Nature Versus Nurture

"What have you that you did not receive.  If then you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift" (1 Cor. 4:7, RSV).
"God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices" (Eccl. 7:29, RSV).
"[B]ut who are you, a man, to answer to God?  Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me thus'" (Rom. 9:19-20, RSV). 
"But the one who did not know; and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating.  Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more" (Luke 12:48, ESV).
"The mass of men lead live lives of quiet desperation."--Henry David Thoreau


What makes us individuals is not merely the interplay of genes in action in an uncontrollable, impersonal fate, but the byproduct of the destiny of God who planned out every detail of our lives and all the contingencies.  Sir Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, declared that we are not "pawns of our genes."  We are individuals and responsible for our behavior despite our genes, and cannot blame God for our wrongdoing nor think our DNA is fixed and we were born this way.  We may inherit music talent, but no God-given passion for it; just like we can have all the food we need, but no appetite; or everything to live on and nothing to live for--there are certain blessings that only God provides.

Many factors went into making us the people we are: environment; education; culture; family; friends; vocation; experience, etc.  If you had been born in Russia, you would not be the same person, only Russian, you'd be a different makeup and personality.  Isaiah 45:9 says, "Woe to him who strives with his Maker." However, no one can say he is a thief because God made him one!  We all have input into our nature and there's no iron-clad karma or law of cause and effect that forces us into some role or part in life.   A person may become a math instructor because of natural intelligence inherited from parents in the genes, but God makes him what he is and the passion and opportunity--there are manifold contingencies.   Siblings can be so different and even without natural affection for each other.  How do you explain a family where everyone is a lawyer or doctor?  I would attribute it largely to natural intelligence and family background and experience.  What is admired in that family is the legal profession and no wonder they lean that way rather than be the black sheep of the family.  God is able to work all the events and circumstances out for our good and destiny, foreseeing every possible outcome and exigency.

The point is that we have a destiny in which we participate and cooperate with God, not a fate that we have no control over and is the impersonal blind fate of kismet in Islam.  God wants to personally involve us and desires our input.  God's sovereignty is in no way, shape, or form, influenced nor interrupted, restrained, hindered, or even frustrated by man's so-called free will.  When I say free will, I mean we are never coerced into anything to do something we don't want to do, which would be determinism--we make the decision of accepting or rejecting Christ's plan for our life.  It is wonderful news that God has a plan for our lives and we can achieve a fulfilling life in Christ if we are willing and obedient.

The Christian life is a relationship of knowing God personally and growing in a living love-life.  We really fall in love with Jesus, but some have left their first love found at salvation and their hearts have grown cold.  The theory that we are pawns of our genes is because secularists believe in monism or that the only thing that exists in the natural world is matter/energy but there is something they must reckon with: intelligence and where it came from--the Ultimate, Supreme Mind behind it all; this view is called dualism and is the Christian worldview that there is a spirit world that doesn't take up form as matter/energy.  This must be pointed out because of the laws of thermodynamics;  the amount of energy in the universe remains constant, and it cannot be destroyed nor created, but only decreased in usefulness.  This is how we know that the universe had a beginning and that the energy clock began ticking at some point in the past.

How is it that two siblings can be so different and contrary?  They not only have different natural talents, abilities, and gifts, but so many variables are at play that they are still individuals and not clones of their parents nor of each other.  It is rare that a son is a real chip off the old block or in the image and likeness of the parent.  There are so many combinations of genes and DNA that there is a nil chance of there being anyone exactly like you in the whole world.  Sometimes you can look in the mirror and start seeing your parents and thinking you've become like them, but sometimes we do bear physical resemblance without any personality profile likeness too.  It is thought that we inherit our sin nature from our fathers because Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.  It is also true that the consequences of the sins of the fathers are passed down to the children.

But the point is that we are totally responsible for our own sins and will die for our own sins, not our fathers'.  No one can say he was on the wrong list and think God couldn't save him--he had his chances and no one is treated unjustly by God.  The people saved are those who were shown grace, not justice, while the damned were rendered justice, but no one suffers injustice from God, the perfectly Just One.  "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" Abraham declares in Gen. 18:25.  We must be assured that God always does the right thing and destines no one to hell, they went there of their own choice and volition, and God never made them do or think anything they didn't want to.  That is to say, that the Christian cannot give himself any credit for his salvation, while the damned can only blame themselves, for they were never without witness (cf. Acts 14:17).

