Fitting a camel through the eye of a needle

A while back I had someone ask me if I was going to be stranded on a deserted island and could take only one book what that book would be. My answer came quickly and easily without any thought whatsoever...the Bible.

It also happened to be the exact same answer my husband gave at the exact same moment.

My answer would be the same today as it was then and it would come just as quickly. I sit here now, many months after being asked that question, I have thought of it many times since it was posed to me. Not because I think it will ever be an issue in my life, after all, one must actually cross the sea, or at least a lake or large river, to ever face such a possibility. I'm not saying I couldn't find myself in that situation, I'm just saying it doesn't seem probable considering the life the Lord has set me in. But I have thought many times of that question even though such a happening does not seem logical for my life.

The reason I have pondered that thought so many, many times is because of what it would mean for me if I were to find myself in such a situation. I have considered what it would be like to have nothing but Scripture. Not only that but I've thought of what it might be like if one was raised on an island with no outside influence and then at some point began to read Scripture, approaching it with no preconceived ideas, no teachings of men.

I was recently pointed to Matthew 19:24:

And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (KJV)

When I was pointed to that verse, I was told that the history behind it was fascinating. 

I am aware of the various ideas of what that verse MIGHT mean and the two main understandings, the first one being to take it literally, the second being a theory that the eye of a needle was actually the name of a narrow gate in a wall through which camels must be unloaded and made to kneel down and crawl in order to get through it. 

I prefer the literal translation, that Christ was speaking of rich men, that he meant a real live camel, and that the eye of a needle was actually the little hole at the end of a sewing needle. And I much prefer the understanding that Christ was speaking clearly, that the black and white of His words in Scripture are exactly what He meant. 

But...I can understand why those that put stock in their own ability...or responsibility...to gain their salvation would grab onto the explanation that the eye of the needle was a gate that the camel must kneel down to crawl through. I can understand how that belief in that verse supports their belief that they must choose Christ, coming to Him out of their own free will. 

What I don't understand is what happens if we follow the rest of chapter 19 through that subject. 

When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (vs 25-26)

With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Oh, the comfort that comes from that. God can do what man cannot. Why need we worry over trying to squeeze into a tiny opening that we do not fit through, although I must admit that I am not a rich man, when I need only realize that, rich man or no, the Lord will yank me through the eye of the needle at His will and not at any works I do to try and fit through it. 

But my intent today isn't to disect that verse but to think of how the differing theory's lead themselves to only one explanation. At least they do so far as I can see. That explanation is that one must approach Scripture with preconceived ideas, or earthly teachings, to take that verse as anything but what it says in Scripture. 

Assuming a person was raised with zero outside influence and they read that verse, also assuming they knew what a camel and a needle were, they would have no other idea of any understanding of that verse except the literal. 

When the Lord first drew me out of Arminianism I had to unlearn everything I ever knew about what Scripture supposedly said and I had to relearn what it really said straight from the pages of Scripture. I wasn't lucky enough to start my first taste of Scripture knowing nothing of man taught understandings of it. I had to weigh what it really says against what I was taught it says. 

It truly is not my intention today to oppose anyone's understanding of Matthew 19:24. I leave each person to their own understanding, hoping only that they read that verse and the handful of verses that come after it, so that they can form their own conclusions. I do not even see that verse as being the most important out of that passage but the one that follows it:

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 

But then again, one's perspective on what's most important there, not that any part of Scripture is unimportant, may depend on their interpretation of Matthew 19:24. 

And even as I write that last paragraph, I can't help thinking of what it would be like to be able to simply approach Scripture with no more foreknowledge of what it says than the understanding that a newly born baby has. 

My husband and I discussed this passage, both agreeing that the main point here is that what is impossible for man, is possible for God. But we also discussed something else...

How would one come by the other interpretations of Matthew 19:24? How would a person know to equate the eye of a needle to a gate in a wall in Jerusalem? How would they know that camel has been speculated to be cable or that the needle spoken of has been theorized to be a much larger needle than what we are accustomed to? The only way one could possibly know any of that is if they had some sort of extra-biblical teaching on the verse. 

As we discussed that, I couldn't help thinking of what insight I gained during our deep study of Scripture last summer and on all the many things that the teachings of men have done to man's understanding of Scripture. And as I thought of those lessons, and applied them to this topic, I realized something else. 

When the New Testament was recorded it wasn't written down as a single book. It wasn't handed into the hands of people that generally held the same knowledge no matter where they lived. There was no standardized curriculum for school kids. There was no internet to give the same description of a topic to each person that looked it up. 

As my husband recently said, 'in biblical times people generally lived and died within about 25 miles of where they were born'. 

In those days the world really was a very small place. Travel took days at the least and often months or more should one want, or need, to travel to far off countries. There were no airplanes to take one across thousands of miles in a matter of hours. There were no cars, trains or any other modes of modern transportation that takes our giant world and shrinks it to something so easily traveled whether we are simply going to the grocery store or around the globe.

When the book of Matthew was written and distributed, how did it get into the hands of men? How did it reach people in different places? It sure didn't come to them through an internet search. It didn't even reach them as a printed book. It may have come to them through spoken words or it may have reached them through handwritten words on parchment or papyrus, maybe on a scroll, possibly in full, possibly in part. 

However it reached them...for anyone outside Jerusalem, can we assume they even knew of the theorized eye of the needle gate? Did every city have such a gate, and if so did it go by the same exact name? 

