Chosen but Free by Norman Geisler

Norman Geisler's “Chosen but Free” attempts to show a middle answer to the question of “How can God be Sovereign AND man still be responsible for his actions?” especially as it relates to salvation. An outline of the book looks like this (mostly from contents): (parenthesis are mine)

I.Who is in Charge? (Sovereignty of God)
II.Why blame me? (Man's free will)
III. Viewing the Alternatives
IV. Avoiding Extreme Calvinism (read historic Calvinism)
A.Definition of Extreme Calvinism (brief)
B.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism's view of Total Depravity
C.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism's view of Unconditional Election
V.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism (cont.)
A.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism's view of Limited Atonement
B.Extreme Calvinism's God is not really All-Loving
C.Avoiding Extreme Calvinism's view of Irresistible Grace
VI. Avoiding Extreme Arminianism
VII. A Plea for Moderation
VIII. What Difference does it Make?

This was altogether a poor book.
Geisler does not seem to really understand historic Calvinism, he often uses straw men or misrepresents his opponents, and he does not adequately deal with the biblical texts on his subject.

Read The Potter's Freedom by James R. White for a detailed analysis of this work.

America and Katrina

Note: Due to the fact that I am not a professional nor am I perfect the following my be erroneous or deficient in some areas. I will gladly welcome any comments.
Recently I went to Louisiana and visited some of the areas that Katrina damaged and destroyed. I was able to visit New Orleans, Slidell (North of New Orleans) and Lakeshore, Mississippi and I was able to talk to people down there doing volunteer relief work. Though the time I was down there was short and I did only a small amount of work, I was able to learn about the character of America.
I learned first of all that Katrina really was a big deal, and still is a big deal. There are still miles of streets without houses on them. There are and unimaginable number of properties where nothing has been done to rebuild the houses that were just removed by Katrina. There are an equally unimaginable number of houses that have to be gutted and repaired. For people to say that Katrina is not still news worthy is to ignore reality, however I can understand some incense at the mishandling of the topic by the media.
I saw the culture and some of what would make a person want to live down there. Shrimp is actually cheaper per pound then chicken in some places down there. Family and friends seem to be closer down there. In New Orleans itself the architecture is very unique. People there are more deeply rooted. All of the above are reasons why many people still want to live there.
Unfortunately I also learned that Americans every where are governmentally dependant – they seem to rely on the government (especially the federal government to get them out of any tight spot. Hurricane Katrina was going to be big – that is what every one was told – they were told to evacuate. Not everyone did. There are two possible reasons for that. Either they were able to go and just did not go, or they were unable to go; either they did not ask for help or it was not given.
It is the local and state government’s job to 1) Evacuate for an emergency. 2) Make sure that local and state emergency workers are prepared. 3) Start the relief effort and maintain it for the first three to four days. None of these was done adequately by states and local governments. Those people who were running the relief effort also failed to allow volunteers to help out, they were turned away when is some cases they were adequately prepared for doing work. NOPD was unable to respond adequately not because the officers went AWOL but because the officers were not supplied to handle the job, thus many of them went AWOL.
For the recovery stage I learned that too many people did not have and good way to recover- FEMA, being a federal agency, is full of bureaucracy and a general waste of taxes and therefore unable to do an adequate job of recovery. It seemed that a community effort to recover should have been present; instead of relying on federal government and volunteer groups from outside that area. The affected communities (families, friends, and neighbors, not government) should have worked together to recover quickly, with outside volunteers as support or backup. It may be that I just missed that part of the recovery effort or that there was no community left, but I think there should have been a greater community left, but I think there should have been a greater community effort than what I saw.
I think that most of the problems that were revealed by Katrina were ultimately from laziness. I realize that I am part of the problem and I am going to work to change that.

