064: The Old Five

If you mention the five today, you have people respond by thinking about a TV program.  If you are a little older, you might think of the five finger discount.  I think I watched at least part of the show on occasion but it is not regular viewing for me because I don’t normally watch TV.  However, in Christian circles, there is another five it has mentioned, and I believe it is the five soli, with soli being a plural Latin word for alone or only.

I believe the context is salvation and people who endorse this will say that you are saved by,
Grace alone.
Faith alone.
Christ alone
The glory of God alone
Scripture alone.

Anyone with a logical mind looking at this would think this is nonsense.  You can’t have five different things each one being attributed with the adjective “alone”.  So we have to think of this in a little bit different way to even try to grasp what is being said.  You see, if it’s by grace alone then you don’t need faith.  If it’s by faith alone, you don’t need grace.  It is by either grace or faith alone, you don’t need Jesus, and so forth. That is the logical approach.

The Bible does teach the importance of each one of these.  It might be more productive to say that if you leave any of them out, you don’t have salvation, but to say each one by itself is the source is logical nonsense.

Take grace for instance.  Grace refers to an act of God, which is put into motion purely by the choice of God.  It cannot be forced.  It cannot be bought.  It cannot be earned.  It is the free choice of God to bestow his grace upon people.  It is this act of God that is necessary for salvation, because there’s nothing we can do in our own power to cancel the sin or earn the status.  So far, so good.

My question would be, “On what basis does God make the decision to bestow saving grace?”  Five Point Calvinism would say that it is totally up to God whom He chooses to bestow salvation on.  It is arbitrary.  From my point of view this is making God totally capricious.  I don’t believe God does things arbitrarily, for no reason.  At the same time we cannot earn His favor.

I think this is where free will and being created in the image of God comes in.  We have attitudes.  We make moral choices.  God looks at those and beyond it to the heart directing those choices and decides whom He will save.  Notice the adjective “moral”.   I really don’t think God is concerned about whether you went to McDonald’s or Burger King.  In fact, both might condemn you.  It is the choices that would reflect the two Bible concepts of “righteousness” and “wickedness”.  There is a level on which we can make those choices freely.  I think God notices those things.  He seems to keep bringing them up.

Of course God can see nuances that we can’t even imagine.  My principle point is that a just God would not make choices like that on a celestial flip of the coin.  He might make it the best out of five.

homo unius libri

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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.