It is said, as an excuse for bad conduct and to avoid the responsibility, that we can blame our genes for our sexual desires, and the sexual deviant or pervert is only captive to his nature and that he "was born this way."  They have found that drunkards seem to have less of the dopamine receptor gene, but he is still responsible for his behavior in God's sight and no drunks will inherit the kingdom of God, regardless of genes.  By this line of reasoning, you could say that you inherited a desire to commit adultery or fornication and lust more than the average Joe, so you can't help it--poppycock!  Everyone has an old sin nature and is still responsible and culpable for his sins and will be judged accordingly if he doesn't repent.   The reason is that God can transform the individual from the inside out and it's not a matter of an AA pledge or turning over a new leaf, but of regeneration by God and having a born-again experience that is life-changing and altering.  We cannot shift the blame to God for our sins!

We are indeed "fearfully and wonderfully made" and the formulae that made us is nothing short of a miracle to behold, we are surely unique, and when God made us He broke the mold!  We are all interconnected and need each other--"No man is an island" (John Donne).  Man has always gone on record as pointing the finger (which is forbidden in Isa. 58:9) and playing the blame game, trying to shift the fault to God for his own failures, misdeeds, shortcomings, weaknesses, and sins (this goes back to Adam blaming God for giving him Eve), but with God there's no excuse and man will be judged and held culpable by Him who is coming to judge the living and the dead.

We must all look inward to give ourselves a spiritual checkup and take inventory:  "The unexamined life is not worth living" (Socrates).  Remember:  Adam and Eve sinned and rebelled in the perfect environment and wouldn't take personal responsibility for their wrongdoing--they sinned because they chose self over God, they didn't choose evil for they didn't know what it was, but wanted to rule themselves and be independent; therefore, sin is the declaration of independence from God.

Even though scientists do believe we can inherit a vulnerability towards certain sins or mental illnesses, we are still responsible and cannot point the finger at God. In the final analysis, we're all hard-wired for purpose, dignity, and meaning in life and this can only be found in knowing, trusting, and obeying God, not blaming Him.  Soli Deo Gloria! 


Amen!

Our Impending Entrance Into The Promised Land

"Expect Great Things from God, Attempt Great Things for God."-- a sermon by William Carey, "the Father of Modern Missions"

Our Christian experience is a journey to the Celestial City, as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress describes, and we must aim toward heaven to get there. But it's a solitary journey we must endure alone with only Christ as our Beacon and heavenly GPS.  Aiming nowhere gets you nowhere!  Israel's entrance into the promised land is analogous to the Christian's experience of the abundant life in Christ mentioned in John 10:10, and when Christ said in Matt. 6:33, "all these things shall be added unto you."  

In another sense, it also foreshadows our crossing of the bar into eternity to meet our Pilot face-to-face as we go one-on-one with the Lord at the Bema or Judgment Seat of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10) in glory to determine our final, eternal reward.  But God wants to bless us in the here and now (in time as well as in eternity) and to make our way prosperous according to The Will that glorifies Him.  Indeed, our future is in God's hands (cf. Psalm 31:15, ESV).

However, some believers never experience life to the full known as the more abundant life, even though they will be ushered into eternity with Jesus upon death.  We are meant to eat the fat of the land in the here and now and to live in a land flowing with milk and honey as it were, but if we don't attain this, or sacrifice it for the kingdom's sake, there's a greater reward to go above and beyond the call of duty, such as martyrdom or missionary work.  We are all poised to enter our promised land and be blessed by God in all our endeavors as we find His will for our lives and how he has gifted us--we can be like David who fulfilled all God's purpose for him.  We can also conquer our personal demons and the archenemy, the devil, and take control of his territory with the armor of Christ, and we are more than conquerors (cf. Rom. 8:37) with Jesus and cannot lose--we are in a win-win situation.  Don't waste your life wandering in the wilderness--claim the promised land!

What it takes is to take God at His word and at face value, and to claim His promises, none of which have failed (cf. Josh 23:14).  We may seem like grasshoppers compared to the bullies of the world, but God is on our side and will fight for us.  Just like Canaan was a land filled with giants, life is full of difficulties and obstacles, but we must keep our eyes on Jesus and He will see us through the flame and it won't overwhelm us (cf. Is. 43:2; 1 Pet. 1:7).  We all have our personal giants and bullies to overcome.  We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us (cf. Phil. 4:13).  With God, nothing is impossible (cf. Luke 1:37; Matt. 19:26) and nothing is too difficult for God (cf. Gen. 18:14; Jer. 32:17, 27)!