Virtues of Fiction

Sorry for the long wait from the last post; I plan to post at least once a week for the rest of the year. I will be reviewing books that I read to fill in when I don't have anything to say or when I have not yet articulated what I want to say. Most of the time I read fiction books (of varying types). I wish now to show a few reasons why it can be beneficial to read fiction.
Fiction stimulates the imagination while reading a narrative one uses the imagination automatically to “see” what happens in the story. Imagination is “the act or power of forming mental images of what is not actually present.”1 Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” 2 Necessity may be the mother of invention but imagination is the father, for without imagination the inventor cannot think of a new way to solve the problem.
Reading fiction can stimulate your intellect; anyone reading critically can exercise their mind. One can study ethical problems though fiction. (as in “What would the right thing to do be in this character's position?”) Philosophy and Theology are also easily studied (as in “Do I agree with the thoughts of this character or the ideas of the author?) Other general facts that are found in fiction books can be researched to find out if they are true.
Educators and philosophers (thinkers) use fiction to illustrate their ideas. Jesus Christ in particular used some well known stories called parables to illustrate with: The Parable of the Good Samaritan to show an Israelite that everyone is your neighbor, and the parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates the Love of God toward sinners are two examples of parables well know because their titles are now common English phrases.
Many works of fiction have significantly altered peoples views of practices, problems, of injustices. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book that changed many opinions and helped the end slavery in the US. A book that I read recently that caused some serious thoughts when I read it was The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick. I will admit that I ought to be reading more thought provoking books, especially of the nonfiction variety, than I am.

The Shepherd of the Hills

SBN: 50000 (Fiction)
Title: Shepherd of the Hills
Author: Harold Bell Wright
Publisher: A. L. Burt Co.
Quality: 8
Difficulty: 6
Worldview: 7 (Deistic – Evangelical)
Summary:
A stranger from the city comes to the Ozarks. Daniel Howitt (for that is his name) decides to live there and teaches that to be a noble person it is not necessary to live in the city. Rather, being noble has to do with one's character and the way one uses one's self. I could say more but that would give away the story.

Government by Supreme Principle

Many men have been praising Democracy and elections to day as if that is good in the world. However some more recent events show that that is not a true statement. Democracy, that it is the form of government whereby the governed popularly elect their leaders, has failed and will continue to fail, to give all men freedom, justice and order, these are the three Supreme Principles of good government. Please do not mistake me, I do not mean for any of the three to be overweighted, though they must stay in that order, but rather that they must be in harmony with each other.
The Principle of Freedom is that each person must get what is most his due without taking from his fellow citizen. Lady Liberty has a torch and smile to show to each his right to life, to liberty, to own property, to worship as he pleases, to speak as he chooses.
The Principle of Justice is that to each man who takes the rights of another without just cause it must be repaid to him the same in proportion of the proof of the crime. Lady Justice weighs out the penalty with the crime and caries the sword to exact the price.
The Principle of Order is that the government is ruled by law, the for the purpose of preserving the higher rights of the people, the government may make rules which take away some of the lower rights and in emergency some of the higher rights may be temporally suspended in order to preserve those higher than the ones suspended. Lady Wisdom calls in the streets to “give understanding to the simple” and preserve the liberty and the justice provided by her sisters.
A perfect government may come in any form but it is always the one in which those three sisters work and sing in perfect harmony and no person in that government's domain is neglected.
I know no government in this life will be perfect so each must be judged on how close it comes to having those Principles, and though they work in harmony Freedom is the eldest and Order the youngest and that is their order of importance. Each government must also be judged on how rapidly it draws near to or leads away from those principles.

Wilderness: the Discovery of a Continent of Wonder

SBN(Simple Book Number):30000 (History)
Title: Wilderness: the Discovery of a Continent of Wonder
Author: Rutherford Platt
Publisher: City, Year: Dodd, Mead & Company: New York, 1961
Quality (How Factual, Useful, etc. is the book)(0-10): 5
Vocabulary or Difficulty(0-10): 3 (4th grade)
Worldview(0-10): 4 (Atheistic)

Summary: This is a book about America being discovered; about the wilderness in its prime before any European stepped foot in it and settled it.

