Getting a Mortgage While the Bank is Burning

My wife and I had a unique experience when we went to sign a bunch of papers with our mortgage lender.

At 4:35 pm we zipped out of my work parking lot with baby in tow to drop her off with a sitter so we could sign more documents than I think I've ever signed in my life. Abigail cried most of the way. From there we enjoyed some stop and go traffic on 82nd Street while making our way to the bank. Just as we were at the light where we had to turn, two firetrucks came up behind us with lights blazing and horns blaring. Since we were making a left turn, I told Hannah to just go (the light had already turned green anyway) so we could get out of the path of the long red behemoths. But as we turned, the firetrucks followed.

Hannah pulled into an empty parking space while the trucks passed us and continued on to the end of the parking lot. I said, "I hope that's not the bank." Turns out it was. A few seconds later our lender called us to let us know there was a fire in the elevator, but she had our paperwork with her and could meet us behind the bank. So we parked behind the bank while employees and firefighters moved around at the front. Our lender hopped in our car and explained what we were signing. Towards the end of the signing, an employee came out to give the all-clear.

I believe that nothing happens outside of God's sovereign planning and control. Even a little fire in the elevator. And though I don't think He was trying to keep us from signing the papers, I have to admit, I find the whole situation a little funny. No one was hurt, and the bank will be getting some new elevators. And we're well on our way to owning a home. Sometimes we worry and stress about big life changes and future uncertainties, but for a brief moment, the most important thing wasn't a house, a mortgage, or an interest rate. It was a fire. A small reminder that we're not in control: God is.

"The Neighborhood I Live in"

Excellent thoughts, especially as Hannah and I are house hunting:

It is my understanding from the Scriptures that I live in the neighborhood I live in according to the predetermined plan of God, and I have been uniquely wired and drawn toward certain things so that men might know God, hear from God, see the gospel, hear the gospel, gravitate toward the gospel, and have it preached and proclaimed to them. So when I go to my house after I’m done at the office, it is my understanding that I am not in that neighborhood by mistake. My neighbors on the left, on the right, and directly across the street, are there by the design of God in order that his gospel might be heralded by me to them. I want to see the gym that way; I want to see the coffee shop that way; I want to see the parents in the bleachers with me watching my son’s flag football games that way; I want to see my daughter’s dance recitals that way. I want to see the entire world through the lens of how God has wired me and where he has placed me for his glory.

The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler with Jared Wilson, pp. 180-181

Book Review: Trusting God (5 stars)

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I've begun discovering some of Jerry Bridges' books and I find them somewhat relaxing like classical music or a folding chair on the beach. Although the themes he covers in his books can be somewhat heavy, he writes in such a way that he disarms his reader and instead allows him or her to fully embrace what the Bible teaches. He is biblical, and the amount of study he puts into each books is obvious and refreshing. He seeks to be biblical, and I doubt any Christian author would desire higher praise than that.

In Trusting God, Bridges brings the light of Scripture to some of the more challenging questions that plague our minds in the waning hours of the day when we face the challenges presented to us in our pain and suffering. Through careful examination of Scripture, Bridges shows that God is actively involved in His creation, and all of the sorrow and sadness we experience in our lives serves an ultimate and glorious end. He's not out to advance a theological position, he's out to discover the teaching of Scripture. And his conclusions, namely that God is good and sovereign, that we are responsible creatures, and even sin was part of God's plan, may come as a shock to some. But in the midst of doubts and suffering, the words of Scripture bring comfort and joy.

The narration is superb, somewhat grandfatherly and a joy to listen to.

As a gift to my readers, I'm going to offer a free download of this book during all of February 2012. Okay, so it's actually a free download on christianaudio's website. But you should take advantage of this offer. I'm going to be gifting it to a few people.

The opinions expressed are my own. I received an audio book download of this work from christianaudio.

Newsboys and the Problem of Evil

I’ve been a big fan of the Newsboys since I discovered them back in the late nineties. I believe I have John Nawrot, my now-brother-in-law, to thank for sharing some of his music with me. I’ve enjoyed listening to the Newsboys since then and have gotten quite a few of their CDs (though now I’m going digital).

This morning I saw that the Newsboys just released the music video for their new song, “God’s Not Dead.” The song is good, and their music video certainly reflects the challenge we face today as Christians in Western society.

At one point the video shows a news reporter on a tablet computer with the large headline “How Can A Good God Allow Evil?” on display beside her.

The band member swipes his hand to show a second page with the headline “God Gave Us Freedom To Choose: Man Chose To Do Evil.”

This question is not only posed by secularists. Many Christians today struggle with how God can allow evil. It only takes one accident, one illness, one death for us to struggle with this question. Christians in the past have wrestled with this question, including Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and others. It even has its own special title in the study of theology: The Problem of Evil.

