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by Charlie Wolcott

Tomorrow is New Year’s Day. There is a trend in many churches with “Word of Faith” leanings to proclaim a theme for that year in which God would do something great for you. They will call for a “year of prosperity” where you will get the job you have been looking for, or a “year of peace” where your problems will be solved. I’ve noticed that every time these proclamations are made, life never seems to do what the proclamation declares. But as I thought about what to do for starting 2022, and especially in light of what has been happening over the last two years, I want to play on this notion. I am going to declare that 2022 will be a year in which God’s sovereignty will be put on display. But isn’t God already sovereign? Absolutely. So I’m not declaring that God will come in and showcase His sovereignty and reclaim all the chaos and madness going on and settle all things. No, that’s His business. I want 2022 to be a year in which we, the church of Christ, recognize the sovereignty of God.

We may have been completely caught off guard in the U.S. with all the COVID issues, the governmental overreach, the communist take-over through the Democrat party that is nearly complete, the coup against the elections which has been going on for some time, but God put it all on display. The list goes on. Our comfortable world that we have greatly enjoyed has been turned upside down. And I am seeing people and churches blaming anything and everything for all the chaos. When the 2020 election took place, I was going through Jeremiah in my personal studies. I saw so much in common between the people of Judah in their idolatry and the U.S. today. It was startling and shocking in how close it was, with one main difference: Judah had a promise to be restored. The U.S. doesn’t. When I saw the election literally being stolen before all our eyes and no one doing anything, and seemingly powerless to do anything about it, I knew this: God was putting this country into judgment. This is not going to be a popular statement. The real cause of all this chaos is God. He is putting all our sin on full display and forcing us to see it carried out.

God is sovereign. He is in charge of everything that goes on. Every single atom obeys God at His word. It is only man who defies Him, and we do so in utter stupidity and in futility. God is going to get what He wants done no matter what we say or do. All our choices do is determine how much we drag our feet in the process and how much we get disciplined for it. God chose His heroes. Some were immediately obedient; others resisted. Noah wasn’t selected because he was a great man. He was selected because God chose him. Abraham was chosen. His descendants were chosen. Moses was chosen, even though he fought his calling. David was chosen. Jonah was chosen. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets were chosen. The disciples were chosen. Paul was chosen. Not one of the guys ever would have done what they did without God not only calling them but also equipping them and carrying them through. God is sovereign. They got through because God would not let them be touched until God had them ready to be touched.

But one thing I love about God’s sovereignty is that even God’s enemies are subject to His will. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. God wanted Ahab to go to war and sent a lying spirit to convince the false prophets that they would be successful. God put restraints on Satan and then suggested he go after Job. One of my favorites is Judas. Even Jesus’ most ardent enemies could do nothing but fulfill Scripture. And the same will be true about what is happening now.

God is in control over every situation. He shuts doors, allows distractions, cuts off opportunities, opens others, and all to get whom He wants where He wants them. I had to spent 6 years as a substitute teacher trying to get in as a full-time teacher. I even did a long-term substitute job where it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get hired, and I was intentionally looked over. Guess what? Despite how frustrated I was, God knew what He was doing. He was holding me for the job I currently have and giving me time and practice to prepare me for what I am doing now. It took me letting go of the dream before God resurrected it. And God put me in position to be at my high school doing what I am doing with the administration I need and the teaching team I need to what I should do. He’ll change things around to keep me on my toes, but one thing I am learning still is that God is sovereign.

God is sovereign over the affairs in our nation, too. The election did not occur by surprise. God put it out there for all to see to show both ourselves and the world what kind of country we really have become. I believe we are in judgment, and I believe we have gone past the point of no return. But I still believe God, in His knowledge and wisdom that far exceeds my own, can still redirect things and give this nation a mercy drop like we’ve never seen before. God is in control, and He is setting things up for the great showdown in Revelation. He only “tarries” so that whoever can be saved will be saved. Things are going to get worse before they get better, but God is sovereign. One thing I know about why God lets things go to hell-in-a-handbasket: it is to separate the sheep from the goats. Jesus is returning; there’s no question about that. But He is coming back for a pure and spotless bride. A bride that is pure from false teachers and fakers. A bride that is cleansed from sin from within. A bride that is ready to join Him and love Him and serve Him for all eternity. God will put us through whatever He has to put us through to make us ready to meet Christ in eternity. So, everything we are experiencing and going through has that as the end goal.

This year, I think things are going to get much worse. We can’t rely on the retaking of Congress in 2022. There is no promise that will happen, and even if we could, it may be too late, especially at the rate things have plummeted in just one year. As Christians, our hope is not in the USA. Our hope is in Christ. We must remember this. Yes, we want freedom to win out. We want truth to end up on top. It will, but it might not be until Christ returns for it to be realized again. Yet in all that, Christ is still sovereign. He is in charge of everything, and nothing passes without His direct allowance or command. No matter how crazy things get, let us take rest that God is in control and let us seek what our next step should be. Side note: don’t read what I’m not saying. I am NOT saying we should just let things go. God raises heroes for times such as these and calls for action. But in the meantime, let us rest in God’s hands, take action where we must, and be ready for whatever God throws at our way. This will be a fun year walking with the Lord and the adventure He has for us. Get ready.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

This will be my final post on this series on the attributes of God and I am going to wrap it up with a bang. I do pray you have learned more about who God is and what he is like. When we really boil it down, we are trying to describe an infinite being with our finite understanding. We simply cannot truly fathom the words that would be necessary to describe God. When Moses asked how he should identity God, God’s response was: “I am that I am.” God called himself the “I AM.”

What does this mean? So often, we hear these descriptions and almost blow it off, simply because to dig deeper blows our minds too much. But let us dig deeper anyway. “I AM” is another way to describe ‘self-sufficient,’ ‘everything you need to know ,’ and ‘all that there is.’ God is not just a God of love, justice, holiness, mercy, grace, an intercessor, a trinity, sovereign, immutable, faithful, and a father. He is so much more.

God is eternal. He exists outside of time. God did not hang out in heaven twiddling his thumbs for billions of years in the past waiting for the time to create the universe. He exists in past, present, and future all at the same time. In fact, time is really something only for man to use. God’s time is not merely when God chooses to do something. It is also simply the best way we have to describe how God interacts in our space-time continuum. Using the weak analogy of an author, I can see the whole picture of my novels. I can see forwards, backwards, and the present all in one go. I am by no means perfect at it like God is, but it’s the same general idea.

God is omniscient, or all-knowing. He knows everything and everything there is to know. Yes, that includes our thoughts and what we will do before we do it. Parents can do this to a slight degree with their children, because parents know their children very well. God knows every aspect about us, every detail. That is why there is no such thing as a “hidden sin,” because God knows of it. You can’t hide it from him. You can try to do so with family, friends, or even yourself, but you can’t do that with God. What’s more is that unless God is omniscient, we cannot know that we know anything. Every source of true knowledge must appeal to something to validate it. This chain of appeals must end somewhere, and it does so with God. To suggest otherwise is to question any valid claim of knowledge. You cannot know that you know if it was any different. To know anything, we must either be omniscient ourselves, or we must get that knowledge from someone who is omniscient. There is a lot of false knowledge out there too, but that is just a corruption of what is true. There is nothing unique. No lie is unique. It is always a corruption of the truth.