We honor God by observing His Word and claiming His promises by faith, living out His precepts, and following His will--this is the essence of worship.  We need have no fears with God because everything is small to Him--everything is small--neither is anything too trivial for His loving attention.  If we don't want to learn things the easy way of focusing on the Word of God, we may have to learn our lessons via the school of hard knocks and find out what it's like to be without the hedge of protection, knowing it's a frame of mind and state of grace, not a geographical place.

We must never forget who God is nor who we are in Christ.  God is no respecter of persons and there are no bullies nor giants to Him, so we are safe in His loving care.  Yes, His grace is sufficient for us (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9)!  The issue is whether we see blessings in difficulties or difficulties in blessings.  In other words, do you tend to see the evil and say "Why?" or the good and say "Why not?"  Don't question God's wisdom in trouble, as Job found out:  God is too kind to be cruel, too wise to make a mistake, and too deep to explain Himself!  

We don't have to enjoy trials, but they do bring wonderful opportunities to glorifying God in our deliverance.  Problems provide wonderful chances--they're tests.  We must never forget that God is bigger than any problem we may encounter and with God nothing is impossible.  When we connect and resonate with God's will our life will be in harmony and blessed to the full in doing God's will (cf. 2 Cor. 9:8).

The challenging question is whether we are getting what we want out of life and are we being used by God as vessels of honor? The divine order is emptying before filling, before using. Caveat:  Christians must never forget it is God who blesses them and whatever they achieve is to His glory by His power (cf. Deut. 8:18):  "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD" (cf. Zech. 4:6).  God gets all the credit and glory, but He desires to share it with us (cf. Ps. 84:11; 1 Pet. 5:10), and to give us a taste of His glory, even on this side of eternity. Indeed, we have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord.  Paul ventured to boast of nothing but of what Christ had accomplished through him (cf. Rom. 15:18).  Isaiah said that all he had done was through Him (cf. Isa. 26:12).

Never forget God is in control and His sovereignty is not limited by our freedom, while He freely orchestrates history to His glory, as He does all events and circumstances (cf. Eph. 1:11).  Our job is to spread the Word of God's glory revealed in Christ and that He has won the ancient war with the devil and our victory is sure with Him on our side. We are not fighting for victory, but from victory--Christ won and is sharing the booty with us!

We all must be tested and pass the trials for "through many tribulations, we enter the kingdom of God" (cf. Acts 14:22).  "Experience is not so much what happens to you, but in you--i.e., what you do with what happens to you," according to Aldous Huxley--you either become bitter or better.  The same sun melts the butter but hardens the clay!  It really matters what you do with your experience and whether you learn by it, even if it's the school of hard knocks--however, blessed is he who is taught by the wisdom of God's Word (cf. Ps. 94:12).  In short, God owes no one an explanation; He's not accountable to us, but we to Him.

But we demonstrate our faith by our works which is the evidence of its reality. Bogus faith without works doesn't save but is dead faith (cf. James 2:26).  As the Reformers' formula said, "We are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone."  Works validate our faith! But, before we can take what's ours in the promised land, we must believe God's promise and that faith must be tested by fire, for it's more precious than gold or silver.  Faith is abstract and must be seen to be real, we show our faith by our works (cf. James 2:18), and are rewarded according to our works (cf. Rom. 2:6).  When God sees Himself in us we are purified, because the goal of our life in Christ is Christlikeness as the icons of God. In the meantime, we're all works in progress and God isn't finished with us yet!   Soli Deo Gloria!

Is Theology Relevant?

VERSES AND QUOTES TO REFLECT ON. 

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine..." (2 Tim. 3:16, NKJV).
"But as for you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1, NKJV).
"There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching.  They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered" (2 Tim. 4:3, CEB). 
"The lips of the wise broadcast knowledge" (Prov. 15:7, HCSB). 
"The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some people will turn away from the faith [bail out theologically].  They will pay attention to spirits that deceive and to the teaching [doctrines] of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1, CEB). 
"There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching [doctrine]" (2 Tim. 4:3, CEB). 
"A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash" (Prov. 15:14, NLT). 
"I can vouch for them:  they are enthusiastic about God.  However, it isn't informed by knowledge" (Romans 10:2, CEB).  "A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might" (Prov. 24:5, ESV). 
"Knowledge is power."--Sir Francis Bacon
"[T]hat we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine..." (Eph. 4:14, NKJV).


