Tag Archives: challenging questions

Ordaining All that Comes to Pass

Posted on by
2

DecreeThe Westminster Confession was drafted in 1646 and is one of the Reformed creeds of faith. In this confession (chapter III section 1) it reads:

God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass

What does it mean for God to ordain all things that come to pass?

That is frustratingly difficult to answer. The word “ordain” carries the meaning of “to decree, “to set (something) that will continue in a certain order”. How God ordains all things is closely related to how one understands God’s sovereignty. There are 4 major models (outlined in this Parchment & Pen post), describing different ways in which God may exercise His sovereignty.

Continue reading →

Simply Jesus: Why did Jesus have to die?

Posted on by
Reply

It has been awhile since I posted on my readings through Simply Jesus. Part of that has been the fact that life has been full of other activities. And part of that is because in this chapter Wright addresses an incredibly important question (which I wanted to take time to explore).

Why did the Messiah have to die?

Wright spends much of chapter 13 exploring how God surprised everyone in combining the roles of Messiah, servant, and returning God into the same person – Jesus.

This combination was a small step exegetically, but a giant leap theologically … Nobody, so far as we know, had dreamed of combining these ideas in this way before.

…

Jesus’s vocation to be Israel’s Messiah and his vocation to suffer and die belong intimately together.

Wright then explains that the reason Jesus had to die was to defeat the true enemy – Continue reading →

What are 6 essentials of the faith on which you would never bend?

Posted on by
Reply

Tim Kimberley the Executive Director at Credo House has a great series called Elder Questions over at the Parchment and Pen blog. In a recent post he posed the question (or rather he was posed the question)

list 6 core convictions concerning which you (as elder) will never give in, nor even bend on, as you lead the church and reference at least 3 scriptures [in] support [of] each one.

I think this is a great question to wrestle with. Here are my six.

1. God created all things seen and unseen
In keeping with the intent of this question, I am not necessarily addressing how long it took or even how long ago that occurred (although these are important). Here the central conviction is that God exists outside of His creation, outside of space and time, and is the First Cause of all that exists. This is probably the most central claim of the Scriptures and the one that can be seen in creation itself. Continue reading →