Awakenings March 26, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, church, History, preaching
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In the middle of the Eighteenth Century a series of great revivals swept through the British colonies. Collectively they have become known as the First Great Awakening. This was a manifestation of the great Evangelical movement which was also sweeping the British Isles. Preachers thundered from hundreds of pulpits assuring people that Christ’s millennial return was imminent and that they needed to get right before He came. This great wave of revivals also was marked by mass conversions of colonials, Indians and salves.
While it is a common belief that people came to America to find religious freedom in many cases that was neither the intent nor the experience. It should be remembered that the Europe of that time was preeminently a land of established churches. This had been a part of the peace formula that eventually ended the Thirty Years War. Each sovereign could choose his own brand of Christianity and then everyone in their country was expected to believe and practice the same way. Usually there was a state supported church that everyone paid for with their taxes and which everyone was expected to attend. The church and state were so tightly united that to be a religious dissenter was considered the same as being a traitor to the realm.
It was from such a world that people came to America. Those who did come for religious freedom such as the Puritans did not come for religious toleration. Instead when they set up their colonies they were as intolerant to others as the state church had been to them in England. Where religious toleration was practiced such as in Maryland or Pennsylvania it was very much the exception as opposed to the rule. The whole idea of the separation of church and state was not only foreign to most Eighteenth Century Europeans it was thought of as an aberrant idea which was detrimental to society and the general welfare.
Established churches fostered clergy who were dependent on government for their living and were thus usually compliant when it came to not preaching anything that could be considered as revolutionary or dangerous. Many of the churches even had lectionaries which proscribed not only what scriptures where read at what season but also what the topics of the sermons should be that accompanied those scriptures. To deviate was to invite retribution and often the loss of position. It was on the frontier that change was possible as the people themselves would often band together and build a church bringing in their own clergy who were then not dependent on the colonial government but instead governed by the congregational leaders.
In addition as the century progressed new religious ideas began to circulate. People began hearing of a God who was different than the dour, judgmental God of the Puritans or the lax accept anything God of the Established churches. Instead they began hearing of a God who was rational, a God who loved and a God who was interested in the affairs of men.
Revivals
Revivals have always seemed to flow in waves, a brief intense period of activity followed by a trough of relatively quiet acceptance for the status quo. Revivals are usually sparked by preachers who are good speakers and by ideas which reach out and touch masses of people. Revivals spread by word of mouth and by the traveling of popular preachers to new locals. Revivals are usually emotional responses to emotional pleas. Often they are accompanied by physical manifestations such as the quaking of the Quaker revival.
In the frontier revivals of the Eighteenth Century in America it was often the preaching of the doctrine of God’s grace alone as being sufficient to bring a person to a personal experience of salvation as opposed to religious obligations or monetary giving. The frontier people could readily accept this and could then propose to change their way of life to match what they were taught God demanded of them, clean living and righteous behavior.
Preachers
Jonathan Edwards was one of the primary preachers who sparked the First Great Awakening. He was second generation preacher who had been brought up to be a minister and who took his avocation as a calling from God. He preached many famous sermons which left people emotionally responsive and ready to claim they had been changed forever, this wave of revival sparked by Edward’s sermons swept throughout the North and moved fitfully along the frontier.
As this first great wave of revival seemed about to sputter to a close another famous preacher arrived from England who was destined to have a lasting impact on American society and religion. In England George Whitfield was greatly influenced by reading a book written by Jonathan Edwards entitled A Faithful Narrative of a Surprising Work of God which was his account of the surge of revival which had so impacted the colonies. In this work Edwards not only spoke of how this revival had moved from one area to another he also described the style of preaching and service which had been the catalyst for the religious happenings. These styles were then replicated by many other preachers who saw varying degrees of response but whose emulation created a type of similar experience that was pointed to itself as a sure sign that this revival was from God.
The emotional and sensational (for the times) style that Whitfield developed in response to the reports from America put him at odds with the rationalistic and formulaic patterns of the established church. Whitfield was a dramatic and forceful speaker who was soon drawing immense crowds, crowds too large to fit in any churches so he began preaching in the streets and fields, anywhere he could draw a crowd.
In 1739 Whitfield crossed the Atlantic becoming the first popular celebrity who was able to WOW the crowds on both sides of the Atlantic. He toured from Maine to Georgia speaking in churches and in fields and everywhere he went he created a sensation. He became fast friends with Ben Franklin who in turn used his publishing prowess to promote the English preacher. Franklin was a committed rationalist and didn’t believe in Whitfield’s type of emotional responsive religion but he considered Whitfield to be an exceptional entrepreneur and he appreciated his ability to promote himself. This was a mutually beneficial relationship. Whitfield allowed Franklin to republish his sermons which proved a successful means to increase the circulation of Franklin’s newspaper. As a matter of fact the demand for Whitfield’s sermons in printed form led to a massive increase in the number of pages printed in the next few years.