God is omnipresent, or everywhere at once. God cannot be pinned down to one location or time period. This is a VERY different concept than pantheism, the idea that God is in everything. That is not omnipresence. Omnipresence means God is in all places, all locations, and in all times, all at once. God is right next to me as I type this, right next to you as you read this, helping the pastor down the street to prepare his sermon, comforting someone as they deal with a loss, on the other side of the planet working on the hearts of any who would hear his name, and on the far sides of the universe keeping all things in order, all at the same time.

God is omnipotent, or all-powerful. He created the entire universe in six days with nothing else but the power of his spoken word. Some will say, “Isn’t God’s power on greater display if he created everything this other way?” In a word: no. God’s power is also on display in his ability to communicate his word clearly and understandably to all peoples of all nations, of all times, and of all cultures. God did not write Genesis with scientific language, because he wanted something that could be easy to understand even without scientific background. But all science reflects his creative nature, which includes structure and order. God did not merely show his power to create the universe. He displays his power through using weak, sin-corrupted humans to carry out his will. God does not need us to do his will but he chooses to use us, which is actually a greater testament of his power had he merely done it by himself, because he can take error-prone people and get it done. Just look at the writing of the Bible. Had it been merely written by man, there would be no way it would have survived this long. Its existence today alone is solid evidence that God is indeed all-powerful.

God is everything that there is and everything we need to consider. He is the only one that can fully satisfy our needs. We may seek pleasure or rest or comfort in many other things, but only God can truly meet that need. He is our shelter, our tower of strength, our provider, our deliverer, our healer, our sustenance, our companion, our father, our caretaker, our defender, our champion, our Lord, our king, our counselor; I cannot even think of enough adjectives to put on this list. He is the I AM. He is the Holy One. The Everlasting God. The one who will bring Justice. The one who will punish the unjust and rescue and deliver the justified. The one who longs that none perish but that all would repent and find salvation through Jesus Christ. He is the greatest friend one could ever have, one who laid down his own life so that we might live. Do you know him?

Listen to these two short videos by Eric Ludy and S.M. Lockridge titled “He Is” and “That’s My King.” Do you know him? I pray that through this series, you have gotten a much better picture of who God is.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

One attribute of God that is often not thought of as an attribute is that God is a father. Yes, there is the Father, one of the persons of the Trinity, but I’m not addressing him in particular. What I will be addressing here is the role of a father as we find in God. First, how is this relationship established? We are not biological children. God is not a man. We started out as enemies of God because of our sin. And yet God sought to reconcile us to himself through the cross. But God did not settle for just delivering us from the penalty of sin. He dealt with the problem of sin and he did not stop there; he chose to make us his sons and daughters via the process of adoption.

Adoption, which Paul speaks of, is not quite the same as we understand it today. It is better. He spoke of the Roman adoption system. In Rome, a father had the right to disown a biological son. He could remove the son from his will and literally abandon him. But if a Roman father adopted a son, that bond was unbreakable. A father could not renounce an adopted son, remove him from his will, deny inheritance, etc. And one of the reasons why is because an adopted son is chosen. The father did not have to take that child in. He chose to.

This is what happens between us and God. God chooses to adopt us, despite the fact that we were in rebellion against him. Now we can get into the whole free will/predestination debate here but I’m not going to. The point here is that God has no obligation to adopt us. He’s not required to do that; he does it because he wants to. But he won’t force himself upon us. And once the process is complete, once we are born again, he will not renounce us and undo what he did.

So what does this mean for us? There is a photo of JFK with his young son at the Resolute Desk at the Oval Office. JFK Jr. had a very special privilege while his father was in office. He could go in and out of the Oval Office whenever he wanted. He could interrupt a meeting to be with his daddy. He could do what none of us could do. Why? Because he was the son of the President. And this is the same type of privilege we have with God. We have direct access to the throne of heaven. When we call, God will drop whatever he is doing to be with us and give us his undivided attention. Now that is not fully accurate because God does this with everyone who is his child all at the same time all while not losing his attention on what else is going on, but do you get the picture?

We get to call God Almighty our “daddy.” But there is more to the picture. Let’s say we are in the White House and as we are doing our thing, we break something very valuable. There is a major difference between how the situation will be dealt with and that difference depends on our relationship with the President. If we are an outsider, a mere guest, we would expect to be prosecuted, fined, or even arrested and put before a judge (depending on the case). If we, however, are a child of the President, while we would still be punished, it would be dealt with in house. The same is true with our relationship with God. We still sin, we still break God’s commands. But God deals with us in house. He doesn’t just throw us out into the streets and let us get manhandled by the system. He will discipline us and he will take us behind the shed for a good whooping from time to time, but he doesn’t disown us. If we run off, that’s our business. But seriously consider this: if we are not being disciplined by God, can we honestly say we are his children? None of us are perfect, so we all need that foolishness driven out of us. Are we going through that process? If not, then maybe we really are illegitimate children, living in the home but not legally. Let us examine ourselves and see if we are indeed in the family.

There is more that comes with being in God’s family. Most of us should know that if we live in any home, we are expected to follow the rules and directions of those who own the home. If you are the owner, you get to set the rules. But any child is expected to follow and listen to the instructions of the parents in the home. Any renter is expected to follow and listen to the instructions of the landlord. The same is true when we are adopted into God’s family. God expects us to follow and obey his expectations for how we should live. Now God is not a cruel dictator. Many will claim that is the case because he doesn’t want us just doing what we want. The child who will only do what he wants is in rebellion and in defiance of the authority placed over him. That is the sinful nature in a nutshell: the drive to rule one’s own life. But God’s rules and expectations are not cruel. They are not burdensome. All he expects of us is to lean upon him and depend upon him. He does not expect perfection, though he will work and discipline us towards that goal.

The transition of an adopted child from one home or lifestyle into another is never easy. There is always baggage from the previous home that the parents have to deal with. It’s a challenge for the kid as well. It takes time and incredible patience for an adopted child, especially one that is not a newborn, to adjust to the new home. It’s the same with us. We are so used to living in our sinful lifestyle, in accordance to the way of the world, that when we are born again and adopted into God’s family, we do not instantly live according to God’s principles. It take time and patience to learn it. And that is a process that will continue until the day we die and God takes us to our new home he is building for us. As the famous line goes: “Be patient with me, God’s not finished with me yet.”

Do you know if you are in God’s family? If not, please contact any of the Worldview Warriors blog writers. We would love to talk to you and introduce you to God so you can join the family. God is the King of Kings and the highest authority in the universe and beyond, and he delights in his children. I can say personally, it is beyond awesome to a child of God.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

Have you ever made a promise and failed to keep it? Or has someone made a promise to you and failed to follow through? It is not a pleasant thing. Some of us may think it is not a big deal because everyone has done it as one point or another. But keeping your word, keeping your promises, is a much bigger deal than we think.

Our word is representative of who we are, it reveals our character. When we keep our word, people can trust us. When we don’t, not many will. If our word is not trustworthy enough, we often appeal to an authority that is respected and honored by both parties. Such a vow not only puts your character on the line, but also the image of that higher authority. So when that authority, if it recognizes the vow, sees it is not fulfilled, that authority will deal with the issue.

