Thoughts on a touchy subject

I find it hard to believe that the church I attended last summer is now letting their seniour pastor go. First, they asked him to just take a sabatical wherre a pastor would take a break for some months. But, then I suppose while he was on break he ended up feeling the need to leave the church he has planted and pastored at for over 35 years? I am not sure what is going on here. Not only that, the pastor is going to another church in Wheatherford. But, my dad who knows nothing and cares for nothing about the Scriptures or the gospel has stated that the pastor is smart and wants to go ahead and retire so that he may gain some funds from the old church and then go ahead and work for the new. That sounds fishy and I do not like it.
Another note is that my father has a mistress who the church I attended never said anything about nor did a did a church displine, was speaking to me about my comments I had made a couple of months ago about how the church is going to hell. To clear up some things, I said that the church if it is not preaching the gospel correctly - Jesus Christ and Him cruxified - then its not a true church and thus are sending people to hell. My father brings up the issue, seeing how I am reformed, sayinging, "my church is the only elect group." Well my father's mistress tries to cover up this argument by saying, "quiet, quiet." First of all, I see her way of handling matters is not Christ-like, and second, it shows that she is not yet saved.

Decree to Glorify Himself

This is how I would supply it: First God decrees to glorify Himself, Then he decrees to save some and condemn others, thereafter, to create them both, after that He then decrees to permit the fall of both of them, to finally provide salvation for His elect.

Although the first point - that God first decrees to glorify Himself is really implied in all of the Lapsarian view, I see fit that stating the logical order of God is grounded in the part that God intended first and foremost to glorify Himself and thus went about such a way to do that. The rest of the points show that God before either the elect or the reprobate did anything good or bad, God chose for His good pleasure and thus went about creating a world where He might be glorified in both saving some and condemning others.

On Supralapsarianism

This is not mine. I found this on a forum about it. Hopefully, however, this helps people understand it a little more further.

"Supralapsarianism is the doctrine that God decreed both election and reprobation before the fall.

The term "supralapsarianism" comes from the Latin words supra and lapsus; the decree of predestination was considered to be "above" (supra) or logically "before" the decree concerning the fall (lapsus).

Supralapsarians consider God's ultimate goal to be his own glory in election and reprobation.

The object of predestination, according to supralapsarianism, was uncreated and unfallen humanity.

The logical order of the decrees in the supralapsarian scheme is:

(1) God's decree to glorify himself through the election of some and the reprobation of others;
(2) as a means to that goal, the decree to create those elected and reprobated;
(3) the decree to permit the fall; and
(4) the decree to provide salvation for the elect through Jesus Christ.

Or, the Supralapsarian five-step view

1. The election of some men to salvation in Christ and the reprobation of the others. (Double election)
2. The decree to create the world and both kinds of men.
3. The decree that all men would fall.
4. The decree to redeem the elect, who are now sinners, by the cross work of Christ.
5. The decree to apply Christ's redemptive benefits to these elect sinners.

Or, the five-step Supralapsarianism of Gordon Clark

1. The election of some sinful men to salvation in Christ and the reprobation of the rest of sinful mankind in order to make known the riches of God's gracious mercy to the elect.
2. The decree to apply Christ's redemptive benefits to the elect sinners.
3. The decree to redeem the elect sinners by the cross work of Christ.
4. The decree that all men should fall.
5. The decree to create the world and all men."

On prayer, faith, and Jesus Christ

"Just as the bitten Israelites were healed by a look of faith, so the sinner may be saved by looking to Christ by faith. Saving faith is not some difficult and meritorious work which man must perform so as to give him a claim upon God for the blessing of salvation. It is not on account of our faith that God saves us, but it is through the means of our faith. It is in believing we are saved. It is like saying to a starving man, He that eats of this food shall be relieved from the pangs of hunger, and be refreshed and strengthened. Eating is no meritorious performance, but, from the nature of things, eating is the indispensable means of relieving hunger. To say that when a man believes he shall be saved, is just to say that the guiltiest of the guilty, and the vilest of the vile, is welcome to salvation, if he will but receive it in the only way in which, from the nature of the case, it can be received, namely, by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which means believing what God has recorded concerning His Son in the Holy Scriptures. The moment a sinner does that he is saved, just as God said to Moses, 'It shall come to past that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.'"

Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: ZondervanPublishing House, 1975), 133-34

Often times today in our Church the cross is diverted and distorted. The pastor, either willingly or not, has contrued the gospel into something else. Today, salvation is mainly the means of a prayer or by doing some type of good, or even negative work - such as viewing myself as evil. However, the truth is the gospel is the Cross, salvation is the means of the Cross. Christ righteousness is imputed by faith alone in His person and in His work done actively and passively. Arthur Pink has done a great job in ordering Soteriology rightly. As he says, "So the sinner is saved by looking to Christ by faith." Nothing less and nothing more.