By the time Whitfield had returned to England in 1741 he had set in motion the religious revival collectively known as the Great Awakening. This was sustained after his departure by a multitude of preachers, many of them on the frontier. This religious revival had a positive effect on the customs and manners of the people. It also inspired many to learn to read so that they could study the Bible. This affected mainly the evangelicals such as the Baptists and the Methodists as opposed to the stricter Calvinists and the nominal Anglicans sweeping masses of new believers into the evangelical churches. The emotional preaching elicited emotional responses and many people were said to dance and sing, to wail and fall under the influence of the stridently emotional and evangelical preaching.
As the revival swept through the colonies it became divisive. The evangelical preachers found themselves denied the pulpit in many established churches. Undeterred these itinerant preachers followed the example of Whitfield and instead began preaching in fields and street corners. In some cases these itinerant preachers began preaching against the established preachers who had locked them out. One is especially well remembered, Reverend Gilbert Tennent preached sermon, “The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry.” In this sermon Tennent indicted the established clergy as being unregenerate. He also said that in many cases they lacked a personal experience with Christ which he and other itinerant preachers said constituted the only credential which gave someone the qualification to preach.
These divisions solidified into what were called the New Lights and the Old Lights. The New Lights were the supporters of the revival movements and believers in the emotional personal experiential type of religion the revivalist preached. The Old Lights rejected the religion preached by the revivalist because it was not rational and too much based upon experience instead of tradition and received knowledge.
A further division was generated within the ranks of the New Lights themselves. This was between the Moderates and the Radicals. The Moderates accepted any minister or church that would accept the Revivalists and their message. The radicals went further than any of the primary preachers themselves stating that organized religion itself was corrupt. They extolled the emotional and physical responses found in the most intense revivals as the only true signs of the working of God. They went so far as to condemn not only the churches and the rationalistic preachers but the government and any other man-made institution claiming that only those who had experienced the divine move of God as evidenced by the emotional and physical signs had any authority.
The radicals soon had the churches bubbling and boiling with controversy. Those who stayed with churches strove to convert these institutions into radical havens for the truly born-again. To do this they sought to expel any they perceived as being unconverted including ministers. Where they constituted a minority they agitated constantly for change. Where they constituted a majority they pushed through their agenda. In many cases this led to church splits as one side cast the other side out. In many Congregational churches when the minority radicals were tossed out they would join the Baptists who had been totally taken over by the Radicals.
In the South
The Great Awakening burned primarily in the New England and the Middle Colonies and along the frontier. It came belatedly to the South. It wasn’t until after 1743 that the revival began to burn bright in Virginia and the Carolinas. In these areas it was the Baptists who carried the torch and set it to the dry chaff of the frontier. They moved swiftly and cheaply. A Baptist minister was typically not an educated or genteel person. They were instead often as common as the people they preached to having been just like them before they had themselves been revived. The Preachers not only moved and lived cheaply, something that couldn’t be said about the established and the denominational preachers who required massive support, they also replicated themselves constantly. Many a town drunk heard the gospel according to the evangelical itinerant Baptist preachers, accepted Christ as their personal Savior and almost immediately began to preach themselves. These fast moving easily replicated preachers spread the Baptist style and brand of Christianity far and wide across the South and it is still evident today, when a full 16% of all Christians in the South consider themselves some kind of Baptist.
The Great Awakening also brought a renewed interest in the conversion of slaves and Indians. Many were preached to and many came forward to accept Chris as their personal Saviort. However, many were also shocked when the discrimination and prejudice that existed between them and the dominant society continued unchanged after their conversion.
As is always the case, soon the fire of revival began to dim. Beginning in the 1740s the moderates among the New Lights preachers made peace with the Old Lights and they once again united with one denomination after another, they basically agreed to disagree about some matters but to refrain from denouncing each other or condemning each other as unbelievers. The Radicals primarily retreated into the Baptist fold while those among the Old Lights who could not abide any accommodation even with the moderates tended to retreat into the Anglican Church with its prayer book and strict liturgy.
From the Book America by Dr. Robert Owens available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
New England February 5, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, History, Politics, puritans, Religion
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Originally it was considered the northern part of Virginia and after a few unsuccessful attempts a colonization that froze and starved their way to failure it was considered an undesirable place to attempt a colony. Then Captain John Smith of Jamestown fame made a voyage there and published a popular travelogue including a map and a new name, “New England” which enticed colonists into believing it was a fair approximation of Old England across the pond, and it became an enduring success.