But did you know God makes vows as well? Throughout all of Scripture, we see numerous promises that God makes. But God has no higher authority to appeal to because he is the highest authority. If he wasn’t, he would not be God. So when God makes a promise, he must appeal to himself. And with that appeal, everything that describes God is put on the line. All the attributes I have described so far are put to the test when God makes his vows. And for God to not lie, for him to not change, for him to remain the standard of truth, he must fulfill those promises. And he does.

That can be both reassuring and terrifying. Many of us love to quote the promises of peace and protection and deliverance, and it is not a bad thing to have those on our minds. That being said, let us not forget that God makes other promises as well. He promises prosperity and peace when we obey him statutes, but he promises curses and problems when we don’t. So often, when we get into trouble we pray for God to get us out of it, but it does not take a thorough reading of the Old Testament history to see that many times the trouble we get into is our own fault and God is going to let it run its course. Many of the prophets say this as well. And God delivers.

When he lets us fall into trouble, it is not to be a mean judge. It is meant to get us to realize what we did to put us in that position and to stop doing that. Let us not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man will reap what he sows. Many of God’s promises will take place whether we directly follow him or not. There are many non-believing CEO’s that read Proverbs and apply the principles in a completely secular manner, and they succeed because they follow what God has ordained. The rain falls on the just and the unjust and God is not a respecter of persons. He doesn’t treat different peoples or different groups specially because they have some kind of title or privilege. That being said, he does not reject anyone just because of their background or because of some “earned merit.” He honors obedience and curses disobedience. And he does not change.

What are some of the promises God gives us? For us as Christians, he made a few specific promises to those that preach his Kingdom. Jesus said we would encounter trouble and persecution; he never said it would be easy. But he also promised the strength, the grace, and the words to say when we need to say them. He promised he would never leave us or forsake us. And in 22 years of missions experience not including what I am doing now, I can testify that he did not break his word.

But what about those who leaned on him and depended on him to do something significant like save a loved one from cancer? This was the case for the atheist professor in the movie God’s Not Dead. He used to be a Christian (so he claimed) but God did not save his mother when he was a child and he hated God ever since. Was God unfaithful and failed to come to the rescue of those who called on him?

Read back on my post on God’s sovereignty. I cannot answer such a question because I don’t have all the answers. I don’t see the overall big picture. But I do know this: God was there ready to comfort those who suffered the loss. Was God responsible for said person’s death? Again, there are factors that none of us know and only God knows. But consider this: was there a promise that God would spare the person? Or was that just an expectation built on an emotional response? I’ll be honest, none of us want our loved ones to die. Nothing wrong with that. But if reality does not meet our emotional desires, does that mean God is at fault? No it doesn’t.

But what about when God does give us a specific promise? The apostle Paul knew he was to go to Rome. And nothing was going to stop him, including beatings, shipwreck, or even a snakebite. I’m not sure he envisioned he would get there in chains, but he was going to get there. Jesus was so confident of his calling that during a storm he slept. While the disciples were panicking, Jesus had no fear. He walked straight through crowds trying to kill him. Until the time for his crucifixion arrived, he could not be touched. Some of the great missionaries had this type of audacity where they knew their mission and absolutely nothing was going to get in their way to get that done. Some avoided shipwreck, other escaped torture and rape, others endured poison. Two of my friends were in Thailand on a mission trip and some gunmen came to their hotel to shoot them. They hit the wrong room (the clerks revealed later that my friends were the target).

God does not change. He does not lie. He holds true to his word and he will see it through. Let us walk in the center of his will. When we do that, we will see him come through. But remember, even if we don’t follow him, God is still faithful and he will deliver the judgment he promised for sin. He will delay that judgment as long as he can, but we have no promises on how long that will be. Trust God. He is trustworthy. There is none more reliable and more dependable than he. And the one promise that is more valuable than any other he has made is his promise that those who have been born again will join him in paradise. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have, and because God is faithful and because he does not change, I have the assurance that I will be in heaven after my time here on earth is up, not because of anything I have done, but because of what Christ has done. You can have that assurance as well. Will you trust God?

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

One of the most important attributes and characteristics of God is that he is immutable, that is, he does not change. God does not change. Let me repeat that: God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And it is this fact that he does not change is what allows us to depend on him.

Take a moment to read Hebrews 6:17-19. The context of this passage is talking about the promise made to Abraham, that through him all peoples will be blessed. This passage also references that when a man makes a vow he will appeal to a greater authority. This provides the person receiving the promise that if it is broken, they can appeal to that higher authority to see it is done. But how can God make a vow then if he must appeal to a higher authority? The answer is this: he appeals to himself. When God makes a vow, everything that makes God “God” is put on the line. Pay attention to Hebrews 6:18. It is impossible for God to lie.

Many skeptics complain about the character of God being used to define Truth, because that makes the standard arbitrary to what God says. The problem with this position is that such an idea places the standard of truth upon themselves which is… arbitrary. The difference between God being the standard and man being the standard is that God does not change. God’s character does not change and he does not lie, therefore his standards do not change.

One of the most annoying things when dealing with business or politics is the changing of policies. We learn one system on how to fill out papers and then on what seems to be a whim, they change the whole system without letting anyone know until after the fact. It’s extremely frustrating when the system changes on you. College students hate it when the degree plan changes on them and they have to take a whole new set of classes or a number of the classes they took were for naught. Now there are understandable changes because of a flaw found in the system, but especially when politics is involved, some changes have nothing to do with fixing flaws in a system. More often than not, they create more flaws than fix them. But God does not do that, because he does not change.

With God we can rely on him and depend upon him. We know that he does not make a law and then without purpose make it totally different. Wait! What about the Mosaic Law and the Law of Grace? Did not Jesus do away with many of the laws in the Old Testament? Didn’t God change at that point? Actually, no, he didn’t.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” What many of us do not see is that the Law of Grace was always there. It was not something new. It was always there. It was always part of God’s plan from the very beginning. He did not have Plan A, realized that mankind blew it, and come up with Plan B. No, he had Plan A from the very beginning. This is why Paul says Christ was crucified from the foundations of the earth. Before God even created everything, Jesus dying on the cross was part of the plan from the beginning.

Now before I go further, I want to make it clear that when we say “God does not change,” we are talking about his character, his personality. There are plenty of cases one can make of God changing his mind, but when he does, he does so in accordance to his never-changing character and he does so without lying. When the Israelites rebelled at Mt. Sinai and built the golden calf, God told Moses he would destroy them all and start over with Moses. That was consistent with his character of justice. But when Moses interceded for them, he relented, consistent with his character of mercy. God offered mercy to Sodom and Gomorrah. He spared Nineveh when they repented. It seems contradictory but God plays role of both loving Father and criminal judge. To be loving, he must enforce the law he gave. At the same time, he must also enforce the promises he made. That enforcement of promises is what we call faithfulness, which I will discuss next week.

So what does it mean for us that God is immutable, that he does not change? It means we can take solace in him. It means we can take shelter in him and we know he will sustain us through the storm. It means when God tells us we need to do something, he will come through and see that it will get done. It means we have an anchor that tells us precisely where we are in the ocean of life. It also creates boundaries that defines what we can do and where we should not go.