Again, it is not my intent to disect that verse. I hold to a literal understanding of it, meaning I think a needle is a needle and a camel is a camel but I am not trying to teach that understanding to others, nor am I trying to dispute the gate in the wall theory, although I do not agree with it. What I'm trying to do is share my thoughts that even the theory of a gate in a wall would be approached differently by people in biblical times based on where they lived and whether or not they knew of the theorized eye of the needle gate, assuming it was a real gate. 

If the book of Matthew reached a village some 30, 50, 500 miles from Jerusalem and the people in that village knew nothing of the eye of the needle gate (if it existed)...what would they think Matthew 19:24 meant? 

It's an honest question. Not something I am trying to teach anyone. It's just that for anyone, even those in biblical times to apply the understanding of the eye of the needle being a gate in the wall of Jerusalem, those people would have to know about that gate and understand what it was and how it was used. Therefore they would have to approach Scripture with their own understandings of something firmly in place to reach the conclusion that Christ was speaking of a gate in a wall and not a sewing needle. We must do the same today. One must know the theories behind that verse to be able to come to any conclusion beyond a literal one. 

I fall into the take Scripture literal category. I choose to look at the words written on paper, the black ink on the white background, rather than to interpret Scripture through whatever man conceived understandings one might apply to it. 

And so once again, I find myself thinking of how nice it would be if we could simply pick up the Bible and read it with a blank slate of understanding. 

A question about when I became 'elect'

I recently received a letter in which the writer asked me some questions about my faith. As I wrote out my response I couldn't help thinking that what I was writing to a friend was something that others might wonder too. I also knew that my husband had more than a passing interest in the conversation, flowing through letters mailed back and forth, between my friend and I but his interest rarely holds to sitting long enough to hear my word for word answers, and even less rarely her word for word questions (or statements). So here I sit, with my written letter in hand, ready to mail it out but unable to do so because I feel the need to share bits of what I wrote here.

 But first a bit of background information. This is a friend I have known for many years. When we first met I was still very much 'churchinized' as my husband puts it and I saw in Scripture the things I had been taught to see. That was the person my friend came to know and love. And as I write this I hope she will forgive me sharing her questions here because without her questions my answers will make little sense.

I was asked: "I thought back over the years of knowing you and some of our early talks...Then I was thinking of the phone call where you told me about your change in...belief. So, what made you, at that point, become 'elect' as you put it?

I must admit that her question is a very good one. I think if I did not understand regeneration and election as I do I might be asking the same question of someone that I had watched go from a free will believer to what I now believe.

And so I began my answer, not at the question but years ago when we first met. I shared much personal information that I won't go into here but I would like to summarize a small portion of that for just a moment. There was a time that I experienced something that left me begging the Lord for a break in my circumstances. It was one of those situations where the needed break was due to physical pain and every prayer for relief came when I reached the point that I could not stand the pain anymore. And everytime I asked the Lord for relief...relief was granted. The pain just vanished. Those breaks never lasted long but they lasted just long enough to let me regroup and rest before the pain returned. At this point my faith, though deeper than it had once been was still very much a 'church' taught kind of faith. I knew only what I had been taught through my years in Baptist and Pentecostal 'churches' and through growing up the great-granddaughter of a Baptist preacher.

And now I will switch to copying down the answer I gave my friend.

"Even then, though, I knew there was something off with the way I had been taught one attained salvation. Way back..."(years before) "...I questioned whether the salvation prayer attained one salvation. I couldn't see how it possibly could but I knew no other way. And so I prayed out my doubts, begging the Lord to save me, and I said the salvation prayer SO many times.

That was still my mindset when I..."(experienced the time of great pain)"...But I had no idea how hard..." (that pain) "...would be. I prayed all the way through..." (it).

"And for the first time in my life I saw immediate answer to prayer- to my prayers. When the pain would become too much I would pray-beg God-for a break from the pain. And like a miracle...(the pain) would stop. Just like that...and I would get...a reprieve....while I just rested. These breaks came without fail in answer to every prayed request...

And so I came out of...(that painful situation)...different than I went into it. Nothing I had ever been taught about the Bible, God, or Jesus explained what I had experienced. Still, life...kept me busy...there was little time to do more than think, remember those instantly answered prayers, and keep praying. I don't remember what I prayed in those days but gradually I began to seek for something...understanding, I guess, and I prayed for it too.

It was sometime...(later)...that I bought a book from a Mennonite company titled, 'The Kingdom that turned the world upside down'. That book taught me something I had never been told before-if you keep my commandments. It introduced me to the understanding that true Christianity wasn't just about a salvation prayer and going to 'church' on Sundays while living for the world.

Still, something was missing. I was missing something. I had this feeling there had to be more but where to find it? How to find it?

...I was seeking for answers, searching for-I guess the best way to say it is-more. More of Christ. More of what it meant to be a Christian. Searching for answers. It was like my soul knew there was more but my mind didn't know how to find it.

So I searched. I visited the Amish. Read their books. I searched out Mennonite communitities. Read their books. Researched different 'churches'. Visited a few. Learned the beliefs of different denomintations, talked to people from some of them. I'm sad to say that in all that searching my Bible reading was only sporadic. I was looking for 'real' Christians but I was also looking in the wrong places.

Somehow I guess I still studied enough Scripture to be learning from it.