The English Puritans were followers of the Protestant reformation. They believed that the Church of England which had been founded by King Henry VIII when he was unable to obtain a divorce from the Pope retained too much of the rights and rituals of the Catholic Church. They might be called purists. They wanted simple services and plain churches. The Church of England retained statues, stained glass windows, golden crosses, ministers they called “Priests” and “Father” adorned in splendid vestments.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Church of England was the “Established’ church. Meaning it was a part of the state. The King or Queen was (and is) the head of the church no matter how worldly they were or even if they didn’t believe in God. They appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops. Every citizen was required to support and attend the church. The clergy were paid by the state. The church courts were often used by the state to punish people that the government suspected of disloyalty to the crown. As in all countries with established churches the ideas of heresy and treason became confounded.
Many puritans wanted to remain active members of the established church and reform it from within. Other wanted to immediately separate and form their own pure congregations, these were known as separatists, and they were the object of sporadic and often horrendous persecution. Some of the separatists left the country, many finding sanctuary in Holland where the religious toleration allowed them to worship as they wished.
Socially the Puritans believed in what they saw as the Biblical principles of thrift, diligence and hard work. They were mostly from the middleclass and had much more than most Englishmen who were struggling just to get by. When persecution rose to a crescendo in the 1620s and 1630s the Puritans were finally spurred to action. The Massachusetts Bay Company was founded in London by people who had remained in the Church of England and were able to operate within the legal structure of the day. They sought and received a royal charter to found a colony in the New World. This is where they did something entirely different than the Virginia Company which maintained itself in England as a limited liability company which had shareholders and used its resources to send out expeditions and settlers hoping for a profit. Instead of operating after the model previously established by the Virginia Company the Massachusetts Bay Company relocated to the new World thus establishing itself as self-governing colony with only nominal connection to the royal government.
Landing in an area where a great plague of European diseases had swept away the Native population the Puritans were able to move into deserted villages and plant in abandoned fields. They saw it as the providence of God. The Natives obviously saw it as something altogether different. The Puritan colonists were by nature hardworking and frugal and so had a much easier time establishing a self-sufficient colony than did the indolent and wealth seeking colonists in Virginia. In addition, there was a huge influx of people, men, women and children, whole families that not only added to the population but were also able to multiply it quickly. Within a few decades, by 1640 they were already spreading out and founding secondary colonies such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.
Land was granted to groups of people who banded together to find towns. These lands were then held in common and divided among the families according to the wishes of the town. The colony would outline the town’s area but they left it up to the towns to decide upon their internal policies. The land needed clearing and tending. The livestock needed pasture and each village divided the land and managed as they saw fit. Women were accorded equal status in religious matters except the posts of leadership, teaching and preaching, which means they were able to be saved, join the church and work but only men could lead. However, women in New England had more rights and privileges than women in the Chesapeake Colonies.
When the Great Migration ended in the 1640s an economic depression followed the cessation of this constant infusion of new people and money. And this is when the commerce which was to make New England famous around the world began to manifest itself. First the fishing banks of the coast were exploited for local consumption as well as for export to Europe. Next the great and developing agricultural surplus was soon being shipped to Europe as well. Building upon the abundant resources shipbuilding was soon an expanding industry building both ships for the coastal trade and ocean going vessels.
The Bible Commonwealth
The Puritans saw their earthly mission to build God’s kingdom on earth. The Puritans followed the beliefs of the other reformers that everyone should read and know the Bible for themselves. Therefore, printing was an early and an important industry for there was a constant call for more Bibles and other study materials. There were many more churches and more preachers in New England than in Virginia. Since church attendance and hearing the educated preachers was a major source of the education of the day when combined with the higher level of literacy required to read the Bible for themselves the level of education was consequently much higher in New England than in the Chesapeake Colonies.
The insular aspects of the Puritan colonies led to disputes with the non-Puritans who were inevitably drawn to a successful colony. The purity of the colony was diluted by those who came after. The laws had to be loosened to fit the changing circumstances and there were also those who just had different ideas. There were Baptists and Quakers, Anglicans and Catholics all of which were attracted by the material success but who wanted a more inclusive vision. Nontraditional leaders such as Anne Hutchinson, one of the founders of Rhode Island and occurrences such as the witchcraft trails combined to split the once unified and relatively homogeneous New England into competing visions for a fractious future.
It may have faltered as a shining city on a hill and it certainly didn’t create heaven on earth but it was a successful model for a flourishing colony. Materially prosperous and politically independent New England held out a promise that the New World could become something that really was new.
