Another good sermon.

During the message, I figured out what has been really bothering me for a long time. No, it’s not the UP or the machinations of the Big Name Evangelists(TM), though that stuff does hurt my feelings deeply. It comes from a quote from a German theologian (cannot spell the name) which basically stated that if you figure out God and put him in a box, all that remains is your own guilt and shame. Why? Because God stops being dynamic. If you’ve figured him out, He doesn’t change for you. Faced with a static God, a person realizes that everything comes down to you and being your fault.

Listen to the actual quote, it’s better. I’m trying to find it on the MP3, now. It’s after half-way through.

I’ve been looking for all these sermons (and I still am) and listening to anyone out of the ordinary because I’ve put God in a box. It may not be the ICC box or the Restorartion Movement box, but it is my own.

I really am a closet Calvinist, but not the real Calvinist, the real harsh type called supralapsarianist. A supralapsarianist basically believes that God didn’t just forsee the fall, but ordained it. Not only did he ordain the fall, but he determined the elect prior to ordaining the fall, even before the creation of the world. Within this group is a group called Hyper-Calvinists. In essence, a hyper-Calvinist reasons that God will do what he will do so it is futile to try to evangelize (God will save whom he will save), plead with God (God is not a man that he should change his mind), deal with sin (either I am elect or not, what difference does it make?)…

Fatalism is a terrible thing, really. Hyper-Calvinist are not all fatalist, but I am. Thus, I say here as I have said in private for years, “I think I am a closet Calvinist.”

In any case, somewhere along the line, I thought I understood God as well as I could. I was a Pharisee of Pharisees for the ICC theological box we put God into. I believed we were the only ones saved, even telling my own father. I put-down other churches and taught that only disciples were saved, but that Christian was a label for false disciples. I abhored compromise and worked as hard as I could within the box, confessing sin at the drop of a hat, making every meeting, etc. etc.

When I shed that box, I worked hard to find God and listen to how he was larger than the narrow box I had put him in. Now three years later, I find that I’ve put him into a box again. I quit overreacting to small things that even remotely resembled the ‘old school’ ICC only to weave a more oppresive system than Kip could ever invent.

Really. At least in Kip’s theology, he gets off scott-free.

Hearing this sermon, in conjunction with a message from Ravi Zacharias has really made me excited to experience God again.

Considering the post from this morning, it’s amazing the difference a half day makes.