I have heard it said that if you take a group of kids and put them in a fenced playground, they will take full advantage of the area given. But if you put them in an unmarked area, generally, they will play for a little bit but then tuck themselves closer to the point where they were ‘set loose’ because they don’t know what they are allowed to do or not. Yes, some will wander far out, but it is easily seen that as humans, we need structure. We need rules and boundaries. That is not to limit us, but to give us a sense of identity. Frank Peretti took his time showing how this concept works in his book Piercing the Darkness. In this book, the main character, Sally Roe, spent much of her life living as she wanted and teaching others to live without boundaries, but as she encounters Christians for the first time, she is pointed to Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. But Psalm 119, of its 178 verses, only two of them do not have some reference to God’s orders, his instructions, his laws, or his precepts. Take time to read this chapter. It is God’s laws that not only tell us who we are and where we are, they also give us the freedom to do far greater and more things than we could without.

God does not change. He is not the author of confusion. He says what he said, and meant what he said. He said it so it could be understood, followed, and lived. He knows how to communicate the same word to all peoples of all times of all languages. We can trust him and count on him to be the same tomorrow as he has been throughout all of history.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

Many people love to talk about kind and fluffy attributes of God. We tend to love that God is love, that he is faithful, and that he is kind and good. But something we tend to not like as much is that God is sovereign. This means that God is in control and that he is the highest authority on all matters. There are a lot of aspects we can explore with this, but today I want to lay down what it is and how to be careful not to abuse this claim.

There is absolutely nothing that catches God off guard. He is all-knowing, which is another attribute I will address later. He knows the beginning from the end and the end from the beginning. Yet somehow God is not responsible for everything that goes on. Many question God, suggesting, “If God is all powerful, why doesn’t he stop this or that?” This argument is used to suggest God is either not all-powerful or he is a cruel God. But is this so?

The perfect case study for this argument is Job. Satan went to God just roaming around and God brought Job up to Satan’s attention. It was like a little gamble where God said Job would never curse him with his lips. It was a brutal week where Satan took away Job’s children, his wealth, and his health. His best friends insisted Job had sinned, and Job’s own wife told him it was all God’s fault. Job maintained his innocence but he often accused God of being unjust. He did not curse him, but he constantly asked God what his crime was. When God responded, he did not directly answer Job’s complaint, but simply asked him if he was in the proper place to make such a complaint. And Job responded by saying he was not worthy of charging God of wrongdoing and praised and worshiped him. We have to remember that we are not the standards of what constitutes good or bad, loving or cruel.

God is like an author or a movie director. He is putting all the characters and pieces together to create a masterpiece. And as an author, I can relate. When I create my characters, they really do take on their own personalities. If they don’t, I have not developed them enough. And as I have written my novels, I have had characters fight and re-direct me because I was trying to get them to do something they would not do. That problem arises because I do not know my characters as well as I should. God, however, knows us far better than we know ourselves. So he knows where to put us, what to put in our paths, and what situations we can or cannot handle. But he allows us to choose how we respond to those situations.

There are two extremes, two fallacies, that I have seen in how people respond to God’s sovereignty and I want to caution us against them. The first fallacy is that God is responsible for everything that happens. If God is in control, has the power and authority to address every situation, and is not cruel, then he must intentionally direct every decision made… right? This is the position taken by hyper-Calvinists in how they deal with salvation, that God already determines who will saved and who won’t be. But this is a false teaching, because God is not responsible for sin. Yes, he allowed us to rebel against him, but that is not the same as him causing it.

If God was responsible for every action, then what was the point of giving the law? What was the point of having the Israelites shout the blessings and curses for obedience and disobedience? What was the point of Joshua telling us, “Choose you this day whom will you serve”? What was the point of Jesus saying, “Unless you repent, you too will perish”? The point I can see is that even though God is in control, he allows us to have a choice in whether we respond to him to not. That does not mean we are able to thwart God’s plans. That does not mean if we don’t respond in the way we should that God has to panic and come up with Plan B. No, God’s sovereignty and his plan includes knowing what our decisions are. In the same way as an author, once I know my characters, I can write the plot based on how my characters will make their decisions. I don’t force the decision, but I direct the events based on those decisions, and I create situations where I know how my characters will respond. God does the same idea with us, only he does it perfectly and does not require second or third drafts. To get more of this idea read Nathan Buck’s post “Is God a Cosmic Puppet Master?”

The other fallacy I often see is giving someone platitudes. Let me explain that. Many people will ask, “God, why did you let my relative die?” What about the loss of a loved one? Dealing with cancer or other diseases? Natural disasters? A mass shooter or terrorist attack? Nationwide starvation? What is the deal? If God is in control and he is all-powerful, why doesn’t he do something about it?

These are very real questions and the last thing I could do to help is to give a platitude. Don’t worry; God has it under control. How often do we give nothing more than “pat-on-the-back-answers” that does absolutely nothing to help out with the situation? That is a platitude, a cheap answer that doesn’t cost you anything but sounds doctrinally okay. Can we really answer these questions?

I am not going to try to answer them here, and the reason I should not is because I don’t have all the details. I have seen too many well-meaning platitudes that either do not help or make things worse. I heard of one well-meaning person tell a couple who lost their child, “If you had more faith, your child would not have died.” They intended well, but that was a bitter slap on the face to this couple. Sometimes there are no answers we can give and the best thing to do is to simply mourn with them, not saying anything.

But many times, God does not give us a direct answer. He will often simply ask, “Do you trust me?” Remember his other attributes: love, justice, holiness, mercy, grace. When he allows a tragic event to take place, all these other attributes are playing a role. We cannot see the whole picture and too often we think we could do a better job than God. But I am in the process of learning that God is still in control of every situation. He knows what is going on and he knows what situations we have coming up. And knowing that God is sovereign, knowing that nothing takes God by surprise, gives me peace in the situations I am in. I hope this helps you too in whatever you are facing.

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by Charlie Wolcott

One of the more challenging attributes of God to understand is that he is a trinity. He is three persons and yet one God. How is this possible? How can you be three unique beings while still being one God? Many scholars have wrestled this one aspect for centuries so suffice it to say, I am not going to be able to give the “definitive answer” on this. But I can explain what is going on somewhat and at least establish this concept. The first time we get a hint that God is more than one being is in Genesis 1:26. And God said, “Let us make man in our image.” But then later in Deuteronomy 6:4, we see “Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is ONE” [emphasis mine]. Is this a contradiction? At first glance it may seem this way. But like with any document, if there is a reasonable explanation for it, it is not a contradiction. So let’s dig into this. The doctrine of the Trinity states that God is three persons in one. God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at each one.

The Father is who is referenced throughout the majority of the Old Testament. He is known as “God” or as “The Lord” or “I AM”. A very interesting side-note here is that when other cultures addressed the Biblical God, they did not address him like their own gods, but as the One True God. The Father has the role of authority and justice. But he also has the heart of the children. You mess with the kids, you also mess with the daddy. The Father not only lays down the law, he also provides protection and care.

The Son is known as Jesus Christ. But he did not come into existence just 2000 years ago. Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” This was not a light statement to make. When Jesus said, “I AM,” this is the exact same name the Father gave himself to Moses at the burning bush. Jesus was equating himself with God Almighty. There are only two options here to deal with this statement: he is a fraud, or he was speaking the truth. There is legit reason why the Jews immediately picked up stones to hurl at him, because to call yourself God when you are not is an offense worthy of capital punishment. But they did not understand that he was speaking the truth.