Q: is the Christian faith reasonable?

A: I answer: Yes. For it is says that there is a Triune God who is Holy who has deal accordingly to His nature with His creation, which He has created, in His image, good, and so thereby pressing man to Live for the glory and enjoyment of God. The problem is that all of man by his own unrighteousness and through Adam's unrighteousness has fallen. They are thereby radically evil, although they may will good at times; there goodness is never truly good as that of the original state of Man. However, they are still in the state of the Image of God. What Christianity teaches is that there is a God who has revealed Himself in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and who has determined the means of the accomplishment of Salvation for the sins of many through His Son Jesus Christ, and has determined also the means by which Salvation is applied, through the calling and regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, who works in the sinner so that the sinner may repent and believe the good news of Christ and so thereby obtain Christ righteousness who not only came in the flesh to live the perfect life that no one else could by their own powers or willing live and has taken upon Himself the eternal divine wrath of God. This means that everyman should repent and believe (humble themselves), for if they do not and continue to act in rebellion (Pride) God has determined a date when all things will end and retribution will be declared (Rebels will be humbled) and receive the Divine wrath for all of eternity. I ask you to please turn from your sins and trust in Christ for your righteousness.

The Wisdome of God in Salvation

Jonathan Edwards says that Christ was the perfect Substitute. "For He was The Devine Son of God who was incarnated as a Man lived the perfect righteous life that no one else could live and died sinlessly (in obedience) on the Cross. Christ was perfect, because God had decreed that all things display his glory - his being (Each person of the trinity is seen in salvation) and his attributes and his sovereignty over not only the angels, but the demons. Thereby procuring on behalf of certain sinners peace with God and thus recieving favor for them so that they may find satisfying happiness in Him and so enjoy Him forever and through this believers are given every sort of good in Christ. What this means then is that God's dishonor is made for His glory, and God's attributes ordered sinful Man's destruction and also Salvation calls Sinners to repent and turn to Christ in faith. There is still hope for those who hear these words and repent and trust in Christ for righteousness alone. Ephesians 3:10"

Topics of Reality and Idealism

Kirk - Dr. Groza, can a realism take some of the aspect of idealism?
Adam - idealism is a form of realism
Kirk - What does idealism state exactly? I only know what I think the antithesis is of realism...
Adam -philosophical realism is the view that reality is ontologically objective and independent of our language, concepts, etc. Idealism is the view that reality consists in being percieved. Since God is always percieving, reality still maintains complete objectivity.
Kirk - ok. So to some degree trying to hold to a type of view between these two are i suppose futile?
or I guess would be vague and so I would have to say what exactly I see in each of them?
Adam - well, reality is either ultimately objective and real or it is not. Basically, your dealing with a correspondance theory of truth
Kirk - OK. I haven't taken Epistemology yet. So when you say that I am dealing with a correspondence theory of truth, what do you mean?
Adam - something is true if it corresponds to reality. So there is a reality. Thus, realism.
A reality vs. MY reality or OUR reality, which would be subjective expressions
Kirk - ok. So the way I saw it before was that Hell exist whether one knows it or not...
Adam - yes...that is an expression of realism. hell exists apart from whether you see it, believe it, or can talk intelligently about it.
Kirk - ok. Now could you say that reality for God is whatever he thinks (I suppose Idealism), whereas reality in the world corresponds with the reality of what God has ultimately willed to be (realism)?
Adam - No, reality in both cases is what is perceived. God's perception determines reality causally. Ours does not. God's perception is active...he sees what he wills. Ours is passive in that we percieve what God wills.

How God's glory should be our passion in relationships

So I have recently made the hard decision to not hang out with some people. The problem is that we do not agree on any of the truths layed out in scripture. For instance, their end is authentic relationships, and helping others. These are all good things to pursue, however, one must not make them your end. The truth is Christ is the end. He makes all things authentic. If one wants to have real, authentic, deep relationships then one must first make it their goal to live for the Glory of Christ and Enjoy Him forever. This is all for the glory of God in all things, not for the glory of people. People kill, lust, destroy, and steal, God gives life, loves, builds up, and freely gives to those who do not have.
Some people would think that God's glory is bad for it makes Him out to be a tyrant. The answer is that it is not. It is in fact good for it makes all things purposeful and with meaning. Partly their flaw is that they think God's glory is seperate from God. Not only so they also do not see that God's glory is his attributes. They also when they think of God's attributes, they think in terms of God's love... God's Justice... Whereas they should think of God glory - which is His holiness, or his being that we know of, because he has displayed himself through history - as a waffle if you will (I can't actually draw out what I am saying). The waffle is a circular shaped which is God's glory. Now the waffle has a bunch of square boxes inside of it which makes up that waffle. The square boxes are His attributes.... So God is not just love, but He is righteously omniciently good ect. A good book to read on this topic would be Wayne Grudem, systematic theology.