Cautions: It presents Evolution and sister theories as fact. One pen drawing of Sacajawea nude from the waist up.

Individualism vs. Collectivism in Biblical Christianity

Christianity recognizes that individual rights come first; that because man is sinful he wishes to take away the rights of others and that for order and justice to prevail all God given rights must be preserved, except when 1)justice has already determined that an evil doer has forfeited his right because he unlawfully took it from others 2)a person or nation takes away rights in self-defence 3)in a time of emergency and absolute necessity. Individualism as meaning that the state is for the individual not the individual for the state is embraced by Biblical Christianity but Christianity also recognizes that the individuals will only get out of the state what is put in. Collectivism means “the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution by the people collectively; socialism” this idea is anti-Christian when it is forced on to people (Communism) with out their consent and is opposite of the known nature of man. I would propose that it only works well in a group of Christians who are all directly guided by a very strong leader.

News Alert:

WASHINGTON, DC -- Matt Daniels, president and founder of the Alliance for Marriage, praised Idaho's House and Senate today for approving a proposed state constitutional amendment to protect marriage as a man and woman.

The state Marriage Amendment will appear on the ballot this November.

"Today's approval of a referendum on marriage in Idaho is another step down a historic road of taking the future of marriage under our laws to the American people. It is a prelude to the real battle," said Matt Daniels. "But only AFM's federal Marriage Protection Amendment can protect marriage from the continuous onslaught of activist lawsuits designed to destroy marriage as a man and woman."

"The constitutional problem created by almost a decade of activist lawsuits to destroy our marriage laws demands a constitutional fix," Daniels added. "This historic national debate will come down to a race between AFM's Marriage Protection Amendment and the American courts."

In April 2005, a federal judge struck down Nebraska's state Marriage Amendment, which was passed with the landslide support of almost three quarters of the citizens of Nebraska.

The Alliance for Marriage is the leading organization fighting for the Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) in the public policy arena. In 2004, AFM drafted the MPA, won President Bush's endorsement, successfully spearheaded votes in both Houses of Congress, and made marriage the determining issue of the 2004 presidential election.

Questions

Should Christians be expected to share the gospel ALL the time? At their job to customers? to their bosses? to their fellow workers? When should they not share the Good News?
Should Christians be expected to only think about what is needed for their job and what is needed to be more like Christ? Can we have fun with out being actively constructive? Could we have fun while being merely pasively constuctive?

Christian Creativity

1.Christians are creative because God is.
a.We see His creativity in creation.
b.We are made in God's image.
c.Therefore, we are creative.
2.Christians are creative because God calls us to be.
a.The psalmist says to, “sing a new song.”
3.Christians are creative to glorify God.
a.Our chief end (or main purpose) is to glorify God.
4.Christians are creative within the scope of God's law.

File Sharing

File sharing or the use of the same file by more than one person would I suppose be technically legal if only one person is using the file per license owned and if the file is only being stored on the property of one person. However, because those are big ifs and using that probably would cause unnecessary legal wrangling. I would tend to believe that files ought to only be held by those who also hold the license, and I believe that is what the law says and what the contracts that the user generally agrees to (when the software is installed) usually says.
File sharing is then the same as stealing and, as the Bible says, ought to be punished by restitution. The down-loaders ought to pay the price that it would have cost to buy the files out right plus a percentage and court costs. This percentage is 20% in the Bible but that is just a guide line and the actual percentage could be higher if needed but the entire punishment should not total more than 200% plus court fees. The court fees would obviously go to the court, while the rest of the money would go to the author of the files.
If companies want to do more to stop illegal file sharing than they ought to 1) lower prices and 2) set up a file buying system on line where there is either a free trial before a person must commit to buying the files or the buyer should submit to having special installation software and to allow for a virtual “return of purchase” just as is available with any other product in America.