But for Jesus to say, “I AM,” meant more than just “I am God Almighty.” It also meant he existed before his time on earth. How is that possible? How could a person exist before they are conceived, let alone born? That is a whole discussion that I simply don’t have space to answer in this post. But we can check to see if Jesus, the Son, is found in the Old Testament, and we do. We see him as the Angel of the Lord. There are numerous examples of Jesus appearing pre-incarnation including before Abraham in Genesis 18, when he wrestled with Jacob, to Joshua just before the conquest of Jericho, to Gideon, to Samson’s parents, he destroyed the Assyrian army for Hezekiah, and also appeared in the Fiery Furnace. This is not a comprehensive list, but the reactions here are different than just to a mere angel. Angels always refused worship, but the Angel of the Lord did not. Why? Simple: he is Jesus, the second person of the Trinity.

The third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. This is the hardest person of the Trinity to understand, because we simply don’t have as much explicitly written about him. Jesus called the Holy Spirit his “helper,” and the role of the Holy Spirit is to point to Jesus, never to himself. While the Father has the role of authority, and the Son has the role of Creator and Mediator between the Father and Man, the Holy Spirit has the power to get it done. “It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord. We see the Holy Spirit taking a role in the Old Testament as well. But the Spirit would come and go. The Spirit would come upon the prophets and that was when they would reveal what God was saying. And it was the Holy Spirit that came down at Pentecost and ignited the church in Acts 2.

There is one place in particular where we see the Trinity in action all at the same time. That was when Jesus was baptized. Jesus is the Son, and when he came up out of the water, the Spirit came down upon him like a dove, and then the Father spoke, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The Trinity is not a concept developed to explain away an apparent contradiction, but something that with study of Scripture becomes apparent. So how does all this apply to us today?

I referenced Genesis 1:26 above. Many ask, “What does it mean to be made in the image of God?” First let us understand what an “image” is. An image is not a replica, but a reflection, a picture. When we see the Trinity of God, we see three persons in one perfect union. God is always in fellowship. Likewise, man was created to be in fellowship. There is a well-known phrase that says, “No man is an island.” No one is meant to be alone. Now God does not require man to have fellowship, but he wants it. We see this in Genesis 2-3. God did not create man and then go off to someplace else. He is intimately involved in each and every one of our lives.

Another aspect that helps us understand the Trinity is that just as God is Father, Son, and Spirit, likewise we are body, soul, and spirit. God is three persons in one, we are three parts in one. Our body is our physical body. Our soul comprises of the roles of mind, will, and emotions. And our spirit comprises of the roles of intuition, consciousness, and communion. Ever wonder how people can know and understand each other without talking? That’s our spirit. It is also how God can reveal certain things to us that we normally would not know otherwise.

I hope this helps you get a clearer picture of the nature of God. In the next few weeks I will be addressing God’s sovereignty, the fact that God does not change, and his faithfulness. And there will still be more after that. May this series give you a much clearer understanding of who the God we worship is.

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by Charlie Wolcott

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.”
~Romans 10:1

As I have been going through my series on the attributes of God, I hope you have been learning about who God really is and what he is like. And I am not even halfway finished. Today’s attribute is this: God is the intercessor.

What does it mean to be an intercessor? For the longest time, when I heard of intercession, I would think of nothing more than simply praying on the behalf of someone else. While this is true, that intercessory prayer is praying on the behalf of someone else, it is actually so much more. To intercede means to step into a situation on behalf of someone else and take action to protect that person from harm. It is a term we hear in schools. Schools often have “intercession” for struggling students so they can get the extra help they need to pass their classes. When a person stands between a bully and a victim, that person is an intercessor. The greatest form of intercession is when one person takes the hit for another, even at the cost of his or her life.

Eric Ludy showed me an image of intercession that I had never thought of but it made perfect. Listen to this 8-minute video talking about how Jesus himself is the ultimate Intercessor. The image I want to point you to is the image of a walled city. Think of a castle or fort. When a piece of that wall is broken down, we call that a breach. It is easy access into the fort with no need to address the front door. What an intercessor will do is stand in that gap when the enemy is charging and hold his ground. I never truly understood intercessory prayer until I got this image. When we pray in intercession, we advance to stand between the person, organization, or nation we are praying for and stand ready to fight the battle the person, organization, or nation we are praying for is fighting. Intercessory prayer is when we move to take on the demons those we are praying for are fighting. And that can come with a cost.

Do we have intercessors? Isaiah wondered that. Isaiah saw that truth had fallen, as though it was in the streets, trampled and mocked. He wondered if there would be an intercessor, someone who would make a stand and defend the truth. And no one would do it. Isaiah himself was doing it by speaking the words of God, but ultimately no one was really doing it. So God himself became the intercessor. God himself came down from heaven to intercede for his people. And he took the form of a man: Jesus Christ.

Jesus did what no man since Adam could have done: He lived the perfect life. Adam had the opportunity to stand up and defend his wife from the wiles of the serpent. Read that account in Genesis 3. He did not do it. He relinquished his role and fell into sin. But Jesus did it. He stood in that gap. He stood between us and our accuser and single-handedly took on not just Satan, but sin and death itself. And he won the battle with his resurrection. To this day, Jesus stands at the throne interceding on our behalf.

But what Jesus did was to be an example of how we are supposed to live. Jesus was an intercessor. He stood between the crowd and the woman caught in the very act of adultery. Why not us? Why don’t we stand for the weak, the lost, and the destitute? Some of us actually do. Some of us think we do. In reality, most of us don’t. Why? Two reasons often come to mind. One is that it does not affect us. By doing nothing about it, what happens to them has no impact on us. There are many who only act to aid those in need because of selfish reasons, because it makes them look good or feel good. Or they do it because if they don’t do anything, the inaction will come back to haunt them. The motive for doing it is self, so for the most part, few actually do help those in need.

The other major reason people use is because they know there is a cost to selfishly stand for the needs of others. It could be reputation, that being associated with those people won’t look good. Jesus felt that pressure. He was mocked for associating with tax collectors and sinners, the outcasts of society. He stood for up for them, at the cost of popularity, at the cost of respect by the big names out there.

What about us? Are we willing to go up and bat for those that society rejects? Are we willing to fight the powers that be so that they get their justice? And are we willing to that even if we never receive a single benefit for it? I’m speaking to myself here just as much to everyone else. Where is the intercessor? Where is the one that will rise up to the task and take on those who would keep the destitute in their poor state? This is what Paul is doing in Romans 10:1. He is fighting and striving that his own people, the Jews, would be saved. We’ve been talking the last few weeks how it is not about being raised in the church or having a Christian heritage that makes you saved, but it is only by leaning upon and depending upon Jesus as your LORD and Savior. Do we have that drive? That mentality? Do we have the yearning to save the lost as men like Hudson Taylor or CT Studd or Amy Carmichael had? They were missionaries who despite knowing the dangers to body and health, some of whom were already battling severe health, STILL longed to go to foreign missions to save the lost.

I will wrap up this post with a quote frequently attributed to English preacher, Edmund Burke: “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

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by Charlie Wolcott

Last week I talked about how God is a God of mercy. There is another attribute that is very closely associated to mercy and that is grace. Many people confuse these two attributes, but they are distinct and unique. Mercy is simply described as “not getting what you do deserve.” Grace on the other hand is “getting what you do not deserve.” God is very merciful and you can read about it in my post from last week. Now let’s look at grace.