And in all that searching and learning-although my Scripture learning was more along the lines of seeking out 'thou shalt nots' than anything else, even when those 'thou shalt nots' weren't even in Scripture.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out if Scripture required women to wear dresses or not so I eventually decided it didn't matter. If there was any chance it might require it I was going to do it. So I spent 6 months wearing dresses only. I value those memories but dresses got me no closer to Christ.

It was during that time I struggled over headcoverings. I never found my ansers on that back then either...

All of this was going on in my heart and mind during those early years of our friendship, some of it I shared with you, a lot of it I didn't.

The searching, my searching, even extended to which Bible was the 'right' Bible. I did talk to you about that. Back then I was reading an NIV Bible. I came to the conclusion it was a bad Bible. didn't like what I read about the ESV, and eventually settled on the KJV even though I didn't like the history of it.

Eventually, i got it in my head/heart that I needed to have read the entire Bible so I set out to do that. I set aside an hour every night for Bible reading. My only goal was to be able to say I had read the whole Bible and so I read, sometimes not even understanding what I was reading. I worked through Scripture like a checklist, checking off first chapters then whole books until I accomplished my goal. I read the entire Bible.

I picked up parts of Scripture I had been unaware of. I learned things but mostly I gained the ability to say I had read the entire Bible all the way through.

But I gained something else too, something i had no idea I gained. I gained the understanding that God is in control. I have read over some things I wrote back then. I see those references to this still unkown to me understanding of Scripture and God. Only that new knowledge was still pretty much swallowed up in all that I had been taught in 'church'.

...That was still quite some time before I met...(my husband)...but all of that was going on in me while I knew you. I only told you snippets of all that.

And so there I was, seeing things in Scripture but seeing them through the things I had been taught in 'church'.

It was into this that...(my husband)...walked.He never once told me 'Scripture says this'. At first we talked just a bit of this and that. Then he asked me to go read Ephesians 1 and tell him what I thought.

I'll be TOTALLY honest with you. I thought I was imagining things. I read Eph 1 over and over and over again. I didn't believe I could be seeing what I was seeing. Surely I was wrong. I read it in multiple Bible translations. I read the commentary in the only Study Bible I had, and NIV study Bible. I finally resigned myself that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. I DID NOT want to tell...(my future husband)...what I saw but he was waiting for my answer. So I told him, explaining that I read it in multiple, that my study Bible confirmed what I read. I was certain he would think I was crazy.

Only he didn't think I was crazy. And so you see...(my husband)...didn't brainwash me into this "...belief" as you put it. I searched and prayed myself into it. I begged the Lord, sometimes on my knees, sometimes in tears, always with a desperate, seeking heart for it. ...(my husband)...kind of nudged me toward the one set of verses that were the catalist for making the scales, the blinders, fall from my eyes but he NEVER told me what Scripture said.

You asked, "what made you, at that point, become 'elect' as you put it?" Honestly, I don't know for ccertain when I would have become 'elect'. If you've read anything of my ealry blog posts, I wrote often of how my conversion came slowly, so slowly that I have no idea when it happened.

It was after I read Eph 1 that I could clearly see the verses that spoke of God's soveriegnty, his choosing His people, election, predestination, etc. but seeing the Truths in Scripture wasn't what made me elect. Somewhere along the way the Lord changed me, changed my heart. I know when the final changes happened but I don't know when the 'elect' as you put it happened.

I know for...(my husband)...it literally happened overnight. He went to bed crying out for the Lord to save him and he woke up changed the next morning. I know another man that went to bed hating God and woke up the next morning loving him, longing for Him.

But it's not always so instantaneous. I once heard a testimony of a woman I have never met. She was drawn so slowly that she had no idea when her conversion happened either.

For some there is that "boom" moment but for others it happens so gradually that, for me, at least, I can't pinpoint the exact moment. I could make a guess as to when it happened if I had to but it would be a guess."

I am going to end this post here even though there is more to the questions my friend asked and there is more of my response that I wish to share. Since the next question takes more of a general tone and less of a personal tone I will split my reply into two posts.

A question about how one becomes 'elect'

In my last post I wrote of a question I was asked by a friend in regards to my regeneration, or what she called being 'elect'. Her letter contained more than one question, although her questions all centered on the same subject. Now I'd like to share her next question and my response to it.

She said, "At the point of believing that God predestines a group to hell-then boom! I am 'elect'."

Here is my response:

"Yes and no. Yes, there does come the moment of regeneration-of the new birth-but NEVER at any point in their life was anyone predestined for salvation headed to hell. The Lord ALWAYS knew that person was His. There just comes that moment when He regenerates them-resulting in a BOOM! moment even if they don't know when it happened.

Next you said, "as we have seen, people who believe in that tend to think free will believers are devilish and almost 'hate' them-as the lady on your blog." Some do feel that way, yes, but not all of them. As I've stated before the belief or lack of belief in free will is a dividing line between people that believe in Christ. Both sides can't be right. One side has to be wrong. As I've also stated before-most people are CERTAIN that what they believe is right...

You said, "Why don't you hate Arminians?...that has been the tone since the reformation." ...Some people get so stuck in their 'I am right' stance that they cannot accept anothers faith or extend grace to them...

'Forgive them Father for they know not what they do'. I believe those lost in the free will deception are blinded to the Truth because God has blinded them. I believe (they) cannot see these Truths because God has blinded (them) to them and nothing you or I do can change that, only the Lord can open (their) eyes to these Truths.

And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. 2 Thessalonians 2:11

I believe free will to be the strong delusion, the LIE, spoken of in that verse.

