Is There Christian Fatalism?

Fatalism is a far cry from predestination, which is taught in Scripture (cf. Eph. 1:11).  The Bible sanctions no sort of determinism or coercion, whereby we have no input into our final lot in life.  This is akin to the Muslim blind fate known as kismet.  If I told you it was your destiny to be a piano virtuoso, you would have to practice diligently to fulfill it; but if it was your fate, you couldn't avoid it. We have input into our destiny, which is ultimately in God's hands, because He elected us and chose us before the foundation of the world, and so woos and guides us toward believing that the Holy Spirit quickens faith within us.  Pascal said that he would not have sought Christ, had He not first sought him.

The truth is that no one would come to Christ apart from the working of the Spirit in that person and the Father calling them. "No man can come to me, unless the Father, who sent me, draws him" (cf. John 6:44).  It must be "granted of the Father" (cf. John 6:65).  Anyone who claims to have come to Christ without being influenced by the Spirit and all of his own initiative, probably left Christ all alone, too!  He "compels" us to come in (compelle intrarre in Latin, or "compel them to come in").

Now we do have something to say about our final "lot"--we are free to accept Christ but on His terms. No one can ever claim that he wanted to get saved, but was on the wrong list (the election is sort of an inside secret of Christians, not to be spread abroad with the gospel message). Anyone who rejects Christ fully rejected of his own free will and not under compulsion.  God neither impelled nor compelled him to make the choice, but he acted solely according to his nature and evil inclination. We can thank God that He has completed a work of grace in our hearts to turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26).  We don't cooperate in our salvation but are saved by grace alone.

We don't get any credit for being noble, brave, wise, nor moral, but God just chose to work in our hearts (Soli Deo Gloria! or, to God alone be the glory! That is, we get no credit!).  Our righteousness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God!  Why should God choose to save some and not others?  He reserves the right to have mercy on whom He will have mercy (cf. Romans 9:15,18). Have you ever given to a beggar?  Why not to all of them? Clearly, you reserve the right to do so. There is much unnecessary consternation about this doctrine, and the false notion of double predestination (known as hyper-Calvinism), or that God goes out of His way to ensure damnation for the nonelect by predisposing them to evil.  The truth is, that some receive mercy and grace, the others receive justice, but no one receives injustice.

We are elect "according to the foreknowledge of God," and "according to His purpose and grace," and even "according to the pleasure of His good will."  (Cf. 1 Pet. 1:1-2; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:5).   Remember the very words of our Lord:  "You didn't choose me, but I chose you" (cf. John 15:16).   The gospel general call goes out to many with evangelical pleas, but the Word says, "Many are called, but few are chosen"  (Matt. 22:14).

The only hardening that God does in a heart is to confirm the act already done and this is merely judicial hardening, such as He did to Pharaoh--God treats no one unjustly  (cf. Isaiah 63:17).  God makes no one do anything by force, that they don't want to do like they are robots or puppets.  There is no outside force acting on us making us do something we don't want to--this is coercion.  And we have input into our destiny, and so it is not fate or determinism.  Salvation requires a prior work of grace, whereby the gift of faith is bestowed and we are to act upon it in obedience.  Soli Deo Gloria!

A Time For Polemics...

The church is "the pillar and ground of the truth"  (1 Timothy 3:15, NKJV).

"... Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice"  (John 18:37, NKJV).

"When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth..." (John 16:13, HCSB).

"Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God"  (1 Cor. 4:1, NKJV).

"... Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching [doctrine], has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation.  Let all things be done for edification:"  (1 Cor. 14:26, NKJV).
EMPHASIS MINE! 

Polemics is defined as denouncing heresy, or of refuting it and standing up for sound doctrine.  "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine [teaching]"  (2 Timothy 4:3, NKJV). There is a growing postmodern camp in the church that denies that we have gotten orthodoxy right yet and that we can be dogmatic about anything in the Bible, that truth per se is up for grabs, including the gospel message. Postmodernism teaches that truth is a "short-term contract" and that what's true for you, may not be for someone else (aka relativism).  The church got the idea that truth is negotiable and up for grabs and the notion that it's only relative to the postmodern worldview that is prevalent in academia.

In the name of ecumenicity, the truth is compromised and watered down and even deemed unknowable. Are we just trying to be "inclusive" as politicians strive to be?  Another explanation for this contempt and cavalier attitude for the truth is the "seeker sensitive" atmosphere permeating evangelical churches.  Should we domesticate or tone down the truth to make it more appealing to the unchurched?  This is known as "contextualizing" Christianity. Is there a paradigmatic shift against dogma?  Are they reinventing or revamping the church?  This issue is whether sound doctrine is too arcane and abstruse for the typical churchgoer, or necessary for maturity.  It all reverts to what Satan said to Eve: "Hath God indeed said...?" (cf. Gen. 3:1).  The question has plagued mankind since Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?"  (Cf. John 18:38).