Many confuse grace with mercy. When a defendant in court pleads for mercy, it is because he knows he is guilty, and without mercy he cannot escape his punishment. But there are times where a judge would not merely give mercy, but actually give grace. A merciful judge will simply either reduce or forgive the defendant. A graceful judge will not merely give the defendant mercy, he will go above and beyond and provide the means for the defendant to get his life back in order.

In the big picture, we see mercy and grace reveal itself in the Gospel. Mercy is when Jesus paid the penalty for sin and dealt with the problem of sin. Grace is when he took it so much further. He doesn’t just forgive us; he adopts us as his children. He trains us, prepares us, and sends us out as ambassadors for his Kingdom. This also means he gives us the authority to represent him. That also means we have diplomatic immunity for we live and represent a higher standard and a higher authority. He also trains us for battle so that the forces of darkness will not endure.

God’s grace is beyond what we can imagine. It is by grace that we even have life. It is by grace that we have a planet and a universe that is suited for us to live in. It is by grace that we had people to take care of us as we grew up. What about those who did not have that? The orphans, the destitute, etc. Much can be said about that, but let me just say that sin plays a role and God lets the consequences of sin take their toll. While God gives all we need, there is also a need to manage the resources he’s given us. When children starve to death, it is not because God did not provide. It is because someone stole what was meant for them.

It is by grace that we have food to eat. It is by grace that we have shelter. It is by grace that we have clothing (that is a whole sermon in itself; check out my first Worldview Warriors blog post for that). This is part of why Jesus told us in Matthew 6 to not worry about what we will wear, what we will eat, or about tomorrow. Because God’s grace is sufficient.

Paul dealt with a personal issue. It could have been a health issue or something else. He called it a ‘thorn in the flesh.’ God responded to Paul’s request to remove it by saying: “My grace is sufficient for you.” God is our provider, Jehovah Jireh. He gives us precisely what we need and when we need it. He is never late, but he is rarely early. When we go through trials and tribulations, God’s grace grows. He will give us that grace with abundance beyond what we could imagine.

It is by grace that Peter had the courage to be crucified upside down. It is by grace that John survived being boiled in oil so he could write the last few books of the New Testament. It is by grace that Paul withstood five beatings, two stonings, numerous threats to his life, a shipwreck, and a snake bite, all to bring the Gospel to Asia Minor, Jerusalem, and Rome. It is by grace that the saints of God in the last 2000 years have been able to do what we have done. It is by grace that missionaries like Hudson Taylor and CT Stud could travel through Africa and Asia to preach the Gospel despite several health issues. It is by grace that the United States has been as prosperous as it has been so that we could send out more missionaries in its history than the rest of the world combined. It is by grace that Worldview Warriors has been able to run as the ministry that we are today. And it is also by grace that when God’s judgment comes, it does its work.

It is by grace that we have the strength and the courage to stand against anything the world throws at us. It is by grace that food multiplies. It is by grace that the sick are healed, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see, and the dead rise. And it is by grace that God allows us to join him to expand his Kingdom and turn this world around. Check out this short video by Eric Ludy about the kind of grace God deals out. Are we willing to go out and do God’s bidding? A great phrase I have heard that addresses this is: “God’s will… God’s bill.” If God wants us to do something, he will do as Oswald Chambers said: “He will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist you with all his almighty power.” God has given us grace beyond our wildest dreams. Let us not waste it.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

The last two weeks, I have spoken about God’s justice and God’s holiness. They seem to contradict his love. But there is more to this picture. Yes, God is love. Yes, he is just. Yes, he is holy. But how can he be just and be loving? Part of the picture is that he is merciful. Mercy in a nutshell is “not giving someone something they deserve.” How can God be just and carry out the punishment for sin, and be merciful? Does not mercy mean he forgives the punishment?

Let us explore this. Many people have a very negative view of God because they read the Old Testament history and they see a God that is vengeful and full of hate. Then they look at the New Testament and see a God of “love and peace.” But when we look deeper, he is the same God. I’ll explore more of that when I discuss that God is immutable. But one thing I have noticed: when I read through the Old Testaments, I do see God carrying out justice, but I always see mercy in it.

There are numerous examples in Scripture where the people of a nation were in rebellion against God and he either did or was prepared to show mercy. Many will claim that God is a mass-murderer for killing numerous innocent people with the Flood. Were they innocent? That’s not what the Bible says in Genesis 6:1-8. It describes them as wicked, continually evil. But Noah found grace. He found God’s favor. And through Noah, God provided a way to escape the judgment. There were 120 years between when God said he would destroy all life on the earth and when the day of doom came. That was 120 years, and Noah preached a message of salvation and built an Ark to escape. But none except his family listened. There was plenty of room on the ark for more than eight people. But no one joined them.

Another example is Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham pleaded with God to spare the city, because he was thinking of Lot and his family. All God needed was ten people and Abraham was likely counting how many he thought might be righteous. Only four were found to be so. The cities were destroyed but God offered an opportunity of mercy. In another time, God was ready to wipe out Israel for their worship of the golden calf and start over with Moses. But Moses pleaded with God to not do that. Those are two examples of interceders. But what about repentant sinners?

We have Ahab when confronted after having Naboth murdered so he could get the vineyard for Jezebel. We have Josiah who led his people to repentance and staved off the judgment that was to come. We have Nineveh who repented with the preaching of Jonah. Over and over again, we see God longing to show his mercy.

While God is a just God, he does not wish for any of us to suffer his judgment. Peter confirms this in his second letter. God longs for us all to repent. He is long-suffering. What does that mean? He is patient. Patience in Scripture is the same word we get “tensile” from. Tensile is a physics and engineering term that describes how an object (like a spring) can be pulled or stretched and then revert back to its original position. We all endure things that make us uncomfortable. It is like attaching a weight to a spring. The amount of weight determines how much stretch in the spring there is. And if there comes to be too much weight, the spring will deform rather than revert back to its original form. But unlike springs, where the tensile strength is determined by the material it is made of, the tensile strength we have can change. That’s how we learn and grow. If we ask God for more patience, what does he give us? More opportunities to practice it.

God’s tensile strength is beyond what we can imagine. That is why he can have mercy, even when he decides that enough is enough. He will still carry out his judgment. He will still punish sin. But there is more. The whole time, God had a punishment prepared for sin and someone who would receive that punishment so we would not have to. The wages of sin are death. God cannot change that, lest he change himself and violate his character. But he knew how it would work out. He sent Jesus to receive those wages, but he had to be without sin. Jesus could not be guilty of the same crime: violating God’s Word. And by having Jesus pay the price, he was able to give us mercy.

But because we have received mercy, that does not let us off the hook to do whatever we want. God did not forgive our sin so that we could go off and sin more. I heard a story about a young man, a partier who was out for a joy ride. And just for a thrill, he took a frozen turkey and while hanging out his car window, he threw the turkey into the windshield of an oncoming car. The woman driving had severe injuries, partial paralysis, lacerations, and was in bad shape. In court, the young man showed repentance, knowing he faced life in prison. But the judge gave him an extremely light sentence. “That’s not fair! That’s not just!” someone would rightly say. However, the extremely light sentence was specifically requested not by the lawyers, but by the victim. That is the type of mercy God shows us.

This is also seen in Les Miserables. When Jean Valjean steals the spoons from the Bishop. When caught, the Bishop not only tells Jean that he gave them the spoons, but also the candlesticks. With that, the Bishop tells Jean to turn his life around and to not waste the gift he was given.