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. 2 Corinthians 4:3 KJV

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ESV

And so I don't try to convert (them)...because I see in Scripture that (they) believe God's great delusion. (They) CAN'T see what I see in Scripture so what's the point of me badgering (anyone) about it?...I truly don't think (they) can do anything but hold to (their) works based salvation. (They're) doing all that (they) can to attain salvation for (them) and (their) children and there is no fault in that. Christ said,

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30

It is man's works that make burdens of the Gospel but again "...they know not what they do." So I don't try to convert (them) to my way of believing because I can't convert (them) even if I try my hardest.

...And so you went on to say, "yet it is the free will group that respond in love-as Jesus taught us to do." I can only agree with that to a point. Arminians do hold to a loving acceptance on the surface. They generally welcome anyone into their groups and are not usually openly hostile but that love is also only at a surface level. Push them on their free will belief and they will pretty much all lose the facade of love REAL QUICK...They love so long as you embrace their 'Jesus loves you god' and share their faith in their free will...

Toward the end of your letter you wrote, 'anyway, it's reallys just one question- if someone who believes in free will just all of a sudden starts believing that God is as Calvin stated-then that person automatically becomes 'elect' or no?"

Let me just start by saying...The belief that God controls all and man is depraved without a free will is not the teaching of Calvin. It is the teaching of the Apostles. Of Christ. Of God. It's all through Scripture but it's only there to those that have had the scales removed from their eyes so that they can see the Truth. It is veiled or hidden to the rest. It's not Calvin's teachings. It's Christ's teachings. Calvin is just the man given credit for summarizing it all and so many attribute true Christianity as being Calvinist, removing Christ from it entirely.

Forget Calvin ever existed...wipe thoughts of him and his teachings from your mind...you have accused me time and again of following him despite the fact that I know only his name, who he was (sort of) and a vague notion of what he taught. I DO NOT follow Calvin. I follow Christ. Period.

But back to your question, I think I partly answered it when I summarized how I came to believe this way but that summary did not really answer the base of this question, "If someone who believes in free will just all of a sudden starts believing that God is as Calvin stated-then that person automatically becomes 'elect' or no?"

I do not believe so, no. And here's why I say that. I once showed (4 people) Ephesians 1 and asked them to tell me exactly what they saw in it. I did exactly what (my husband) did to me. I only asked each of (them) to tell me what they saw. I gave no explanations. Before I tell you what happened let me tell you what each of (them) believe.

(person 1- believes in free will. Has anabaptist leanings)

(person 2)- Believes (themselves) a christian...(free will belief)

(person 3) typical Baptist 'church', easy believism, free will, faith

(person 4)- Pagan

And here were the results:

(Person 1)- asked me what I wanted (them) to see, would not tell me what (they) saw.

(Person 2)- gave me some mumbo jumbo answer that made no sense

(Person 3)- said it says we must choose to believe in Jesus

(Person 4)- told me all about how it speaks of predestination.

Of all of (them) (the pagan) was the only one that approached it without man's teachings, or (their) own preconceived ideas of what it said. And (they) were the only one that spoke of, that saw, predestination in those verses...

And so I say, no. The ability to see these Truths in Scripture does not make one 'elect' as you put it or better, it does not mean one is regenerated in the new birth.

I know Presbytarian 'churches' teach these Truths as do Reformed 'churches'. It's possible for one to be taught these things-giving them a head knowledge- so that they understand them, can read them in Scripture, can even teach them to others, but that knowledge stays only in their heads, their hearts have not been changed. They are not born again.

I tend to believe that this is the problem with most people that do not believe in free will yet show hate and I believe it explains how they might almost 'hate' Arminians or anyone holding to different beliefs than they do. Their heads are puffed up in knowledge, believing 'I'm right' but their hearts are hard as stone, as dead man's bones. They have cleaned the outside of their cup but inside they are filthy and no different than every other lost soul.

But that is merely my theory since Scripture doesn't actually tell us what to make of those that profess Truths but show no fruit. I choose to simply take them as I do those that profess Christ but believe in free will- their profession in Christ is enough for me. I will let the Lord sort it out. He knows who are His. It is enough that I should see to my own soul and those entrusted to me, as much as I can. I would not , however want to spend much time with those putting their faith in men's teachings and lacking fruit no matter what they see in Scripture.

...The thing is though, that there is comfort in that great delusion of free will. (Those that believe in it) have the comfort of believing that (they) can gain their children's salvation if (they) can just teach them to 'chose' Christ. Once your eyes are opened to the Truth that man's free will IS a delusion than you're left with the knowledge that teaching anyone to 'chose' Christ is non-Scriptural and gains nothing but a false sense of security. And so it gets hard.

It gets hard because I know that it doesn't matter how much I teach (anyone) of Christ, no matter how much Scripture they know, I CANNOT attain their salvation. Salvation is of God, not of man. It is His will that gives salvation not our will that gains it. "

And here is where I will quit sharing the contents of my letter to a beloved friend, a personal letter that I have chosen to make public because the questions were wonderful questions and because I felt led to share my answers lest anyone, at any time, ever has the same questions.

Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

Last night I was enjoying a bit of Scripture reading. I wasn't doing it to learn anything or to study anything but simply to soak up a bit of the Lord's word. Lately my chosen Scriptures are the book of John. I don't know why I have chosen that book, I just felt the need to read a bit in it.