I’ve known many people who attempt to answer this question just like the Newsboys in their music video. The free choice of man is their answer. They attempt to take the focus and blame off of God and place it squarely on the shoulders of humanity. God’s love for us is so great that He chose to give us our own volition independent of Him and His will. Some assert that God knew what would happen, but others believe only an ignorant God is exempt from blame in a world full of evil.

I disagree with the headline in the music video and similar attempts to get God off the hook. The question, How can a good God allow evil? is not merely an exercise of logic. It is always personal. If I had never experienced evil in my life, I might be able to wrestle with the question only in the realm of logic, but we’ve all experienced it. There’s no escape. Rather than try to deny that we have some stake in this question, we should fully accept that we are going to be somewhat biased here.

The answer that God gave us freedom and we chose evil is not satisfactory because God still allowed it (and allows it) to happen. It doesn’t answer the question. Just because we chose to do something of our own free will doesn’t mean that God is now powerless to change or correct it. Virtually every story in the Bible chronicles God working in this world over and against the choices man has made or intends to make. If God granting human beings freedom is the highest good (that is, it is better to have free will with evil than a lack of free will with a lack of evil), then why does God work to counteract any of man’s choices, since man’s will would not be truly free?

The freedom of man’s will cannot be viewed as the highest good because God regularly acts to oppose and diminish it—most visibly in the cross. If free will is not the highest good, then we are still left with the question of how God can allow evil in the world.

I believe the answer is in the Bible. As interesting as philosophy can be, a man-made philosophy built on human logic apart from the Bible isn’t going to give us the Biblical answer to this question. Starting with human freedom as the supreme good fails to account for God’s breaching of this freedom throughout the Bible. We must start with the Bible, not with a neat little slogan that fits on a bumper sticker (or faux headline).

The answer that “God gave us freedom, we chose to do evil” makes God a distant, uninvolved deity when it comes to evil and the bad things that happen in the world. It fails to account for verses like these:

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? (Lam. 3:37-38)

I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things. (Isa. 45:7)

Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it? (Amos 3:6)

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Click here for an article in which I discuss items relating to the question, How can a good God allow evil?

Debating Calvinism in the SBC Just Got Serious

I wrote an article on SBC Voices about a Southern Baptist church that was denied entry into their local Southern Baptist association of churches because of its Calvinism. Now things are getting hot! The founders of the SBC were originally mostly Calvinists. Over time, they lost the majority and are now a minority. The Baptist Faith and Message, a statement of beliefs that most Southern Baptists hold to, doesn't take a stance one way or the other on the whole Calvinism issue. That's why I find it a shame that an association would deny membership to a church merely because of the church's convictions about God's sovereignty, election, and how grace is imparted.

Whether you're SBC or not, this is an interesting article that gives a window into the biggest debate within the Southern Baptist Convention.

Two new books (not from Southern Baptists), speak both for and against Calvinism, aptly titled For Calvinism by Michael Horton and Against Calvinism by Roger Olson. I'd suggest checking one or both of them out.

When Death Gives Way to Resurrection

As I was studying the Sunday School lesson for this week I thought how appropriate it was to be covering 1 Corinthians 15:53-58,

(53) For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (54) When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." (55) "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (56) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (57) But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (58) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

I found out yesterday that a good friend of Hannah’s and mine passed away. She was 22. I mourn for her family; her husband, infant daughter, parents, siblings… but I don’t mourn for her. If this life was all there was or all we could look forward to, I would mourn for her. Instead, she is rejoicing with the angels and all God’s people who have “fallen asleep”.

I believe strongly in the sovereignty of God. Jesus says that not even a sparrow falls to the earth apart from God’s plan and purpose (Matt. 10:29). A few verses later He reminds us, “Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Ashley Cottle died because God designed it. There wasn’t a fluke, a mistake. It isn’t as though God removed His hand of protection. No. He took her by the hand and led her into His presence. Long before the creation of the world God purposed that Ashley’s life would come to this moment. Psalm 139:16 says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

I take comfort in the loving and sovereign purposes of God. And I take comfort in 1 Corinthians 15:53-58. Reading over these verses I am reminded of some difficult but reassuring truths:

1)      There must be a transition

Our bodies are marred by sin, disease, and death. We need new bodies, and we are limited in how we can obtain them. Through faith in Christ, we will either receive one when Christ returns, or when we die. We cannot remain as we are and inherit the Kingdom of God.

2)      Death stings now, it will not later

Verse 54 says, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable… [it] shall come to pass…” We who remain after the passing of a loved one have not gone through this process. We are still clothed with the perishable. Death stings. It hurts. It does us no good to pretend that death is good. For believers, what happens after death is good, but death itself is not good.