THAT is the type of mercy God gives. The kind where when we receive it, we will go and sin no more. That is what the woman caught in adultery experienced. Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” But he followed it with “Go and sin no more.” God has given us more mercy that we can imagine. We don’t deserve it. We can’t earn it. But he loves to give us mercy, to deal with us as a Father deals with his child, compared to a judge dealing with a criminal. He longs to keep the issues as “in house” rather than dealing with it in criminal court. Let us receive his mercy, but with that mercy, let us go out and sin no more. And let us give mercy to those who owe us. Our debt against God is far greater than any debt someone could owe against us. If God could forgive us, we can forgive them. We have received mercy; let us show mercy as well.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

One of the attributes of God that is known but very infrequently mentioned is that God is holy. There are a number of attributes that we really don’t understand and cannot fully comprehend. Many make the mistake of thinking, “I can’t fully grasp this, so I am going to give up and not even try it.” Others make the mistake of thinking, “I can’t understand this, so I am going to pretend it does not play a factor into things.” The logic on both of these directions is really weak. We are never going to fully grasp everything there is to know about math or science, so should we abandon trying to get even some of it, or pretend it doesn’t exist at all? What about studying history or military techniques, or English, or a sport? No matter what it is, you simply are not going to really master everything about a particular topic. But that does not mean we should not try.

Holiness is a topic that can be confusing. The word “holy” means “to separate” often for a particular purpose or for a particular reason. Holiness is not common. It is not average. God stands out. Just two examples of this are in regard to the Hebrew people: in Exodus 19:6, where God formally separated them out from all other nations to be the means through which God would bring his message of salvation to all peoples, and in Exodus 20:8, talking about the Sabbath Day of rest, a day separate from the rest of the week to rest and to refocus on the Lord. There are many more examples and I will keep emphasizing that entire books can be written about each of these attributes, what they mean, and how they apply.

There is another picture of holiness and that is one of purity. But this is a different kind of purity. Many of us know what it is like to have a clean room, a clean shirt, a clean desk, etc. How long does it take for that room, shirt, desk, etc to get dirty? Not long. It takes no time at all for that which is clean to get dirty and messy and needing cleaning again. We have that same problem with sin. We initially started out pure and clean (referring to Adam and Eve), but then sin corrupted us. It stains us. We all have experienced that shirt or object we like that gets a stain on it that never goes away. Sin has that effect. Scripture tells us our sin is like scarlet. Scarlet is a deep red color and often describe as a dye or a stain. Something that is scarlet is not easily, if at all, washed clean.

But this is where God’s holiness comes into play. Scripture does describe God as holy, but it also describes him as “holy, holy, holy.” That’s not mere emphasis. That is a whole different meaning. Something that is holy can be pure but it can also be tainted. Something (or someone) that is “holy, holy, holy” not only is pure and clean, but anything that touches it is made clean. It’s the reverse effect. There is nothing that can taint or stain something that is “holy, holy, holy.” The thing that does the tainting or the staining is itself cleaned and purified.

There is an amazing fact about this and a terrifying fact about this. The amazing fact is the blood of Christ washes us white as snow. What Jesus did on the cross covers us and cleanses us. In physics, you can do some neat things with light. Check this out on your own. Take a red object and then look at that red object through a red lens. When you do that, that object will appear white. This is an image that agrees with Isaiah as he says “though our sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” This is an amazing fact.

But there is a terrifying fact as well. What about those who are not covered by the blood of Christ? God’s holiness will purge that which is evil. And if we are still identified in our sin, just being in the presence of God will not just take out our sin, but us out with it. God’s holiness is so great, so pure, so perfect that sin cannot dwell in his presence. Yes, we have this idea that God cannot dwell with sin, but that idea indicates that God has a weakness. That is like saying Superman cannot be in the presence of kryptonite. It is really that sin that cannot handle being around God.

This is important to understand. I wrote about God’s love two weeks ago. Yes, God loves us so much that he died for our sin, but think about it. Why could not God simply forgive us? It is because his holiness would annihilate us if he did not deal with it. He had to punish the sin without destroying the sinner. God is just as I described last week. He must punish sin. And unless we are separated from our sin from God’s eyes, we won’t be able to spend eternity with him without being destroyed ourselves. God could not simply “forgive us” and let it slide. It would violate his character to do that.

When we continue to sin, and continue to rebel against God’s methods, he will pull himself away from us. This is actually an act of love, because if he stuck around, his holiness would destroy us then and there. Even though God knows that our sin will lead us to death, he allows us to reap the sin we sow, hoping we will recognize that sin never can satisfy. Our rebellion against God is never going give us what we want. It will give us what we ask for, but not what we want. And this is why man goes to hell. It is not because God sends us there. It is because that is the only place where God’s presence is not found. It was created for Satan and his minions. It was not created for man. People go there, not because God sends us there, but because that is where we ask to go, by rejecting him.

God is a holy and pure God. He is holy, holy, holy. He longs for us to repent because he does not want to have to carry out his justice upon us. He does not want any of us to perish. He longs for us to repent so he can begin the process of restoration. The process of removing the sin from us so that Jesus may have a pure and spotless Bride. I am one who, being far from perfect, am striving towards that goal. Let us all strive for that goal.

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by Charlie Wolcott

This is the second post of my series of the Attributes of God. I again want to emphasize that this series is to help us understand who God really is and how those attributes should help us understand reality and how to live our lives. But like any study of God, entire libraries could be written on each of these attributes and it still would not cover the subject appropriately, and I am trying to do this within two pages. This week the attribute of God is justice.

I talked about how God is love last week and I left with a question: how can God be loving without also being just? To answer this question, we have to get a good grasp of what it means to be just. When we hear the word “justice” most of us will have this image of “the bad guy got what he deserved” or “a person who administers justice.” In our court system, a judge is someone who hears a case and then determines, in accordance to the laws of the land, who is right and who is wrong. In Christianity, God is both the Law Giver and the Law Enforcer. Now many argue this point is not fair because how can God judge fairly if he both writes the law and then enforces it? This argument is on the basis that God is arbitrary and can change what he meant on a whim. One of the attributes I will discuss later is that he is immutable, which means God does not change. Another attribute I will discuss is that he is faithful and stays true to his word. So when God writes the Law, which is based off his character, he enforces it based off his character. And he is not a man that he should lie. God does not pick favorites nor show partiality in his justice.

Now many may argue that God’s methods of punishments do not fit the crime. I have heard numerous people ask, “How could God punish a person for eternity for a finite crime?” This question has two flaws. It does not take God seriously, and it does not take sin seriously. It also does not recognize that the criminal does not get to choose what he thinks is his appropriate punishment. The word for sin is actually an archery term. It means to “miss the mark.” It’s not just missing the bull’s eye, it’s missing the whole target. And some cases are so bad the arrow wasn’t even shot towards the target. But there is another way to describe sin: betrayal, treachery, treason. Sin is not merely doing something against God’s will. It is not merely a personal injury, a personal disappointment. It is much worse. Much worse. It is the type of thing that puts you on the tier of Benedict Arnold. In most nations, an act of treachery bears the penalty of death. Changing citizenship is one thing, but to claim to be for one nation and then betraying that nation to an enemy is treason. Most who get caught in this are executed. And sin is at THIS level: that of treachery.