Jude exhorts us to "contend for the faith" in an age when it is unpopular to teach doctrine and to stick to the application of the Bible, like the social gospel, which is a misnomer, and an excuse to turn stones into bread.  Paul boasted in his swan song of 2 Tim. 4:7 the following:  "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."   Satan opposes sound doctrine and we confront his Anfectung (German for "attack," as Luther termed it), when we stand up for the truth. The problem with most believers today is that they don't think the truth is worth studying, and they certainly wouldn't die for it.  We must never compromise what we believe to maintain a conscience:  "So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man"  (Acts 24:16, ESV).

Why do you think Paul said they are "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth"(2 Tim. 3:7, ESV).    A Christian is one who loves the truth and seeks the truth, as incarnate in Christ, the Truth itself.  Truth is knowable and we are to ascertain it to best of our ability because "truth matters" and as Augustine said, "All truth is God's truth," and Thomas Aquinas said, "All truth meets at the top."  If a heretic is found in the church we are to take action:  "This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith."  An example of heresy to be denounced is easy-believism, also known as cheap grace.  Pastors are exhorted above all:  "But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine"  (Titus 2:1, NKJV).

Remember:  Doctrine is teaching and usually refers to the church's stand on issues or their dogma. We have received sound doctrine from centuries of scholarship and no one today, no matter how gifted, can defy and refute all the learning available to us via commentaries and other sources.  We don't have to start from scratch every generation!    Why do we need doctrine?  "... [T]hat he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict [error]"  (Titus 1:9, NKJV).

Now we are not to be nitpicky or to split hairs, because there are gray areas, and room for disagreement indisputable or questionable doctrines--church fellowships and families should strive for unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace (cf. Eph. 4:3 which says, "["bearing with one another in love] endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"), i.e., unity, not necessarily uniformity, and not be judgmental towards those who beg to differ:  After all, a Protestant is defined as one who dares to remonstrate, "I dissent, I disagree, I protest"  (just like the famous words of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms).

Doctrine does come up all the time in our preaching because Paul says in 2 Tim. 3:16 that "all Scripture is profitable for doctrine."   We are to avoid foolish disputes and arguments and "disputes over words" (cf. 1 Tim. 6:4, NKJV) which cause division, but to take stands on issues that matter: "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity," as Augustine's dictum said.  We are to avoid foolish arguments, but not godly ones--there is a time and place to stand up for what you believe in.  Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:6 (NKJV):  "If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed."  This is emphasized in 1 Tim. 1:10 to teach sinners whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.

It is infant believers who are "carried about by every wind of doctrine" (cf. Eph. 4:14).  When sound doctrine is taught there will be those who oppose it:  "Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them"  (Romans 16:17, NKJV).    The early disciples were known by four signs in Acts 2:42 and one of them was that they continued in the apostles' doctrine.

Paul urges Timothy to "charge some that they teach no other doctrine" (1 Tim. 1:3, NKJV).  He also exhorts him:  "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine...." (1 Tim. 4:16, NKJV).  Note that he teaches in 1 Tim. 5:17 (NKJV):  "Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine."  We do not want God's doctrine to be blasphemed (cf. 1 Tim. 6:1) and to teach "the doctrine which accords with godliness"  (1 Tim. 6:3, NKJV).  Elders are to hold "the mystery of the faith [deeper doctrine] with a pure conscience (cf. 1 Tim. 3:9, NKJV).  We are to be so sound and pure that we "adorn the doctrine of God" (cf. Titus 2:10, NKJV).

Originally, when believers assembled for worship, they had a doctrine to share (cf. 1 Cor. 14:26).  It is important to "go on to maturity" by leaving the "elementary doctrines" (cf. Heb. 6:1) and the goal is given in Ephesians 4:13 (NKJV):  "[T]ill we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." The faith is referred to as the sum total of the teachings or doctrines of Christianity.

The danger of the last days is the doctrines of demons (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1), and the only way to inoculate the church body from this is to have a firm foundation in the truth and basic sound doctrine.  Paul urges Timothy:  "Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine" (1 Tim. 4:13, NKJV).  Hebrews 13:9 (NKJV) admonishes us:  "Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines...."  The only way to recognize a counterfeit is not to study counterfeits, but originals! Isaiah 28:24 says:  "... And those who complained will learn doctrine." This is the panacea for the church falling for the heresy that truth doesn't matter and sincerity is what validates faith.

The unrighteous perish "because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thess. 2:10, NKJV).   But God will teach the sheep:  "Whom will he teach knowledge?  And whom will he make to understand the message [doctrine in KJV]"  (Isaiah 28:24, NKJV).  Who would believe that sound doctrine would be an issue in today's church?  But there is a movement known as the 'Emerging Church" that challenges truth per se and denies we have systematic truth or "orthodoxy nailed down, shrink-wrapped and freeze-dried forever."  This is an anti-dogmatic attitude that has permeated some churches, proclaiming that we "haven't arrived yet."

Truth is under attack and we are not to "tolerate false teachers" like Jesus rebuking the churches in Revelation.  Remember Demetrius in 3 John 12 who  "has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself." False teachers had crept into the church that Jude was writing to--this is our wake-up call.     Soli Deo Gloria!

