Hey everyone, I've used this blog as an outlet and platform to discuss various topics. I have not been ashamed to say that this blog exists to allow me to write and work on becoming a better writer. That being said, I do have an agenda, and that is to write about, think about, and unpack theological ideas. The title of the blog is "Woven Words and Thoughts" because one of the ways I understand the interaction between God and man, the divine and the moral, the holy and the profane, is something I call wovenism. It's not a new theology; it's an old theology expressed in different terms. I haven't written about it much; I've been all over the place, but it's time to come home, in a manner of speaking. Let's talk theology.
I want to start where things started for me. I was not always on the Calvinist side of the fence. No one really begins there, not those individuals who have an Evangelical background anyway. There is such an emphasis on choice, on personal responsibility, and the language we use is very much focused on the individual doing the work. We use words like "decision" and "invite" to give action to the work of salvation. In many evangelical presentations, God is passive, and the individual being converted is the active participant. God simply offers salvation, and we do the rest in choosing, praying, accepting, surrendering, following, etc. I was very ok with this for a very long time. I was very focused on evangelism; I was passionate about it, and I studied books like "How to Share Jesus without Fear." I read books I was involved in FAITH Sunday School Evangelism. I was involved in the FCA at my High School and the Baptist group (which has undergone three name changes, I believe it's now called Christian Challenge) in college. The more I read and studied, the more confused I became. Here is my confusion:
Whose work is Salvation? Can a person just choose to be saved? Does God have any role in individual salvation, or was it up to me, as the person sharing, and the individual to choose Jesus? That is how I acted, that I had to do all the things right, and if I did, the person would get saved. The problem was, I wasn't that successful. I shared the gospel with people who rejected it, even though I used all these methods from all these people who wrote books. I was struggling, maybe it was me, maybe I was a failure of an evangelist. I studied more, I worked harder, I even wrote a book. I upped my game, I used more pressure when I felt like it was needed, after all, this was the person's eternal life. One day, instead of looking at books about Evangelism, I decided I would read Acts to look for answers, maybe Paul could help. After all, he was the greatest missionary ever, right? Then I read this:
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48
Here is the context. Paul was witnessing to the Jews, and they were rejecting the message, having Paul arrested or beaten, so he said, "Forget it, I'll witness to the Gentiles (non Jews). Then this passage, they rejoiced and the ones appointed to eternal life, they are the only ones who believed. Now I had questions: What does that mean? Appointed by whom? It says clearly they are appointed to eternal life, and some told me "that means that after they are saved, they are appointed to eternal lif,e" but the way the passage is written, that would require them to be saved, then appointed, then believe. Isn't the belief that God raised Jesus from the dead what causes you to be saved? Romans 10:9 seems to indicate that. So they were appointed first, then believed.
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