Because God is a God of Justice, he must punish that sin. CS Lewis fully understood this treachery and described it in an allegory called The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. In this book, Edmund betrays his siblings to the White Witch. He did not realize what he was actually doing, but he betrayed them anyway. He also did not realize that in Narnia, the penalty for treachery was execution on the Stone Table, lest Narnia be overturned by fire and water. The treachery had to be dealt with, but Aslan, knowing the Deeper Magic that the White Witch knew not of, paid the penalty himself. Only he could do that because only he knew of the Deeper Magic and only he had not committed the crime for which the death was required.

The same idea is true for us. God must punish sin because of his character. If he did not, that would make him a liar, but also his holiness would still wipe out that sin anyway (more on that next week). God is full of mercy and grace (two more attributes) and he can delay the punishment in times of repentance. He did it for Judah when King Josiah repented. He did it for Israel even for wicked King Ahab. He did it for Nineveh when Jonah preached to them. He even offered it to Sodom and Gomorrah if only ten righteous people could be found. But none of these nations kept that repentant spirit, and all received the justice they were due.

God used numerous people to be the ones to carry out his justice. For the exile he used Babylon, but then to administer justice to Babylon, he used Cyrus, King of Persia. In Canaan, he used Joshua. His conquest was not merely supposed to be “go wipe them out” so you can have it. Scripture tells us that their sin had not yet reached its fill. One analogy I have heard describes that as we sin, God’s wrath is poured into a cup. Until that cup is full, we can repent and God will relent. But once that cup is filled, then the time of justice is at hand and there will be no remedy.

God knows precisely what his wrath can do and he curbs it for as long as he can because he knows we cannot handle it. But he provides a way out. Eric Ludy showed me something very interesting I had not thought of before. In 2 Kings 9:14-29, God anointed Jehu to be King of Israel and to kill the family of Ahab (which, by marriage, included Joram, King of Judah). Jehu was charging in to Samaria to carry out God’s orders. Jezebel and Joram sent messengers to Jehu to find out his intentions. Jehu asked each messenger which side he was on and the messengers joined Jehu.

The same question is asked of us as we approach the End of Days and the King of Kings’ arrival to administer the final justice on this earth. Whose side are we on? Are we going to side with God as the messengers sided with Jehu and thus escaped the doom? Or are we going to continue in our rebellion, our treasonous rebellion, against God, despite the oncoming judgment that will overtake us, whether we believe in it or not?

God is a God of love, but he is also a God of justice. In his love, he sought to get us out of the way of his justice and there is only one way he could do that: by sending his Son to the cross. We will all face the judgment seat of Heaven and give an account of what we did through our lives. Will we be able to defend ourselves by pleading the Blood of Jesus? Or are we going to try to handle it alone? What will you say to God Almighty, the Judge of All Things, in response to what you did with your life? It’s not an issue of how often you’ve sinned. Just one act is enough to make you guilty. And that will lead us to next week’s attribute: God’s holiness.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.

by Charlie Wolcott

I was listening to a sermon a while back and one of the comments made was this: “When was the last time you heard a sermon on the attributes of God?” And I started thinking: When was the last time I heard someone speak about the attributes of God? I had often heard references to them, but I really don’t remember when that was the emphasis of the message. And if I asked for a show of hands of those reading this if they heard a message about the attributes of God recently, I think it would be safe to say few, if any, have. I hope to remedy that by doing a blog post series on some of the attributes of God. Through this series, I will describe the attribute, but also show how knowing this attribute affects us and how that knowledge should impact how we live our lives.

To open, the first attribute of God I will explore is the most popular one: Love. 1 John 4:8 is a frequently cited Scripture because that is where we learn that “God is love.” But many people have a very misconstrued picture of what love actually is. First there are four types of love: Eros, Philia, Storga, and Agape. Let me delve into each one briefly.

Eros is romantic love, and it is very often confused with sexual attraction. Eros most certainly is related to your hormones, but your hormones do not determine if it is love or not. Hormones can trigger a different emotion: lust. I am not going to dig further than this, but note that when someone is talking about “love” this is often what they are referencing and that is NOT what John is referencing in 1 John 4:8. This is a God-given love, but it is so easily abused.

Philia is “brotherly love” which is also where the name “Philadelphia” comes from (the “adelphia” means brother). This is the bond between close friends. These are not merely your acquaintances but the close ones. This type of love is what makes you stick by your friend, even when they are in trouble. Think of David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel or Frodo and Sam in Lord of the Rings.

Storga is “empathetic” love. It is the bond between family and those you consider with your “home,” which could mean your house, your neighborhood, city, or nation. Think of your family ties or the place you call home. The bond you have with these people and places is Storga.

The last one is Agape and this actually the one John is referencing. This is the greatest of the four types of loves and is the one that should guide and direct the others. This is God’s love. It the unconditional, “I am going to do that which is best for” type of love. Agape supersedes Eros, Phiia, and Storga, but can also show itself in the three others. This is the type of love parents have for children (or should have), where it does not matter what they do, they still love their kids, even through adulthood, and they seek out the best for them.

John describes God as Agape love. In perhaps the most well-known and most-quoted verse in all of Scripture, John 3:16, we learn that “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in him, he shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God loves us so much that the sent his Son to pay for the penalty for our sin. He loves us so much that despite our sin, despite our outright rebellion and snobbery of who he is, he still died for us. But there is more to it than that.

Love does not merely let anyone get off the hook for what they do. Yes, God died for our sin, but that does not mean merely getting off the hook. There are still consequences despite the forgiveness of sin. Galatians 6:7 tells us to not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man will reap what he sows. God allows us to suffer the consequences for sin so we will learn to listen to him and obey him.

He also disciplines us. In today’s age, discipline is treated almost like a needs-to-be-bleeped swear word. No one wants to talk about it. But if there is no discipline, there is no love. Read Hebrews 12:4-13. Particularly, Hebrews 12:8. Pay very close attention to that verse. It says if we are not being disciplined, then we are illegitimate children. If we are not being disciplined by God, that means we are not his children, and we are not saved. No man should ever discipline a child that is not his. This goes for more than just family. A coach can discipline his players, but not the other team’s players. If he tries, that never ends too well. Yes, discipline can be abused, but when it is abused, it is because there is something out of balance, such as righteous anger, justice, or something like that.

No parent who loves his/her child will withhold discipline. Discipline invokes a perfect standard of right and wrong, and a pull to re-direct someone straying from that perfect standard to get back onto it. God loves us so much he will strive to tell us what his standards are so that which will destroy us will not get to us. No parent who loved his/her child would allow the child to just play in the middle of a busy street. They would not force their will upon them, but with great love, they would coax and encourage and teach them to do that which is right. The same is true about God’s love. He allows us to do what we want to do, but because he loves us, he will give us the consequences so we will learn the right way to live. Whole books can be written about this and I’m trying to do it within two pages, so I’ll stop here. God wants the best for us, and when sin is running rampant, he can’t give us what he would like because he needs to get rid of the sin first. He loves us so much that he will work to remove the sin from our lives. Get this: he loves us so much that when we choose to continue to live in sin, he will lovingly remove himself from us because if he stuck around, he would destroy us. I’ll get deeper into that when I describe God’s holiness. I will wrap up with this thought: How can God be loving without also being just? The next attribute I will introduce next week is the justice of God.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.