This is by my daughter

In my Doves’ eyes post, I tried to just chart the doctrinal trajectory of this blog. I have provided almost zero Scriptural references so far in this blog, but today, the Lord being my helper, we’re going to blast off on an EXCITING mission of Biblical hermeneutics! Our destination: an understanding of the Bible that conforms to God’s actual, intended meaning.

In this post, I am going to give various verses to back up the statement of faith that I provided in the Doves’ eyes post. In future posts, I want to dig into specific verses, and also probably have a post about the practice of hermeneutics itself.

But before we get to the verses, let’s add a little more fuel to the fire. If you raised your eyebrows when I said studying the Bible would be “exciting”, let me expound on that a little. First of all, for those of you who like puzzles and riddles, you know the joy of finally solving one after intense mental effort. But with the Bible, it’s much more than that.

I try to treat the Bible as my authoritative source of knowledge about the big questions. The foundation of my entire worldview. And I also have to admit that the Bible itself can be a riddle sometimes. Sometimes intense study, prayer, and the wisdom of others are required to figure it out. So when I do finally see a logical way to harmonize seemingly contradictory verses, it’s not just the joy of solving a puzzle…it’s also one step closer to the mind of God, the One who formed the universe with His fingers, who slammed an armed mob to the ground with the mere statement “I am he”, who dwells in light unapproachable, Alpha and Omega, the Ancient of days, the Arche, who rides in a chariot of clouds, who works all His will in the army of heaven, whose hand cannot be stopped, to whom none can say, “What doest thou?”, before whom every knee will one day bow, whose deity every tongue will one day confess. Yeah He is pretty awesome. So that is just one reason why figuring out what the Bible is actually saying is much more exciting than segregating all the colors on a Rubik’s cube.

But wait…there’s more!!

The doctrines that I subscribe to give so much stability to my mind, peace in my soul, and direction in my life. So much stability, peace, and direction, in fact, that I started a blog to share with others! To wit:

• I can freely acknowledge the obvious fact that our universe must have had a self-existent, supernatural creator
• I can teach my children an immutable foundation for morality
• I can have peace in my heart, even when I look at the diabolical depravity that goes on in the world, because I know judgment day is coming
• My best, honest-to-goodness understanding of the Bible tells me that my actions, words and prayers have absolutely ZERO bearing, influence or effect on the eternal salvation of my children
  • This is because of the fact that even their own actions, words and prayers cannot play any contributing role in effecting their salvation from hell
  • Therefore, I don’t live with any worry or guilt about whether they have accepted Jesus as their personal savior or not
  • The ONLY way my children, or anybody else, can love God or seek God or accept God is if God has already made them His children, saved them, and regenerated them
  • So, I treat them as if they are elect and born again (regenerated), because if they are not, there is nothing I can do about it anyway
• I can teach my children that yes, God truly is a better father than I am
  • I do not offer a relationship to my daughter
  • Instead, I have a relationship with her because she is my daughter
  • No amount of hatred or rejection directed toward me from my daughter could ever nullify this relationship
  • I would pursue my daughter to the ends of the earth because I love her
  • This bond between me and my daughter can never be completely severed, though it may become frayed and withered by our mutual sins
  • And since God is obviously a better Father than I am, the above bullets apply to His relationship with my daughter in an even more absolute sense!
    • God is not going to say to anybody at the end of time, “I love you but you didn’t choose me so you don’t get to be with me”
    • Rather, he will say to one group of people, basically, “Come in, my children!”, and this will include some who really blew it on earth (do a study on Lot, especially 2 Peter chapter 2)
    • To the other group (think Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson, etc.) He will say “I never knew you, you are evil, so go to hell”
• I can tap into timeless wisdom in the Bible, surpassing that of any PhD in anything from any university, when trying to be a good:
  • Husband
  • Father
  • Coworker
  • Son
  • Brother
  • Friend
• When my entire life seems like it is crashing down around me, I can at least take solace in knowing that some day, God will make all things new, and will wipe away all tears from my eyes

So, all that stuff is great, right? But unless it has solid backing in the Scriptures, it’s worthless! So, hopefully you see the value in taking time out of your day to dig into these verses for yourself. I’m going to give you a bunch of verses, so I wanted to spend a little time trying to build up your motivation. OK. Let’s do this!!

Here is the statement of faith that I presented in the Doves’ eyes post, but this time, I am including Scripture references to back it up. I realize that some of you will be convinced just by looking up these citations, some of you will demand further explanation before you agree, and some of you will never agree. God bless all of you.