God's Law

The reformed view on the use of God's law has traditionally been that it has three uses or purposes; 1) “to be a mirror reflecting to us both the perfect righteousness of God and our own sinfulness and shortcomings.” Thus leading us to Christ. 2) “the 'civil use,' to restrain evil.” 3) “to guide the regenerate into the good works” prepared for them by God. The Law is, as the Westminster Standards say, the whole Word of God but primarily summarized in the Ten Commandments. Jesus summarized the law in two places, in Mt. 7:12 He gives what is commonly called the Golden Rule during the Sermon on the Mount, and in Mt 22:34-40 near the end of His ministry He has this exchange with the teachers of the law:

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (ESV)

This illustrates the fact that the law is in two parts; one concerning man's relationship to God and the other concerning man's relationship to man. The latter is what the civil law and government is to enforce and the former is enforced by the church and gives some principles for civil law and government.

Why Science

Christians study science because they wish to know more about God's universe. Because we believe that we have a rational and orderly God and that he created the Universe with a reflection of His orderly and rational nature. We are able to study the world to observe and discover the natural laws and the working of the Universe. We do believe however that God may and does break the observable laws of nature and that is when miracles and the supernatural happen, and that those are not to be put out of the realm of possibility but merely out of the realm of science.

Government Introduction

There are types of Government: Individual Government (Ethics and Morality), Church (Ecclesiastical) Government, and Civil Government, all three are addressed in the Bible.
Civil Government is given two foundational principles in the Bible: 1) The Law is higher than the government, and righteous persons ought to the positions of authority.
Government is comprised of three actions legislation, administration, and judicature. The first is deciding what actions ought to be done. The second is doing those actions. The third is deciding which actions were right.
In civil government these three branches of the government work like this:
The legislation decides how the government ought to be run internally, how it ought to act toward other nations, how it ought to act toward its own citizens, and towards foreigners, and how its citizens ought to act toward each other. All of these of course only with in the sphere that God has allowed.
The administrative branch sees to it that those policies and laws are carried out and that those who are suspected of breaking the law are brought to trial.
The judicial branch makes sure that the law does not contradict itself and judges between a suspected law breaker and his accusers.

History (defined):

“is an account of facts, pertaining to men and nations, having a cause and effect relationship, producing a chronology, and admitting the observations of the writer.” (Steve Dawson adapted from Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
I might add that Christians believe God in His Sovereignty guides and controls all of History to His own glory and for the good of those who do or will love Him. Biblical or Christian history from the fall looked and pointed to the first coming of Christ, all of history since that time points back to that coming especially the resurrection and at the same time it yearns for the second coming and that time when all creation will be renewed.

Of the Holy Scripture:

“...Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testaments... All which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life...The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.” (Westminster Confession of Faith ch I pts. 1–2)
I believe in the inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures in their original manuscripts, that the text has been for the majority been transmitted faithfully in its original languages (Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament) and that as far as any translation holds true to the contextual meaning of the original it too is infallible. Any quotation must be used in a matter keeping with the context both textually and historically.

A glance at the Reformed understanding of God:

This is what the Westminster Shorter Catachism has to say about the being of God:
“Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but one only, the living and true God.
Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.”
I would be glad to elaborate if anyone has questions.

Christian Worldview

A Christian worldview is based on two assumed facts (not proven): 1)God exists. 2)The Bible is the inspired Word of God and is therefore Ultimate Truth. The Christian worldview, as I will outline it, directly gives us Theology (our beliefs about God and his relationship to us) and Morality or Ethics (“What duty God requires of man.”)¹ Presuppositions for Philosophy of Math & Science, Literature & Linguistics, History, Law, Government, Politics, Visual Arts, Music and probably other subjects as well, are also part of a worldview.

1Westminster Shorter Catechism Q3

Worldviews

First, I ought to explain what a worldview is. A worldview is a coherent (or mostly coherent) system of thought that shapes how a person understands the universe and covers all areas of life and academia. This is similar to wearing colored glasses that give a different tint to all you see. However, just as 2 + 2 has just one answer, I believe, there is just one worldview that fits reality correctly.