But when we are transformed, death will have no power over us. It will have no sting because we will be free from sin in every way. We cling to the promise of the future hope in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

3)      Death appears victorious now, but it has been defeated

Death has an air of finality to it. But this is false. We have victory over death through Christ’s resurrection. Christ was sinless and he fulfilled the law, and through faith in Him, our sin is forgiven and His righteousness is imputed to us. Because Christ is raised, our hope—and victory—is assured.

4)      We must remain steadfast, our faith is not in vain

Verse 58 begins with the word therefore. That means, “in light of the aforementioned…” Therefore is weighty. In light of the need for transition, in light of a stingless and defeated death, in light of a victorious Christ and His promises, we are to remain steadfast. Immovable. Firm.

Our faith is not in vain.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus’ name.

When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my Hope and Stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in Him be found.

Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

God's Perfect Will

The following article first appeared on January 18, 2010 on sbcIMPACT!, a blog I regularly post and comment on.

*All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version

Two Wills

Some people like to refer to two wills in God—perfect and permissive. For instance, we know that God is “not wishing (‘willing’ in other translations) that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).” We know that not everyone does reach repentance, and therefore some perish. Does this mean that God’s will is thwarted? In one sense, perhaps, but not really. It says in Daniel 4:35, “…he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand…” In Job 42:2, speaking to God, Job says, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

In order to reconcile the apparent contradiction between God accomplishing all that He wills and something that God wills not taking place, some have proposed what is called God’s “perfect will” and God’s “permissive will.” God’s perfect will is the action or state of being that would most conform to the commands and character of God so as to bring Him pleasure. We attempt to describe our own perfect will when we say things like, “In a perfect world…” or “If I had my way…” or “Wouldn’t it be great if…” Similarly, we could impose the first phrase into a passage from 1 Peter 2:15 to show God’s perfect will: “[In a perfect world], by doing good, you [would] put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” Nothing indicates that this is how things will necessarily turn out, and many times they don’t in Christian contexts. That lack of perfect conformity to the will of God takes us to the permissive will of God.

The permissive will of God is the action or state of being that actually occurs, whether in conformity to the commands and character of God or not. References to the permissive will of God usually deal with the issues of sin, sickness, wars, and natural disasters—things for which God doesn’t usually offer a mark of approval. Other terms are usually used to refer to the specific things that God brings about or that actually conform to His commands and character, but since they are included in the way history plays out, I include them in the permissive will of God. Why? Because we know that history is not up to par with God’s perfect will, even with God’s perfect will playing out alongside his permissive will. For instance, if a soldier accepts Christ while on a tour of duty in Afghanistan, we could say that was according to God’s perfect will (since God desires that all would be saved), but since war is part of God’s permissive will, ultimately a conversion during armed conflict would have come about according to the permissive will of God. That is an interesting observation and forms part of the basis for my dislike of the terms “permissive will” and “perfect will” in this context.

A “Hands Off” God

The terms “perfect will” and “permissive will” are inadequate for a thorough treatment of the issue of God’s will for the following reasons:

1) With the exception of the time prior to the Fall in Genesis 3, everything we could link to God’s perfect will is actually His permissive will because it was precipitated by a permissive will event in the past (like the war conversion example).

2) Following the first point, having a perfect will and a permissive will implies that God is not getting His way in the universe. It suggests that He is settling for second best, since “permissive” is necessarily not as good as “perfect.”

3) If God is settling for second best, we seriously have to question God’s ability to carry out His purposes or to question His eternal satisfaction with second best. This is a dangerous path to follow and has led some to deny of many of the attributes of God including His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnisapience (being all-wise).

4) Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it presents us with a “hands off” God that is not as active (or perhaps as effective) as the verses in the Bible (such as in Job and Daniel) would have us to believe.

This “hands off” God presented in the perfect/permissive will is not the God of the Bible. There are many passages that present both an active and effective God. Perhaps one of the most thorough treatises on God’s activity and efficiency is in Job 38. I used to like to think that God set up the seasons and the laws that govern the universe to act in His stead, but this passage gives Him credit not only for creating the “natural laws,” but also for actively holding the stars together and for actively sending each bolt of lightening. The Bible does not paint for us a picture of an inactive God. It is not so great a thing to ask God to make the sun stand still when you know it is He who actively holds it in place. Perhaps Ephesians 1:11 sums up God’s activity and efficiency best by saying God “…works all things according to the counsel of his will” (emphasis mine).