(the bolding was explained in the Doves’ eyes post, it just indicates the ideas I subscribe to that are not commonly taught today)

• God exists in three persons, called the Trinity (I John 5:7)
  • One God
  • Three persons
  • Impossible to fully understand, and that’s OK
• God created Adam and Eve perfect in the garden (Genesis 1:31)
• They ate the forbidden fruit and died spiritually as a result (Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3:6)
• This turned them, figuratively speaking, into intelligent, predatory animals in human form (Jude 1:10, II Peter 2:12, Romans 3:13, Romans 3:15)
• This state of depravity is passed on from Adam to the entire human race (Romans 5:12)
• God, who dwells in light unapproachable, establishes eternal fire as the just punishment for sin (I Timothy 6:16, II Thessalonians 1:8-9, Revelation 20:11-15)
• Foreseeing the eating of the fruit, God also chose to save an innumerable people out of every nation, kindred, and tongue (Revelation 7:9, Ephesians 1:4)
  • These people are called the elect (Romans 8:33, II Timothy 2:10, II Peter 1:10)
  • They are chosen in spite of their abject, unmitigated depravity (Ephesians 2:5, Romans 5:6-8)
  • They are not chosen because God foresaw they would choose God (Ephesians 2:1-3, Titus 3:3-7)
• The payment for the sins of the elect was made by Jesus on the cross, not by the elect themselves (I John 4:10)
• All the elect will be given a new nature at some point in their lives (Hebrews 8:11, John 6:45)
  • This is called being born again or regenerated (John 3:3, Titus 3:5, also “quickened” in Ephesians 2:1)
  • It occurs as the blowing of the wind, without any cooperation, consent or decision on the part of the person being born again (John 3:8, John 5:25)
  • It can happen to someone who has never even heard of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:11, Revelation 7:9, Acts 10:1-2, Acts 10:34-35)
  • It causes someone to know God in the same way that a child in the womb knows his mother’s voice (Luke 1:41-44)
    • The name isn’t known (Hebrews 8:11, Romans 8:15-16, Galations 4:6)
    • The voice is known (John 10:27) 
  • It causes someone to have a basic desire to do good (Matthew 25:31-40, Ephesians 2:10, Acts 10:1-2)
  • Sin still dwells in the born again person and creates inner conflict (Romans 7:17)
• This implies 4 important classifications of people
  1. People who are pure evil and on their way to hell (probable examples: John 10:26, II Peter 2:17)
  2. People who are pure evil but belong to God and have not been regenerated yet (possible example: Matthew 27:44 coupled with Luke 23:40-43)
  3. People who have been born again but are not Christians (Acts 10:1-2, Luke 1:41-44, Psalm 22:9, Acts 18:10)
  4. Christians (John 6:47…believing in Jesus Christ is solid evidence that one belongs to God)
• Groups 2, 3 and 4 go to heaven (John 6:39, Romans 8:38-39, John 10:28-29, Jude 1:1, Matthew 25:31-40)
  • In the resurrection at the end of time, God will finish his work by regenerating the body (Philippians 3:21, Romans 8:23)
• Christ established the Christian church on earth (Matthew 16:18)
  • The Bible is God’s Word, divinely given and divinely preserved for the church (Psalm 12:6-7, II Peter 1:19-21, John 10:35, II Timothy 3:15-17)
    • And I’m old school…I read the King James because that’s the one I think is divinely preserved, at least in English (this is a different subject, maybe for a future post)
  • Believing in Jesus Christ, getting baptized, joining the church, and living in a godly way are critically important things to do (John 14:1, Matthew 28:19, Hebrews 10:25, Ephesians 2:10, Titus 3:8, Titus 3:14), but do not save us from hell (Ephesians 2:9, Titus 3:5)
  • They DO save us from this untoward generation (Acts 2:40)
  • Because godly living is so important, I read the Bible every day, I teach it to my children every day, and I teach a Bible class at church (Ephesians 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:7, Deuteronomy 11:19)
  • I will probably also discuss, in later posts, situations in my life where I have done the right thing and seen God’s power displayed, and other situations in my life where I have done the wrong thing and paid dearly for it! (Galatians 6:7-9, Hebrews 12:5-11)

So there you go. You just got a sneak preview of a bunch of future posts. In the meantime, please check out these verses, pray about them, get input from other mature Christians, and tell me what you think. We will also be getting into numerous verses that seem to contradict the verses above. If you just pick a few verses from the Bible you can prove just about anything you want. The real test is, how well does a doctrine harmonize the entire Bible?

Dear God…please help us get this rocket on track!!!