Thursday, January 11, 2007

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog. As I have recently come to embrace the doctrines of grace (the five points of calvinism) I decided that a new blog would be good. After all it's sort of a new chapter in my life and the way I view Christian theology has changed. Now I'll say that much has remained just the same, after all I haven't joined a cult. More accurately I've come accross inaccuracies in what I was believing as 4 out of 5 point Calvinist. And as I've read so many times, I have now realized it is true, that to believe only 3 or 4 out of the 5 points in inconsistent. I've finally been confronted with Scripture on the issue of Limited Atonement and now that the light bulb has come on, it has opened a door to a whole new world of how I view God in His sovereignty and in His love for sinners, as well as His justice. It has been an illuminating couple of months as I have been studying and thinking over the doctrines of grace and even my view of election and the other points that I already embraced have been deepened in their understanding. The truth is, I feel like this is an exciting time in my walk with the Lord Jesus and I am eager to explore deeper and deeper into His word with my new grasp on what is and always was His eternal truth.

I will be doing a series of posts on the five points of calvinism very soon and look forward to putting it all out there for discussion with friends and family and even strangers. I hope to be able to show you how powerfully Scripture has gripped me and convinced me in these truths and perhaps challenge those of you who read this to consider these truths for yourselves.

I'm excited, I hope you are too!

IN CHRIST -Jacob

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to be gentle in how I approach this issue. I most certainly do not want to hurt your feelings. I've watched you since before you started taking classes through Moody and subsequently through your blog. It's great that you love Christ. I believe that your love is genuine. Your pursuit of biblical knowledge though, has changed you into one that I really can no longer relate to. You have become and are becoming more, a super-Christian. Biblical debate has become your manifest, clearly exposed in your blog writings. Consistently, I read your blog and think "He's not the same Jacob. He's not the one we used to know." It frightens me to know that at one time, I was the same. I wanted more knowledge of the Bible, more classes, more books. Fortunately, a good friend who also was more concerned about the direction I was heading than my personal feelings, told me I had changed. I was trying to impress others with what I had learned. I could no longer see the forest for the trees.

I needed that and some other very hard hits to bring me back to square one. Back to the foot of the cross crying "God have mercy on me a sinner", and hoping that no one is watching that my actions could be interpreted as being self righteous. It eased the load as I have allowed myself to be human again. A screw up, who desperately needs Jesus. I remember having memorable conversations with you about this very issue. Our failures and our need for Christ. I wouldn't have that conversation with you now though. I can no longer relate with you. You have become the type of person I try to avoid. Everything is theology or polemics.

As I sit to write this, I feel as though I lost a friend. A confidant. One in whom I could relate with well.

Again, I do not mean for this to hurt you. That is not my intention. I'm not out to show you that your wrong. I only wish you were still the Jacob I used to know. The real Jacob who was passionate about Christ and didn't really care about all of the complexities of the concepts of Christ.

Be yourself.

-your friend
et cognoscetis veritatem et veritas liberabit vos

Mark 1:17 said...

Just wanted to let you know that MacArthur will be here at Moody for Founders week Feb 5-10.

I hope sit in on more than a few of his sessions!!!

Sounds like I am going to like this new blog of yours!!!

Keep it up!

Dave

Anonymous said...

I prayed with you one night. I pray for you again. May God bless you as you "grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."

2 Peter 3:17-18
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Don't forget your first love.

risen_soul said...

well, anonymous. If you are my friend it would have been nice of you to identify yourself.

"not the same Jacob" Well that is true, as I hope it is true with any Christian who seeks to grow in their relationship with Christ. I'm not the same person I was 4 years ago, a year ago or even last week. Why? Because as I study the word of God I am being transformed into His likeness. Sanctified in His truth (John 17:17).

This is not to say that I have been made perfect, indeed far from it. However I recognize that while I am yet a wretched sinner God has shown me His wonderful grace and adopted me as a son.

It is a foolish misnomer to say that the pursuit of Biblical truth and knowledge should change anyone in a bad way if it is indeed the truth and Christ the author of truth whom they really seek. After all it is the word of God that deepens our walk with Christ and makes us more like Him by His Spirit.