And so there I sat. Slowly reading my way through chapter five when I came to a stop. Christ had gone to the pool that the angel would sometimes stir up the water in Bethesda and He had encountered there a man who Scripture says had been diseased ''thirty and eight years'' (1599 Geneva edition).

There is Scripture was a man that for all intents and purposes seems to have little bearing on anything. We aren't told who he is, what disease he had, or much of anything about him except a brief glimpse into his infirmities-a long disease that left him unable to get himself into the water to benefit from its healing powers. Then along comes Christ and after just a brief conversation with this man He heals him of whatever disease plagued him.

But it was the next part that made me stop and think. A very short comment in a lot of Scripture.

...Jesus...said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. John 5:14

And that brought me to the end of my Scripture reading for a bit. I found myself contemplating on that single verse.

Here Christ has healed a man of a physical disease and he tells him...sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. My mind just got stuck on that. For a time I set my Bible aside so I could think on that and even later, when I read a bit more Scripture, I still found myself thinking of that verse. In fact I thought of it even after I went to bed. It was still playing on my mind until I fell asleep and it was there again this morning when I awoke.

In this earthly life there is little we humans consider worse than physical infirmities. Our own or our dearest loved ones illnesses or injuries have the ability to grab hold of us like little else does. I once knew someone that would lie in bed over the mildest cold and wail about how he was dying. This person was not a small child but a grown man. A grown man that made everyone around roll their eyes and leave the house to escape his dramatic wails. I've known others that pushed right through an illness never seeming to slow down.

We all respond to our own illnesses in different ways. If those illnesses should be diseases instead they have an even greater impact on us. We may do little more than take note of a strangers infirmity but let that infirmity befall us or our loved ones and it becomes a different story. Even when we sympathize greatly to that stranger, it is still a much bigger issue when those infirmities hit close to home.

But...

There Christ was, having healed a man of a disease that plagued him 38 years. A disease that took such a toll on him that it sent him to a pool known for miracle healings. It had him attempting to gain healing time and again, it would seem from his statement, '...I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me." And what does Christ do? He heals him, yes, but he tells him, 'sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'

Several years ago I wrote a post titled Spiritual Prisoners. I haven't read that post in years even though it is one of the few things I have written that I actually have in a physical copy, in the form of a printed book. I should reread it just to reaquaint myself with what I wrote. At the time it was one of the hardest things I ever wrote. I struggled through it, not because the writing of it was hard but because I was learning as I went and it was a very big time of learning for me.

In that learning (and writing), I remember writing of how the Lord is not interested in the physical but in the Spiritual. He came not to save man from physical difficulties or trials but to save him from Spiritual death.

And so there I was, reading the book of John and I got stuck on verse 14. Here Christ has performed probably the greatest miracle in this man's life. With nothing more than an order to arise and 'take up your bed'. Poof. Just like that this poor man, diseased with who knows what for 38 years was able to do something he probably considered impossible. But Christ pays that part little attention. It isn't this wonderful physical healing that Christ shows the least attention to, a physical healing that probably meant the world to that poor diseased man. Instead Christ tells him to 'sin no more' and then he gives him a dire warning...'lest a worse thing come unto thee'.

I have to wonder, and Scripture doesn't say, how much this diseased man, now healed, understood about spiritual things. Did he know anything of them? Did he understand to what Christ was referring? Assuming that Christ was referring to the spiritual.

I can only imagine that after being diseased for 38 years that poor man might have thought there was little 'worse' that could come his way. What would be worse? Death? Sometimes death is seen as an improvement on one's physical condition. We aren't told if this diseased man suffered with pain or other debilitating maladies. We aren't told how bad his disease was, only that it lasted 38 years. That's a LONG time for a disease to linger. Whatever this poor man had, it was bad enough to send him searching for a cure. And once he got it Christ told him, 'sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'

My thoughts go two directions here. First, if I were told such a thing my mind would automatically jump to the implied statement and I would wonder...was I diseased because of some sin I committed? And if so...what sin was it that had me punished so severely that I suffered through this disease for 38 years? That's the nature of the human mind. At least it's the nature of my human mind. From there my mind would jump to a second thing, I would begin to wonder just what 'worse' thing Christ is referring to.

I know I would think these things because those are the things I thought after reading that verse last night. They are the things I am still thinking this morning. I can only assume that the 'worse' Christ referred to was spiritual and not physical but I really don't know. Maybe the answer is deeper in Scripture, something I have not yet studied on or something I have not yet put two and two together on. Whatever it is, it isn't my intention to study this verse deeper to make anything more out of it than what is here before me and what my mind got stuck on. It isn't my intention to teach anyone anything or even for myself to learn anything.

I did not sit down with my Bible last night because I wanted to study it or to learn something. I sat down with it because I wished to soak in it, to simply enjoy it and absorb whatever of it the Lord saw fit to let sink in. It was comfort reading. It was reading for entertainment. It was...just reading for no reason other than I wanted to read my Lord's word.

And read I did. Only I didn't get to read very much because I found myself soaking not in many verses but in one. I found myself pondering not the entire context of a chapter or even a whole book but a single verse.

'sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'

Biblical marriage...repost

Biblical marriage

Bible study amazes me in that not only do we learn more and more of our Lord every time but that certain things catch our attention on any given day. Something that may not have earned so much as a pause in our reading yesterday may stick out above all else today. Christ telling people to sell everything to follow Him was one of those things that popped out at me just last month.