A New You for a New Year January 1, 2025
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, god, Jesus, Salvation
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Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Have you reached the end of your rope only to find out that it’s much shorter than you imagined? Was last year as good as you hoped it would be? Was it as bad as you feared it would be? Does the uncertainty of the future leave you anxious? Has your own mortality entered like a crack in the ice in your youthful belief in personal indestructability?
But wait there’s more…
Does the randomness of good happening to bad people and bad happening to good people leave you wondering if there’s any rhyme or reason to reality? Is looking for answers to these and many other questions like looking for needles in haystacks? Is the quest to find meaning in life like trying to nail fog to the wall?
If you’ve rejected Christ because of Christians don’t mistake the messengers for the message. Christ told his followers to lake His light to the world and most have spent the last 2018 years trying to build a lamp and pretending it was the light.
The message is as simple as receiving it: Confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.
That’s it.
It’s not about joining the right club or following the right rules. We don’t need a seminary degree or someone with one to walk us through learning the secret handshake or the Abra Kadabra password. And there is no magic decoder ring. We don’t have to read the Bible from cover to cover. We don’t have to wear the right clothes, beard, or haircut. We don’t have to vote for the right candidates. We don’t have to take an oath to believe the same things that everyone else who confesses Christ as Lord does.
It isn’t about being good enough. That’s one of the great miracles of God’s economy. While we were yet sinners Jesus came and died so that we could live.
It isn’t about becoming a religious robot who says the right things at the right time to the right people in the right place. God is the One who created us with free choice, so we’re free to choose. It isn’t about conformity. God is the One who created us to be an individual and He doesn’t make junk. We are who He created us to be. He has placed us in a certain time and place so that we can become all He designed us to be and do all that He has called us to do. And that means what He created, placed, and called you to be, will be different than what He created, placed, and called me to be. You see it isn’t about cookie-cutter, repeat a formula, and follow the rule book club membership.
It’s about each of us individually confessing Jesus as Lord and each of us individually believing God raised Jesus from the dead and then learning to commune with God, to hear Him speak to us as individuals and then doing what He tells us to do.
If the questions at the beginning of this article float through our minds like storm clouds in a cloudless sky obscuring what should be clear. Let’s give up the battle to do it on our own. Let’s surrender and find victory in allowing God to count the victory of Jesus over sin and death to our account.
It’s so easy we can do it right here right now. We don’t need to be in a meeting, at an altar, or in a special building. We don’t need anyone to hold our hand or even know what we’ve done. We will know. God will know. And once we’re in his hand no one can snatch us out.
I confess Jesus as Lord and I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the Dead. That’s it. All done. The battle is over. The war between us and God is over, and we are one with Him. Welcome to a new you for a new year.
What’s All This ‘In Christ’ Business All About? December 4, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Faith, god, Jesus, Salvation
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Sometimes we born-again believers talk in such a closed-circuit Christianese dialect that baby believers, old line denominational members, let alone your everyday garden variety sinner has no idea what we’re talking about. We throw around words that carry massive meaning to us but sound like in-crowd jargon to those hearing them from the outside.
Propitiation, justification, and salvation are all words that trip up nonbelievers as they tiptoe around the cross. Then there are phrases we think say it all but, leave those we want to reach scratching their heads and standing off instead of kneeling down. Phrases such as: substitutionary death, pleading the blood, I’m born-again, I’m Filled with the Holy Ghost, and here’s one that throws them all, in Christ.
A dictionary will help with the words. The phrases usually take a little time in fellowship with others to sort out and understand. I can’t try to explain them all here, but I will try to address one of the most cryptic phrases to the uninitiated, in Christ.
“In Him.” This is a major theme of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and of the whole New Testament. It’s a central teaching and a foundational truth. If for some reason this sounds strange to your ears or is a new concept study to show yourself approved.[1] We should follow the example of some early believers who upon hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”[2]
We can’t allow our development as believers to be the responsibility of anyone else. Yes, it’s good and advisable to have teachers and mentors; however, we can’t rely on them alone. In his letter to the Philippians Paul told them to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”[3] and this is advice that we should also take to heart.
This major theme echoes through the New Testament: we are “in” Christ. Thousands of years after it was first presented to humanity it continues to ricochet through this verse into our spirit. The born-again believer resonates like a tuning fork to this life-giving message. The message, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,”[4] floods down the corridors of time like an avalanche of hope.
The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ is the living parable of love for all to see.