As far as my passion for the Lord Jesus Christ, it is stronger than ever. I have plenty of room for growth, but I have grown a lot. I love to share the gospel and do so on a regular basis.

Impressing people with what I have learned is the farthest thing from my mind. I fear God not man, I could care less about what people think of me or my beliefs, I only care what God thinks of me.

The reason I blog/write or preach for that matter is because I am excited about the truth that God reveals in His word, I am excited about what God has done for me and other sinners like me. AND the word of God tells me that it is my responsibility to share the gospel and all that Jesus has taught and commanded (Matthew 28:16:28) and of course we are told that Jesus is the author of all Scripture since He is God (2 Tim. #:16-17).

It is a foolish thing that the world, and even many Christians content to feed on nothing more than the milk of the word, like to espouse that searching out the deeper thing of the Bible and of Christ is somehow bad. As if being intellectually inteligent and challenging oneself to know as much of what God revealed as possible is a bad thing.

There are few thing, take that back nothing, more important than knowing God as He has revealed himself in His word, and correctly understanding what He has told us about the gospel.

I need the mercy of Christ most certainly as anyone. And I do have to go back to God time to time and ask for Him to show mercy on me a sinner, but I don't think that that means we should just be happy to learn "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so" and not go any further. I am one of those pain in the rear Christians that can't get enough of God and His truth. Shame on me.

I debate and use reason for apologetics and polemics because being right about the gospel matters. Being wrong about the gospel can wind someone up in Hell. I debate because I care. When you see someone standing in front of a speeding train the nice thing to do is push them out of the way, sometimes that requires a bit of force, but it's all in love.

I'm not perfect I sometimes argue just to argue, but my heart is knowing Jesus and making Him more known. If that angers you and others like you, I can live with that. I try and do wha tI believe Scripture commands me to do. I will stand before God and give an account for every word one day, as will you. I must do here on earth everything that I can to honor Him. Not searching the deep truths of Scripture, and not telling people when they are serious err, is not the way I perceive that is done.

It's laughable that you would use a Latin phrase meaning the truth will set you free, when the truth is what I am pursuing and the truth is what you say I should ease up on.

You said: "The real Jacob who was passionate about Christ and didn't really care about all of the complexities of the concepts of Christ."

I'm quite glad that I am not that Jacob anymore. Now I am the Jacob that is passionate about Christ and all the complexities of our awesome God as He desires for us to explore in His Scripture. Or do you think that the Bible is just meant for a decorative mantle piece to occasionally flip through when you need something from God?

You weren't trying to hurt me, and I not you. The problem is each one of us thinks the other needs to wake up.

In Christ.

-Jacob

Anonymous said...

Looking at your response, I see what I wrote had an impact on you. That's all that I wanted. I won't bother you again.

-your friend
et cognoscetis veritatem et veritas liberabit vos

Steve Thompson said...

Jacob,

Well I should have figured that you had become a 4.89351 point Calvinist! It was heading in that direction:) I think there could be legitimate debate on whether someone can be consistent and not hold completely to all 5 theological points! (I will save that for another day) My comment was to Anonymous. As someone who has known you personally for 3 years and spent time ministering with you in a local church, I have to say that you have not lost your desire to glorify Jesus Christ (make Him look good in your life) because of your gratitude for what He has done in your life. To be honest, this was a very bizarre and inappropriate statement to make anonymous. Either two things are going on:

1. Either you are a close friend, who doesn't think that Matthew 18 applies to you. Therefore, instead of talking with Jacob in another setting you bring your concerns up in a forum that promotes gossip and possible slander/libel. In which case, you really aren't being a good friend.

2. The other option is that you are someone that doesn't interact with people face to face. Thus, your friends come through the internet on chat rooms and blogs. If this is the case, you really need to shut your computer off and get plugged into a real Bible study where you can talk with real people and share your life with them.

I don't know what the case is anonymous, but I would hope that you would consider that this isn't the best forum to pursue these things. If you are a person who really knows Jacob, go talk to him and don't share it here. If you are some anonymous person who interacts with people solely on the internet, quit it!

In Christ,
Steve