This month it’s something completely different. Last month I watched a movie on the book of Ruth. It held pretty close to Scripture and was enjoyable to watch. But something in it stood out to me. I don’t remember exactly what was said it but it was something to the effect of God preparing Ruth for Boaz. That got me thinking but it wasn’t until I switched from the New Testament to the Old that I really started seeing the verses, the stories, about marriage. I wasn’t looking for them but there they were.

From the very beginning we see God’s hand and plan in marriage.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.  So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Genesis 2:18-24

There isn’t much said about their marriage. We’re left with only our own thoughts and speculations on what life was like for them. Adam was created not in the Garden of Eden but out of it and placed inside it later. At some point after that God put him to sleep and used his body to create Eve.

This wasn’t just any woman. This was a woman made from his body and created just for him. She was designed by God to belong to Adam. When Adam awoke and was presented with his new wife. Adams response… “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. He didn’t look at her and say ‘hmm, there’s a woman’ or ‘that one will do’ or ‘why God? I’d have rather lain around and not have to put up with her.’ No. He said ‘at last.’ The implication there is that he waited for her. He wanted a wife. A helper. A partner.

Now instead of being alone he had a wife. They were two people joined in marriage so that they were one flesh. This is a joining of mind, body, and soul. And they were dependent on each other. Where he was weak she was strong. Where she was weak he was strong. They were two and yet…one.

There they were in what amounted to paradise. They had everything and yet by our standards today…they had nothing but each other. They had no house, no car, no instant entertainment. They didn’t even have clothes. How much would they have bonded and clung to each other when they had nothing else? Can you imagine being the only two people in the world? How attached and dependent would you be on that other person?

Adam and Eve had each other and they had God. Not just in thought and Spirit but walking and talking with them. He was there to give them instruction, to show them what He expected from them but when He left them alone…they had each other.

That was the first marriage God created. And He did create it. He didn’t just bring them together. He made them for each other.

That is the first marriage He made. It is the example we should look to.

Scripture brings us many more marriages. Genesis alone shows us Abraham and Sarah, Noah and his wife, Noah’s sons and their wives, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael. We don’t get very much insight into what their marriages were like. We know that Sarah called Abraham Lord and that they were still close enough to conceive a child in their old age. We know the world was repopulated from the eight people, four married couples, that were on the ark during the flood.  We know Isaac was willing to work for fourteen years to claim the woman he loved as his wife.

These are only a handful of marriages scattered throughout Scripture. There are so many more. The very fact that there are so many marriages in Scripture should tell us the Lord puts importance on it.

Over and over in Scripture marriage is mentioned. Couples are referenced.  An internet search turns up the fact that marriage is mentioned 19 times in the Bible. A search on the word wife shows that it appears either 396 times or 407 times. I couldn’t find a number count for the word husband. Even allowing for errors in counting, different translations and anything else that might affect the word counts the number of times wife is mentioned is pretty impressive.

But what were these marriages like? Our minds tend to see them as we see marriage today. Some good, some bad, some awful. And I’m sure they were. People were people no matter when they lived. Sin takes hold of all of us no matter how hard we try not to let it. We’re human. We fail. We say things we shouldn’t. Do things we shouldn’t. Hurt those we love. That wasn’t any different just because the times were different.

But what did those marriages look like?

Have you ever noticed that marriages lasted for centuries in ways they don’t today? Part of that is the social stigma of being divorced. Even well into the 1900’s saying you were divorced carried a burden of shame with it. But there was another side to it. The simple fact was there was a time when men needed women and women needed men.

In times past a woman had no way of supporting herself or providing for her children if she wasn’t married. There were few opportunities for employment available to women, and when they were…if she had children what was she supposed to do with them if she worked outside the home? Who would care for them?

Men had few if any domestic skills and less time for doing things like cooking and cleaning even if they had the ability to do them. If they had children, especially small children, they were ill equipped to care for them. It was hard to work a field, or tend animals with a baby in their arms.

Life was separated into men’s work and women’s work. Husbands had a role, wives had a role. And marriages happened as often out of sheer need as they did out of love. Life was just harder alone than it was when you were married.

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Genesis 2:18

Our modern society has taken the need for marriage away. Women can and do support themselves and their children. Men can cook and clean or they can throw something in the microwave. A single parent of either sex can drop their children off at daycare and not need to worry about them while they work. The need that held husbands and wives together has disappeared.

We can’t know what Biblical marriages looked like but we can know that the Lord had a plan for it in the beginning and He has a plan for it today. We know He gave certain roles to women and certain roles to men. He is the provider. She the caretaker. He is the protector. She the nurturer.

What if we simply stayed in the roles the Lord created us for? What if we realized that the Biblical model of marriage is good and tried to follow it? What if when we started questioning whether marriage was good we turned to Scripture? What if we looked at examples like Adam and Eve and saw that they stuck together through everything? What if we looked at marriages like Hosea and saw that they stuck it out when most would have walked away?

What if we looked at our husband and asked ‘what if God created me for him? What if I’m made ‘bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh’?

There is a secular movie that I saw years ago. It centers around a married couple as they work (and fight) together. A scene at the end of the movie shows a tornado heading their way. They take refuge in the only place that seems safe and is close enough to get to: a well house. With the tornado headed their way they lash themselves to the piping and hang on to it and each other. The tornado rips everything away and leaves them in the midst of a swirling mass that is churning angrily around them. As they’re bombarded with wind and debris swirls around them, you can see the churning tornado that is trying to suck them into it. But the pipes they’re anchored to hold fast and they’re swept into the air, hanging from their anchor, alone in a swirling storm that is surrounding them with trouble.