To the average run-of-the-mill churchgoer, doctrine and theology should be the business of clergy (theologians, pastors, teachers, serious Bible students, missionaries, and evangelists) but not them.  My contention is that it's relevant to everyone and not intended to be too arcane for the typical believer, no matter his spiritual growth or maturity level.  The communicator ought to know how to make it interesting and make applications. Doctrine merely means "teaching" and theology means the study of God, but both have become organized and systematized into volumes that have become cumbersome to many and even blase.  How can the normal churchgoer gain an interest in the deeper truths then?  It is the newborn or the immature believer who balks at the deep things of God and tends to thrive on the milk of the Word, being remiss of the solid food or meat of the Word.


To label some Christians as theologians simply because they are good at theology is to miss the boat because all believers are theologians--we are all studying God, as it were.  We cannot avoid theology, without committing spiritual suicide, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the great theologians of the past who have combated church heresy, including the Church Fathers, or those who made it their profession.  By analogy:  We don't neglect the appreciation of music because we're not musicians, do we?  We all have a latent ability yet to be discovered in the Word, as we develop our spiritual gift.  As far as I know, being a theologian is not a spiritual gift, but some people are just more studious, academic, and attentive to the Word--in short, they're better students of the Word.


In Scripture, if anyone was a theologian, it was Paul, whose compendium is laid out in Romans comprising all his basic teachings.  We would not understand the doctrines of grace apart from his inspired, studious, scholarly, and authoritative work here.  But give Paul himself some credit--he was most likely a highly gifted intellectual, well trained in Scripture, and even highly educated, and stood head and shoulders above his peers, like Peter, in this department--who admits some of Paul's writings were hard to understand (cf. 2 Pet. 3:16).


There is a command in Scripture to study the Bible, so as to be "approved unto God" and "to rightly divide the Word of Truth" in 2 Tim. 2:15.  Note that in the seventeenth century it was every gentleman's hobby to be conversant in theology and to discuss it at will and on-demand with anyone who would listen or inquire (there's sin of omission too).  This is not a passe skill but every believer ought to take an interest in biblical themes, and not so much their favorite sports teams as topics of conversation with their friends and family--knowing how to disagree without being disagreeable and to agree to disagree on occasion.


Bear in mind that if there is a God, theology is significant and paramount, but if there is no God, we are merely wasting our time on this endeavor and no one should indulge in it.  It's not just meant to be mental gymnastics or an intellectual or spiritual workout or exercise, but to aid in our maturity and understanding of God and where He's coming from in relation to us and our duty and response to Him. We must pursue this discipline because we adhere to the belief that absolute, universal truth is knowable--we are not to privatize it any more than flaunt it, but by no means are we to be ashamed of our position and relationship with God.

Reckon this:  Every other academic discipline is useless and incomplete without taking theology into account and starting from it as the pivot point.  We start with God and then proceed to explain everything else; we don't start with man or the cosmos, and then go on to explain God!  Modern worldviews such as Postmodernism want to reckon God as dead and irrelevant to man and our situation, but we must not let them remove God from the overall equation and make Him pertinent to all of life and to every discipline.


If theology seems dry and distant to some, blame the theologians who have made it the privilege of the literate, schooled, and informed, while forgetting where the average believers are, spiritually speaking.  Yes, theologians are at fault for making it dull, without application, and even blase--for this reason, many distrust theologians and have relegated their studies as inappropriate and irrelevant to their personal lives.  We all need to make it interesting and stimulate enthusiasm and gusto for the discipline, remembering that everyone is at a different level and good teachers know where their students are and don't wow them with their expertise or scholarship--and certainly don't want to appear pedantic. It is childish faith that has an aversion to theology, not the man of God.


The proper study of mankind is not man but the Godhead or theology, and how it relates to everything as the "queen of sciences."  To enjoy or appreciate the Christian or biblical worldview, doctrine must first permeate our minds, actions, decisions, and thoughts.  In sum, we owe theology more than a passing interest but a studious attempt at mastery.   Soli Deo Gloria!