The birth[5] of Jesus[6] set forth in scripture, is a graphic portrayal of prophecy[7] fulfilled.[8] The Incarnation is the union of deity and humanity. It was divine love’s invasion into the realm of human selfishness. That which had been foretold for millennia finally arrived. Or as the author of Hebrews tells us, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.”[9]
This invasion wasn’t by an army of angels though it could’ve been. It wasn’t by raising up Israel to conquer the world and imposing belief in the One True God by force though that could’ve happened. Instead this invasion took the form of a tiny, defenseless Baby born in a manger on the poor side of town.
His parents called Him Jesus and His name has filled hearts and souls of humanity with songs and praise ever since. The love brought by God through this one birth has given hope to the defeated, healing to the sick, liberty to those in bondage, and salvation to all who confess Him as Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead.[10]
All this is based upon the finished work of Christ. This finished work is the ultimate revelation of divine love. Jesus gave His life freely in place of ours.[11] He voluntarily became sin in our place so that we could become the very righteousness of God.[12]
And we become that righteousness when we claim our place as a part of the body of Christ, the church so that when we stand before God He doesn’t see our sins and our shortcomings, instead He sees the absolute righteousness of His own Son. This is how we can stand before a holy God with no sense of shame, guilt, or inadequacy.
The New Testament describes this well, “The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one-part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one-part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything.”[13]
And this is what we mean by being “in” Christ. We have accepted our place as a member, or part of Christ’s mystical body: the church. It is no longer we who live but Christ lives in us and through us. And now that we know, let’s go forth and be all that God has called us to be, let’s allow Christ to live in us as we live in Him. Let’s allow Him to reach through us and minister to a world in need.
[1] II Timothy 2:15
[2] Acts 17:10-11 NKJV
[3] Philippians 2:12 NKJV
[4] John 3:16 NKJV
[5] Matthew 1:18-25
[6] Luke 2:1-20
[7] Isaiah 7:14
[8] Luke 1:35
[9] Hebrews 1:1-2 NKJV
[10] Romans 10:9
[11] John 10:18
[12] II Corinthians 5:21
[13] I Corinthians 12 NKJV
We are accepted November 27, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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Everyone from the greatest sinner to the greatest saint needs the grace of God. Everyone who wanders through the veil of tears that is this fallen world is tested, tried, and assaulted by our adversary, the prince of the power of the air,[1] who goes about like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour.[2] Our fallen body and soul are open to him and his minions. And if that isn’t bad enough our own sinful desires lure us into trap after trap.[3]
Surrounded and attacked by all this it seems natural that we would cry out with Paul, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”[4]
There is an answer to this cry. We don’t stand alone before the heavenly court of justice. If we did not even one of us would deserve anything except eternal damnation and separation from God. Instead of standing alone in the withering judgement fire “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”[5] and the fire of His presence becomes for us the life-giving warmth of His love.
We need to praise the glory of God’s grace, His unmerited favor because, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[6] We may have been the worst of sinners. We may have cursed God and persecuted His people but once we turn from the darkness to the light, once we embrace Him and are born again all that changes. We change and the world around us changes.
Peter sums it up well when he says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.[7]”
The author of Hebrews goes into even greater detail showing how the eternal sacrifice of Christ is superior to the shadow sacrifices of the Old Covenant.
“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 1And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”[8]
This is the description of our present state. We are accepted. We have entered our inheritance. Today we “see in a mirror, dimly,”[9] but once this perishable has been swallowed and replaced by imperishable,[10] we shall see “face to face.”[11] For “Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”[12]
[1] Ephesians 2:2
[2] I Peter 5:8
[3] James 1:14-16
[4] Romans 7:24 NKJV
[5] I John 2:1 NKJV
[6] Romans 5:8 NKJV
[7] II Peter 2:9-10 NKJV
[8] Hebrews 9:12-15 NKJV
[9] I Corinthians 13:12 NKJV
[10] I Corinthians 15:53-54
[11] I Corinthians 13:12 NKJV
[12] Ibid.
The Paradox of Free Will November 20, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Faith, Free will, god, Jesus
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How can we possibly believe in free will since Christians believe in His Omniscience God knows everything we’ll do in advance, and we also believe He has a plan for our lives before we’re born? So where is the free will?
God has perfect foreknowledge. This means He knows the end from the beginning and thus He knows what everyone will do in the future and what any individual will do in any given situation. God has a complete plan for everyone’s life. He knew how He wanted the universe to end before He created it and so He had a plan for every action needed to reach that end before the foundation of the world.
If God wants a particular thing to happen, He knows who will choose to do it, when they will choose to do it, and under what circumstances they will choose to do it. However, just because God already knows what choices we will make this in no way removes our free will.
You see God is outside our space time continuum. He is ever always in the now of eternity. And in this bubble, we call reality we are the ones making the choices.