The Lord was kind enough to give me a Christian husband. Not just one that professes to know Christ but one that truly believes and follows the Lord, a man that denies himself for Christ, who puts others first, who is kind and humble. A man that I can see lives out Scripture every day. A man that is my safe place. Since our marriage we have been hit with many trials both big and small but with every one of them I have noticed that they’re easier to bear because we have each other. It’s easier to find a solution when we look for it together. It’s easier to bear the trials when we don’t have to bear them alone.

I haven’t watched that movie in years but the more trials that come our way the more I see my husband and I in the center of that tornado. We are the couple being blown and tossed about, Christ is the pipes that keep us anchored, that give us hope and strength to hang on, life is the tornado that swirls around us. But there in the middle of the tornado, my husband and I are anchored to the pipes, we have a firm foundation that keeps us rooted. We may be battered by the storms (trials) while the tornado of life surrounds us but we have each other in the midst of it.

And we have Christ.

Could that be what God had in mind when he created the first marriage?

Stripping God of His power

Damnation.

The very word should make us shake in our skin. It should invoke the most desolate of thoughts and feelings. It should leave us RUNNING to Scripture and to prayer and BEGGING the Lord to save us from such a fate.

A couple of years ago my husband found himself in the midst of people that casually and cavalierly dropped the term 'God damn' as if it meant nothing at all. I know the term is seen as a mundane swear word in our society and that most think nothing of saying such a thing.

But they should.

They should think hard about just what they are asking God to do each time they utter such profane statements.

I saw a quote on social media recently saying we need more preachers to preach about hell. Now, I happen to agree that we could do with a whole lot more hell is what awaits the unrepentant nonbeliever, or superficial believer. I think it would do every 'church' good if someone got in the pulpit and taught that 'God loves you' is a lie and that 'God hates sinners with a burning anger' is Truth. BUT I also believe, firmly and unquestionably, that 'God loves you' is keeping many a reprobate in check and that the Lord is using the Arminian 'free will' 'come as you are' faith to restrain great evil in this world.

What I don't understand is how people that claim to know the Truth of Scripture, that claim to be of the elect, that claim to be true Christians, can sit and declare that those that believe in free will will 'free will' themselves straight into hell. I cannot understand why there are those that are so determined to declare free will believers to be enemies damned to an eternity of hell because they believe in free will.

Is God not...God?

Is He not the one that gives grace at His discretion? Does He not save the most savage wretch? If He can do all that...if He can speak the world into being...if He can...be God, then why in the world does he lack the power to save a soul from the belief of free will?

Yet there are those that claim to know the Truth of Scripture that would deny God His power just as much, maybe more so, than any free willer ever did. They deny Him His power by believing that He is incapable of saving souls from a belief in free will.

They are so sure that believing in free will is a damnable sentence and that those souls will perish because of that belief. They question why others that do not believe in free will can look so lightly on the free will belief.

I cannot recall a single verse where we are told to concern ourselves with those that believe in free will. What I do recall is instructions that we are to spread the Gospel. And just what does Scripture say the Gospel is?

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.Matthew 3:1 ESV

That is the Gospel John the Baptist gave.

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16: 14-18 ESV

That is the very instructions that Christ gave to his disciples. There wasn't a word spoken about free will. In fact the disciples wouldn't have even had the entire Scriptures. They knew only what they had seen so far which was essentially the spreading of the fact that Christ is the Son of God and that He is the Savior. 

Yet we have those of the 'elect' today that are so focused on refuting 'free will' that they would declare free will to have more power than God does and they strip Him of His sovereignty by saying people that believe in free will are damned because they hold that belief. 

Scripture does not tell us that we are to refute free will but unbelief. We are told to give the Gospel...to repent and believe. Why then are there those that claim to be true Christians, that believe themselves to be of the elect, so concerned about free will? There are those that are busy going around meddling in what others believe, declaring salvation and damnation based on their own standards and ripping apart those that do not share their style of belief.

And they do it while stripping God of His power.

The Christian Civil War

I have a long time friend who I share many of my Christian beliefs with but we differ on a few very important points, mainly that of free will. I love this woman dearly, she is the sister of my heart. I would do anything for her. I share a friendship with her that reaches deeper than normal friendship and borders on family.

Family is, after all, nothing more than love and bonds, relationships built on memories and trust. I share many memories and experiences with this dear friend of mine. She and I have faced trials and troubles together and come through them better than we went into them.

But there is one trial that continues to vex us. It is that of free will in a Christian's life. She believes in it. I do not. It is a dividing line between the two of us. It is a line that keeps us restrained in how much Scripture we can share, a line that hinders us more times than either of us would like to count.

We often do Scripture studies together but we both are aware that there is a point we cannot cross. We will share our beliefs but those beliefs must be tempered through consideration for the other, knowing Truth as we each see it must be shared, but also knowing the other does not see Truth quite the same way.

Some might say that we should not be friends or that we should not do Scripture studies together. There are those on both sides of that dividing line that would label either or both of us heretics. I am aware of that and believe it or not, my friend and I have gone down that road ourselves. We have both accused the other of being a heretic. We have 'battled' for our beliefs and the opening of the others eyes.

