Musings of a Snickerdoodle

" I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. " (1Jn 5:13 ESV) Many people struggle with doubts as to their personal salvation.  I have struggled with them myself.  Assurance of our salvation is a necessary foundation for our growth as Christians.  One of the problems that can come with doubting one's salvation is timidity in  our good works.  If I am not sure I am saved, then I won't be bold in doing good works, as I will not be sure if my good works really are good works(done in Christ, by the righteousness He gives), works that are pleasing to God.  Doubt impedes our growth in  virtue, knowledge, self control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love(2 Pet 1:5-8).  Not growing in these areas does not necessarily mean that we are not saved.  According to Peter, if one of us is not growing in these things " he is so nearsighted that he is blind, hav...

Why did Valkyrie and so many other plans to assassinate Hitler fail?  Was it because Satan had the upper hand over God? Was God powerless to stop it?  "When Mr. Clinton was elected president in 1992, I heard a Christian preacher say, 'God had nothing to do with the election of this president, the people made the choice!'  I found that statement incredible for several reasons.  First, I wonder what that teacher would have said if a president had been elected who was distinctively Christian and consciously committed to ruling with biblical principles.  Would he have said that that president had been raised up by God for this hour of American history?  To put it differently: Is God only involved when righteous leaders are installed and uninvolved when a leader is something less than distinctively Christian, or even evil?"  Of course, the answer to this is that God is always involved, otherwise He is not God.  This is something I like about Lutz...

The Book That Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization is an interesting look at how the Bible ‘made’ as it were, the ‘world’ we live in. Mr. Mangalwadi goes back in time to show how the Bible influenced our ancestors’ ideals, their mindset.  He takes a look at several countries and shows how belief or non-belief in the Bible impacted whether or not a society ‘advanced’ and prospered. Some things in this book I found fascinating.  For instance, in his chapter on Science(Science: What Is Its Source?),  Mangalwadi’s point that, “Science was born after the Church started reading the Bible literally, not allegorically” struck me.  He wrote about how the ‘Church’s' use of Allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures influenced its own, and society’s outlook on nature as well.  They studied nature ‘allegorically’…what characteristics about this creature does God want us to learn from?  Or, what might this creation symboli...

INTRODUCTION Theological distinctions are fine but not thin. In all the mess of modern thoughtlessness, that still calls itself modern thought, there is perhaps nothing so stupendously stupid as the common saying, 'Religion can never depend on minute disputes about doctrine." It is like saying that life can never depend on minute disputes about medicine. [1] " One may ask, ‘why even attempt to study Eschatology since so many people disagree over it?’  L. S. Chafer has an excellent response to this question: The plea that the prophetic portions of the Bible present problems over which men disagree is not a worthy release from its claims.  There are no more problems in Eschatology than in soteriology.  It happens that, owing to the central place accorded Soteriology by the Reformers and in subsequent theological writings, that it has had a measure of consideration not given to prophetic truth.  Disagreements as divergent as Calvinism and Arminianism have never been u...

“ Here God has written out His glorious name. In this Jewish people we see every divine perfection in act and operation. Omnipotence raised them up at first….Wisdom watched over, led, and guided them unerringly. Faithfulness fulfilled every promise uttered by the lip of Truth. Goodness established them in a noble land, gave them holy laws, divine and instructive institutions, sent among them prophets to teach and priests to minister. Holiness warned, cautioned, and exhorted them, and when they rebelliously spurned the gentle tones of love, how long did Patience bear with them; how often did God return and have mercy on them! When they had sinned "till there was no more remedy" [2 Chr 36:16], when they had consummated the rebellions of fifteen hundred years by that unparalleled deed of blood, the murder of the Son of God, then, after some yet further lingerings and invitations of insulted Mercy, did awful Justice arise, bare his arm for the battle, and strike down the terribl...

As the title evinces, this book tells the 'story' of the Bible.  It gives a basic overview of how the Holy Scriptures were preserved, discerned and compiled into one book.  It includes full sized pull out copies of pages of important Greek and Hebrew manuscripts(such as the Dead Sea Scrolls), as well as scans of pages from important Bibles(such as the Tyndale Bible and Luther's translation). I think that this is a great resource.  It is easy to understand, explaining the various technical terms used(like 'codex'). It takes you on a quick trip through history, from the writings of the Old testament in Hebrew translated to Greek, and also the writings of the New Testament Apostles being copied and gathered together and translated into various languages.  It is fascinating to see how God preserved His Word down the centuries, and to see the various ways He chose to protect, spread and validate it.  For instance,  I didn't know that the Dead Sea Scrolls were s...

Instead of rejoicing that God is going to keep His covenant, His promises, with His sanctified people Israel, many Christians are trying to change the identity of Israel to be themselves. It may seem insignificant whether one views Israel as the same thing as the church, but in reality, it is MAJOR.  What are some of the consequences of this?  Let us take a quick overview: Modern Day Judaizers As Charles Feinberg has said, “ The spiritualization of Israel’s blessings has meant the carnalizing of the church [1]”. Or to put it another way: the spiritualization of Israel’s blessings has meant the ‘tangelizing’ of the church. Believing that the church is Israel may result in ones becoming a ‘Judiazer’. Several ‘Reformed’ churches seem to be rather ‘Judaized’/Mosaic in their practices. Advocating church services based upon Mosaic practices, having ‘Temple’ inspired worship, and a New Covenant sign replacing the so called Old Covenant sign, circumcision. The structure of the c...