One example might be to think about our own foreknowledge of History. We know how World War One ended. If we could go back in time to July of 1914 the fact that we already know how the War will end would not force anyone to do anything. Our knowing that the assassination of the heir to the throne of Austria would knock over the first domino ending only with the Treaty of Versailles wouldn’t stop Gavrilo Princip from shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
God created us with free choice. That’s why He told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the trees in the center of the garden. He told them not to do it, but He wouldn’t have said “Don’t do it,” if they couldn’t do it if they chose to. Free choice means not only that we can choose to ignore God’s commands it also means we can freely choose to confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead and so be saved.
It all hinges on free choice. God is looking for children who choose to love and follow Him, not robots who have no choice.
God’s knowing what we will freely choose doesn’t mean that we are in any way forced to make that choice. You can choose to believe this or not.
The Fifth Law of Thermodynamics November 13, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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Whether we call it “Flipping the switch,” or “Mashing the button,” when we do it, we expect the light to come on. But if there’s no power all we end up with is a futile finger exercise. Even a flashlight needs batteries. No power, no light. It’s the power of the sun’s thermonuclear inferno that provides the natural light illuminating life on earth.
In the arcane world of physical cosmology and astronomy the debate about Dark Matter and Dark Energy consumes the attention of the best and the brightest even though this has about as much everyday walking around relevance as the ancient question, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin.” We’re told that which is invisible is measurable. Some scientists go so far as to say that only 4% of the universe is physically observable, made up of matter. The remaining 96% say is dark or invisible.
We’re told if these unknown and unknowable quantities aren’t factored into our calculations our accepted laws of physics, at the universal and the infinitesimal ends of the scale, don’t work. They just appear to work within the observable bubble scientists call “The Space-Time Continuum” or as we call it out here in the work-a-day world, “Reality.”
In other words, though these intricate Laws of Physics may look and are presented as rock solid, they aren’t. It’s good to remember these and all Laws of Science are just theories constantly in search of either affirmation or repudiation.
What this tells us about the reality we observe is that science says it isn’t what it seems. If the Dark Matter – Dark Energy theory is correct most of what is – is invisible to us. If it isn’t true, we’re relying on science based upon physics which we know is incomplete, imprecise, and fundamentally wrong. If the foundation is bad how can the structure built upon it be good? If the basic assumptions of science are faulty, how can we trust it to reveal the universe around us?
Some people believe that science is based on fact and religion is based on faith. When we learn that once quantum physics intersects with normal physics and once Dark Matter and Dark Energy collide with observable matter the claptrap of the modern scientific edifice is shown to be a house of cards built upon multiple leaps of faith disguised as logical assumptions.
If some want to embrace theories as dogma acting as the Apostate Apostles of Scientism preaching a religion of materialism that is their right. However, I do find the way the “If I can’t feel it, see it, or hear it; it isn’t real,” crowd twist themselves into prattling pretzels over the problem of Dark Matter and Dark Energy extremely interesting.
The many atheists in the religion of materialism tell us Christians that believing in a world we can’t see all around us making that which we can see possible is drivel. At the same time, they use their incantation of equations to prove that the world we see is made possible by that which we cannot see. One of the most fascinating phenomena I’ve ever witnessed is the fact that these evangelists of physical evidence can’t see the hypocrisy of their cult-like adherence to their anti-deity dogma in the face of believing and espousing basically the same set of facts.
Just a few questions for the High Priests of Pragmatism:
If the universe has an end, then it must have had a beginning. Every beginning has a cause. What was the primary cause of the universe?
Or, if the universe is never ending doesn’t that in and of itself prove the existence of eternity?
If the universe is infinite yet expanding where would something that is infinite expand?
If the universe is finite yet expanding, into what is it expanding?
Our solar system is powered by the sun. Without the sun there would be no planets, no life. If our sun was not there, there would be nothing here.
I am speaking of physical power, physical light, and physical life.
If we turn our attention to the spiritual reality, God is the source of everything. And Jesus Christ as the Son of God and His incarnation is the perfect physical expression of God. Coming to sinful man Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven where He is seated right now on the right hand of God the Father. If we repent of our sins accept Jesus as our Savior, He will cleanse us of our sin nature and unite us with Himself. We will become one with all other believers and one with God.
Jesus is the power of God. And without that power there is no light, and we walk in darkness. For Jesus is the light of the world. He is the light that shines through the darkness and the darkness can’t understand it. We are descended from our father Adam, and we enter this world with a sin nature separated from God whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. Unless and until we turn from the material world and embrace the spiritual, we cannot even understand what has just been said. It will be gibberish, the ranting of a fool. For the spirit cannot be understood with the natural mind.