Showing Your Colors

Ponder the correlation between suffering and glory, realizing one unique trait of Christianity--meaning in suffering (no cross, no crown):

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us"  (Romans 8:28, ESV).

"I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation [suffering] and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus..." (Revelation 1:9, ESV).

"... [And] saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God"  (Acts 14:22, ESV).

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance"  (Romans 5:3, ESV).

"... [And] a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed"  (1 Peter 5:1, ESV).

"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you"  (1 Peter 5:10, ESV).

There will come a moment of truth for every believer before he is really seasoned and confirmed in the faith--when he makes his stand for Jesus.  This is not just confessing Him as Lord, but sticking up for what He stands for and risking something in the process--becoming a "confessor."  Jesus did say that we should consider the cost of discipleship and He didn't promise us a bed of roses.  In fact, He did all He could to discourage halfhearted admirers, of which there were many; however, these are not those he sought--we are not sidekicks or buddies of Christ, but worshipers and followers (a rare commodity).

The Christian way goes against the grain and is counter-cultural since we claim to know the only way to eternal life.  We would be egotistical if it was just us claiming this; however, Christ, Himself, made the claim of being the exclusive way to the Father--and He tolerates no rivals. This doesn't mean we are intolerant, which is the only vice modern man sees and they categorize believers as being.

We are called to bear a cross as believers and this doesn't mean as a fashion statement, but to be willing to suffer all and even give the ultimate sacrifice of our lives.  To be willing to go to our cross for Christ's sake, we must be absolutely convinced in our own minds:  "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced ..." (cf. 2 Tim. 1:12).  However, don't have a martyr's complex, thinking that the more you suffer, the better believe you are--and do not seek persecution or even be offensive as a person, because the offense should be in the cross.

We don't have to take the loyalty oath that first-century believers did to Caesar confessing, "Caesar is lord," but in everyday life, we are always being tested as to our devotion to Christ, and Satan is tempting us not to make Him first place in our priorities.  One reason we are to welcome suffering as friends is that it is all Father-filtered, which means God-approved, and it is guaranteed to work out for our best in the end (cf. Rom. 8:28).  God turns curses into blessings (cf. Gen. 50:20).  As they say, "Behind every cloud, there's a silver lining."

People don't turn their backs on Christ suddenly, but slowly, as they drift away and gradually lose their first love and devotion to Christ. Paul longed to participate in the "fellowship of His sufferings" (cf. Phil. 3:10).  The early disciple was glad that they were "considered worthy" of suffering for Christ's sake, to glorify Him.

How does this happen?  We run into everyday situations and conflicts that give us the opportunity to defend a Christian worldview or to preach the gospel, and we are not to be ashamed to own our Lord.  Actually, the more you stick up for Christ, the stronger your faith becomes.  As Paul said to the Philippians 1:29 (NKJV):  "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake."   

There is a downside to letting people know you're a believer:  They watch your every move and listen to what you say to look for hypocrisy.  They seem to think that if you don't live up to your faith, that this nullifies it and God isn't real.  It only proves your faith isn't real, not that God isn't real. They hate hypocrites and won't go to church because they think it's full of them, yet they go to the golf club and play with hypocrites all the time and don't give it a second thought.  You will want to keep your reputation and the pressure is high as you live under a microscope of observation.  But there is no alternative because there are no secret agent believers who refuse to stand up for Jesus.

The world will approve your faith and won't object to anything unless it is pushed on them--they call evangelizing a way of forcing your viewpoints.  They don't object to anything as long as you "privatize" it!  But we are called to preach the gospel and be salt and light in the world, not to stand by and let the devil have his way.  We need a thick skin and to be certain of our faith (and assurance of salvation is not an automatic fruit), to be able to withstand the fiery darts of the evil one (with assured faith and the helmet of salvation). Tertullian of Carthage, second-century church father, said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

As Esther said, she was born "for such a time as this" (cf. Esther 4:14, NKJV).  We are not to wear our religion on our sleeve, as it were, as an excuse, but to live righteous and holy lives that God can use as a witness to a dark world blinded by Satan.  In other words, we don't go out of our way to "advertise" that we are Christians, like carrying banners but to let Christ open the door no one can close in His timing.

We must absolutely aim to give God the glory and not to seek fame or take the credit ourselves, because He is the Potter and we are the clay and He is using us as vessels of honor for His own plan and purpose   But one thing I can tell you from experience, is that you shouldn't doubt the wisdom of God, that He can make the most unpleasant events turn out for the good and we will praise Him in the end.  It is only because He is trusting us with this trial and it is an honor to be tested.

We need to anticipate being used by God, and be prepared to defend the faith, contend for the faith, according to our faith.  We all have a shot at greatness and God only holds us responsible for what He gives us:  "to much is given, much is required."  As John Milton said in Paradise Regained, "Who best can suffer, best can do."  Jesus suffered more than anyone and our crosses pale in comparison; He isn't asking us to do anything He didn't do.

We should live in light of eternity and the final declaration of Christ saying, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."  God doesn't care about our bucket list, but in us completing His will before we check out, as it is written: "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption"  (Acts 13:36, ESV).   Soli Deo Gloria!