In the end our love for one another won out and now we respectfully share our beliefs with each other, trying to point out each others error in faith and doctrine, while loving friendship and sisterly bonds bind us to each other more deeply than any division in doctrine can divide.

Any believer in Christ that holds more than the most superficial belief will quickly find themselves mired deeply in this fallen, sin filled world. We must navigate enemies seen and unseen. We must fight for a faith that is hated. We must walk as pure as we can while weaving the path of righteousness, as we understand it, through this world.

I often think of how easy it would have been had God created this world and filled it with only His elect, had He never allowed sin to enter it. He is, after all, God. He created the world and everything in it. Why not just make it pure to begin with and keep it that way? Why not make His elect as He wants them rather than refining them through trials and fire?

But I am not the Lord and it is His world to do with as He pleases. And do with it He did. As a result His elect must make their way in a fallen world, doing their best to navigate life and our very Christianity.

I think of those that would declare my friend and I enemies because we fall on two different sides of a line that cannot be compromised. Free will is either a true thing or it is not. There is no compromise. One of us is right. One of us is wrong. And there are those that would say we should part ways because we do not fall on the same side of that dividing line. I would guess that there are those that would say our friendship is sin because we are 'flirting with the enemy' so to speak.

But who gets to define right and wrong in these matters? Who is the one that determines whether we can walk in friendship and love with someone on the opposite side of that dividing line? I happen to be on the side of the line that does not believe in free will.

I cannot stand all the man-made terms used to describe believers of differing sorts. Gone are the days when we had Christians and non-Christians. Gone are the days when believing in Christ was black and white...if those days ever existed. Now we have Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists...Calvinists...Arminians.

Calvinist.

Arminian.

Two terms that pit people that hold a belief in Christ on two different sides of a belief. Two terms that create a Christian civil war. We implode ourselves from the inside out...or from inside Scripture out.

And the war rages on.

Strife. Contention. Division. The Arminians are often the lucky ones because many of them live their lives unaware that they are considered the enemy, even the enemy in the extreme, by other people that profess a faith in Christ. Many that call themselves the 'elect' of God rip others to shreds because of their faith.

How are we to know whether a person that believes in free will is of the elect or not? Yes, I realize Scripture is clear in what it teaches but...

Scripture is clear in what it teaches.

I recently did some very indepth studying on the Apostles and Christianity as the Scriptures portray it and you know what? Paul embraced them all, treating them as baby Christians and mature believers based on their professions and their fruit.

We should never compromise Scripture. We should stand firm on our faith and on the Truth of God's word. Many people who believe themselves to be Christians...to be God's elect...will find themselves with a bitter reality when their days on earth are over. Who are we...O man...to determine who will be on which side?

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy^a that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.20Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:13-24 ESV

I have encountered those on the side of the dividing line that believe themselves to be of the elect so strongly that they fail to take heed to the above verses. They are assured, by what measuring stick, I do not know, that they are God's elect and have made themselves out to be judge and jury on all who profess a belief in Christ. 

If anyone on the 'elect' side of Christendom shows compassion for Arminians, if they dare to say that we must embrace them as believers, then those on the 'elect' side are labeled all manner of names and denounced as brother or sister in Christ. 

Are the Arminians wrong?

Someone has to be right. And someone has to be wrong.

Those declaring themselves to be the elect with a holier-than-thou attitude, so certain they are right and that that gives them the right to be judge and jury on the Arminians would say that they are the ones in the right. 

I do happen to fall on the side of the line that says free will is nothing more than an illusion. But I also happen to fall into the thought process that the Lord saves multitudes out of the free will camp...I am living proof of the fact that He pulls people out of that belief system...and that if someone professes a belief in Christ then we should look beyond the dividing line to see what fruit they have. It's possible that we are looking at one of the elect without knowing it. It's possible that they have not been pulled into the light yet or that they are simply deluded, possibly searching for something that they feel but do not yet understand. 

Now let me brace myself for the onslaught, the very attack that will be thrown at me by those that believe themselves to be 'elect' but attack others for showing compassion to fellow believers. Honestly, I am not bracing myself for anything because I could truthfully care less about the attacks the 'elect' might throw my direction. I am not on this earth to please man but to please Christ and His word says we are to love others.

And so the Christian Civil War rages on, not because of verses like Ephesians 6:12...

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

...but because of people that choose to make war over their own idea of what constitutes the elect and how those that fall on the 'right' side of the dividing line should treat those on the 'wrong' side.

A while back I wrote on how people pass judgement on the dead, ushering them into heaven because it suits their purpose to do so. The flip side of that coin is that many that fall into the non-free will belief pass just as much judgement, declaring themselves judge and jury, 'discerning' the 'enemy' simply because their own standards label someone as such.

Now here I sit, having met only one person, in real life or online, that would fall in the 'non-free will' catagory that does not hold to holier than thou mentality. If I were faced with a literal Christian civil war where Arminians were on one side and everyone that could possibly be put under the term 'Calvinist' were on the other...if I were standing there looking at both sides, standing on opposite sides of a gap, I would sooner join the Arminian side than the Calvinist side.

I could easily see myself walking into their midst because I sure couldn't join the holier-than-thou 'non-free willers'. 

I have heard the 'elect' say that Arminians get nasty when pressed on their beliefs and told they are wrong. Maybe they do. I have seen it happen with a few but I can attest to the fact that I have never seen an Arminian get as nasty as the 'elect' do. 

And so the Christian Civil War rages on.

And on...

And on...