Forsake the world of darkness and embrace the light. Leave the City of Man and be translated to the City of God.
The Laws of Thermodynamics are:
The Zeroth Law: If two systems are both in thermal equilibrium with a third system, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.
The First Law: The energy gained (or lost) by a system is equal to the energy lost (or gained) by its surroundings.
The Second Law: Natural processes tend to go only one way, toward less usable energy and more disorder.
The Third Law: A system’s entropy approaches a constant value as its temperature approaches absolute zero.
Even in the natural scientists say that the visible is dependent upon the invisible. That is based on their conjectures. Christians base their beliefs on the revelation of God. Though He reveals Himself in all creation we cannot think our way to Him. We cannot deduce Him or imagine Him apart from His revelation for He is eternal, infinite, omnipotent, and omnipresent. These are all attributes beyond the grasp of our finite minds. However, because He has chosen to reveal Himself to us in and through Christ, we know the material is dependent upon the spiritual.
Scientists say there are three laws, but we all see four. Which brings me to the 5th Law of Thermodynamics: No power no light. Turn from the beggarly forces of the physical and embrace the infinite power of God and let the light of Christ blaze forth in your spirit. Then let your life become a beacon as that light illuminates the world around you.
No Jesus no peace. Know Jesus know peace.
How Do I Get to Heaven? November 6, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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Many people believe they can find their own way to heaven. They think they can figure it out on their own. That’s sort of like trying to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. I’ve often offered a one-hundred-dollar bill to anyone who can do that. I still have that hundred-dollar bill.
Some people think they’ll get to heaven by being a good enough person. Some may even fool others into thinking they’ve accomplished it. But in our heart-of-hearts we all know who we are and where we’re lacking in this department.
Some think they’ll have the “Christ” experience and transcend from the normal to the paranormal. I once attended a church that started preaching this as doctrine. Instead of rising into the heavenlies they descended into blatant sin and error calling that which was bad good and good bad.
Some think that belonging to the “Right” church, following the “Right” rules and the “Right” regulations will do the trick. Others follow philosophy, psychology, or sociology, biology or some other “ology.” Still others think that education will enlighten them to the point of revelation or evolution will grow them into the presence of God. We can’t think our way to God. He’s bigger than our mind can conceive, or our intelligence can comprehend.
Then again, some don’t even believe in God. Some think they can accept or reject Christ, ignore God and still end up with God when they die. An old saying goes, “You don’t prepare for heaven by raising hell here on earth.” Some think someone else is going to pray them into heaven. And then there are those who think there are many paths to heaven. Another old saying goes, “I know there is no Heaven, and I pray there is no Hell.”
Some treat Jesus as just one of many avatars along with Buddha and Muhammed. But when they do this, they call Jesus a liar and how could a liar be a reliable spiritual guide. Because Jesus doesn’t mince words, He claims to be the only way to heaven, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”[1]
To understand this and to appropriate its power into our lives we need to take a leap of faith. We need to confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead.[2] For as the passage continues, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”[3] Those who reject the claims of Jesus say, “Show it to me and I’ll believe.” However, the way it works is believe and you will see.
These scoffers might want to check the company they keep. When Christ hung on the cross paying the penalty for sin the Chief Priests, the Scribes, and the Pharisees laughed at him saying, “Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”[4]
Before we can stand on solid enough ground to take such a great leap of faith we need to arrive at certain realizations.
First, we must realize that God is a person. By this I mean He is a personal God not just a “Force.” Some believe that the mere idea of personhood when applied to God implies some sort of limitation and therefore should never be applied to what is supposed to be an omnipotent and omnipresent reality.
I think this belief arises because these people unknowingly agree with a by the ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras, “Man is the measure of all things.” This is usually interpreted to mean that the individual human being, rather than a god or an unchanging moral law, is the ultimate source of value. This belief is taught and ingrained throughout our modern Godless education system to the point that when most people graduate from secondary school this forms part of their subconscious foundation of so-called “Common Sense.”
Based on this erroneous belief people assume since our personalities are limited therefore, personality in and of itself is limited. This, however, is wrong. We are a flawed example. God is the only perfect personality, and though He is endless in all ways we are but a pale reflection.
This realization of God’s personhood is vitally important. Without this knowledge it’s impossible to be convinced of His utter supremacy. If God is not a person, how can we sin against Him? And if instead of sinning against a person we are merely violating the rules of some system, that sounds like something we should be able to appeal. If there’s no sin and we’re either working with the “Force” or against the” Force” we might ask, “Is there only one Force or are there multiple “Forces” out there?” And if there are multiple “Forces,” can we chose to be ruled by one that supports our lifestyle choices, so we don’t work against it?