An inactive or ineffective God is not a God who can be blamed, which is why the perfect/permissive will of God remains a popular view for many Christians today. In effect, the argument is that God has tied His hands on the issue by giving us freedom, and He has decided to let arbitrary natural laws determine the consequences of our free choices apart from His direct activity. But if that is the case, then God must have known what the result would be from the beginning. This position, while trying to protect God from blame, offers no real defense and only distracts from the question of why certain things happen to certain people. If God knew about it in advance, he certainly could have prevented it from happening.

The Active God

An active and effective God who controls and ordains everything, including who suffers from sickness, who dies in war, and the devastation of natural disasters, must also control whether or not sin will happen, who will do it, and what the consequences will be. Even someone with an Arminian base to his theology must admit that if God is omniscient and all-powerful, He could have chosen to act in such a way as to prevent any illness, war, or disaster without infringing on our “free will.” He therefore must have approved of it in some sense or it never would have happened.

Some object to this train of thought, saying that God never approves of sin nor enjoys suffering, but we are then pulled back into the issue of God settling for less than optimal or God lacking the ability to “work all things according to his will.” If God truly is working all things according to His will, then in some sense it must be God’s will that children get sick, Christians suffer, and tsunamis and earthquakes (think Haiti) strike. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” This verse means nothing to us if we don’t believe it was part of God’s plan for all of our life’s circumstances to turn out the way they did. If we prefer to read this verse as a comfort when we’re suffering, why is it not a comfort to us when we’re not?

Even though we don’t necessarily understand how God can ordain evil things for good, we have to trust that He does. An all-powerful and all-knowing God must have decided it was “best” or else He is denying Himself the pleasure and glory He deserves.

Allow me to explain this point. Perhaps the best example of this is the story of Joseph in Genesis. Here we see that Joseph’s brothers sold Him into slavery. While in slavery, he rose to a position of prominence and then was imprisoned for something he didn’t do. After he rose to a position of prominence by warning the Pharaoh of pending disaster, he saved his entire family from famine and faced his brothers once again, as their superior. Some preachers have said that God turned a bad situation around for good. Here is what the scripture says, “And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 45:5-9, emphasis mine).”

The point here is not that God made the best of a lousy situation. The point is that God’s purposes are greater than the purposes of sinful and wicked created beings. In a limited sense, God is like an author, telling a story, using evil characters and good characters to ultimately bring Himself glory, only the difference is that God interacts with His creation. Must the Author carry vile intentions for His characters to carry vile intentions? Must the Author be wholly evil for His characters to be wholly evil? There is no contradiction between saying that God is good and that he willed both good and evil to occur in His story. This is partly because God exists on a different plane than His “characters,” but also because sickness, suffering, and disaster can show both God’s wrath and judgment as a holy God and God’s mercy and grace in bringing us through these trials. Ultimately this brings glory to God. And God is the one who orchestrated it. The prophet Jeremiah summed it up in Lamentations 3:37-38: “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?”

The Good God and His Perfect Will

But how can God be justified for His sovereign inclusion of these evils in His plan? Paul answers a similar question in Romans 9. He says, “You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory? (Romans 9:19-23).”

I used to think that Paul’s response was avoiding the question. After careful prayer and seeking, I discovered that Paul really does have an answer. God is God. Who are we to question His motives or His actions? If God is the ultimate authority in the universe, and He says that “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose,” who are we to doubt Him? I don’t think we’re called to fully understand how God has ordained everything that happens and we are responsible for our actions. But let’s not throw up half a defense and claim that God has a perfect will and a permissive will. He does have a perfect will, and He’s working all things according to its council.

Book Review: A Sweet and Bitter Providence

I've recently been accepted into the ChristianAudio Reviewer's program to download some audiobooks, listen to them, and write a short review. Here is what I had to say about John Piper's A Sweet and Bitter Providence.

John Piper does it again! The book, A Sweet and Bitter Providence, beautifully portrays the book of Ruth as nothing less than one of the greatest love stories ever told, written not by some chronicler or historian, but by the sovereign will of God. Piper explains through this story how both the good and bad things in our lives are both determined and controlled by God, telling a story that is greater than you or I could tell, ultimately bringing glory to God and bringing us joy and pleasure in Him.

Though this book is one of his shorter ones, Piper has crafted a masterpiece worthy of the fame his other works have gained for him. He provides comfort to the weary and hope for the suffering.

The narrator for this audio book also narrated Desiring God, another book by Piper that I downloaded a few months ago. Combining the voice of the narrator with the style and prose of the book, it feels like you’re wearing pajamas in front of a warm fireplace listening to a kind grandfather sharing his wisdom after a life of great heartache replaced by joy. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in love stories or God’s providence, or just wondering about how the negative experiences in this life could glorify God or ultimately bring you joy.