This type of thinking easily becomes circular and leads to philosophical tail chasing.
When we acknowledge that God is a person we’re almost assuredly convicted of our sins. We instinctively realize that there’s no way for us to measure up to the holiness of God. We understand intuitively that there is a barrier created by our abject unworthiness and God’s all Holy presence. Anyone who recognizes the vastness of the gulf between our sinfulness and God’s sinlessness sees that we need to be forgiven if we stand any chance of ever entering His divine presence.
Conversely, if we deny God’s personhood it’s easy to fall prey to the spirit-of-the-age and its apparently easy going, “I’m Okay You’re Okay” attitude. Everything is beautiful. Who needs forgiveness if there is no personal God and there is no sin?
The true message of Christian evangelism is to the sinner: the one who is conscious of God. If there is no acknowledgement of God as a person as an individual separate reality the word of God will fall like seeds on the street that birds quickly snatch up and take away.[5]
As a former atheist I can personally attest to the fact that unless and until we come to an acknowledgement of God as a personal reality there’s no way that we can be open to the Gospel. To the sinner who faces his total inability to approach a Holy God the first and foremost message of the cross is, “You’re forgiven through His sacrifice and grace.” And that’s how we get to Heaven.
[1] John 14:6 NKJV
[2] Romans 10:9
[3] Romans 10:10
[4] Mark 15:32
[5] Mark 4:1-20
How Can I Trust the Bible? October 30, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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Sometimes we try to define God’s words and actions too perfectly. In our arrogance we think we can adequately describe exactly what God always means in all situations. This easily can lead us into thinking our doctrines are God’s doctrines. We act as if God is sitting on the throne studying our catechisms and judging by our standards.
When we do this, we’re trying to put God in a box. The biggest problem with this is that when God decides to draw outside the lines, we run the risk of misidentifying a move of God as a heresy because it violates one of our rules.
It’s good to devote our efforts to grasping the meanings of God’s Word; however, we must always be aware that it’s possible to veer from seeking understanding to believing we have cornered the market on this valuable commodity. We just can’t reduce the immensity of God into formulas. In any equation we devise to represent God, His Word, or His actions the “X” of God is always undefined.
Eternity, infinity, and omnipresence are all terms we can define but we can never fully comprehend. The reality of God, the only self-existent One is as far removed from our understanding as the operation of a supercomputer is from an amoeba. Or as one of the prophets put it, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”[1]
We must acknowledge that we can’t think our way to or through God’s truth. Our human minds are fundamentally incapable of encompassing such immensities. As the man who wrote most of the New Testament tells us, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”[2]
Many unbelievers and sceptics try to cast aspersions on the Word of God by pointing out what they perceive as contradictions in the text. When we’re reading or meditating in the Word if we encounter anything we feel is a contradiction don’t let it weaken your faith instead stand on faith. Instead of wavering do as one of the New Testament authors suggests, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”[3]
And don’t despair, don’t think I just can’t understand this. Don’t think God has given us a puzzle instead of a revelation. Just because we can never fully understand all of it does not mean we can’t understand any of it. Just because we can’t use God’s Word to develop a spiritual unifying field theory for every person everywhere every time it doesn’t mean we can’t understand enough with God’s help to have a reliable guide for life. The Bible itself addresses the ability of the born-again believer to embrace the revelation of God, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”[4]
[1][1] Isaiah 55:8-9
[2] 1 Corinthians 2:14
[3][3] James 1:5-8 NKJV
[4] 1 Corinthians 2:12 NKJV
Dr. Owens’ Newest Book: New Old Sayings Volume Six October 24, 2024
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Bible, Christianity, Faith, god, Jesus
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The idea that God speaks to us is in a deeply personal way is nonsensical to the worldly. The truth of the matter is: God speaks. And that says it all.
Dr. Owens offers here the sixth volume of New Old Sayings. He doesn’t end this book by saying, “Thus said the Lord.” He doesn’t claim literal inspiration for what is contained within these pages. However, he does believe and proclaim that God speaks to him. How does he say to God speaks to him? He maintains that God speaks to him primarily through His Bible. And he believes God will speak to anyone who will listen. He also says, “I’ve found God weaving His way through nature, people, books, songs, paintings, poetry, movies, and websites. Everywhere I look I see God. His voice flows through my reality touching everything. Even those who reject God, those who try with all their might to deny Him give context and substance to His words for He includes them in His revelation saying, ‘The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
New Old Sayings Volume Six
Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future 