Have you ever wondered how you came to hold the beliefs that you do about God, eternal life, sin, and salvation?

Though I have not done an official survey, it seems to me that the number one determining factor for what “religion” a person belongs to is where they were born.

If I had been born in Iran or Iraq, I most likely would be Muslim. If I had been born in China, I would probably be Buddhist. If I had been born in India, I would likely be Hindu.

I thank God all the time that I was born in the United States and to a Christian family so that I am now a follower of Jesus.

Which religion would I choose?

But I sometimes wonder “What if…?”  What if I had been born elsewhere? What if I could choose a religion other than Christianity? (Okay, okay, I know that Christianity is not exactly a “religion,” but for the sake of argument, let’s just call it one.) Which one would I choose?

As part of my job, I get to work with and observe people from all different religions, and I have to say that I understand why people argue that “all religions are the same.” From the outside, they all do look pretty similar. Sure, there are differences, such as which hats the religious leaders wear, what day they light candles on, and in what posture they pray.

Christianity, when properly understood and practiced, is unique in its approach to God, sin, salvation. We are the only “religion” that has a true concept of grace. (Though most Christians, I would argue, do not properly understand or practice grace.)

[Read more…]

Blue Like Jazz, the Movie hits theaters today. I wish I could go see it, but there are no theaters near where I live that are showing it.

Oh well, I’ll get the DVD….

How about you? Are you going to go see it? Why or why not? If you do see it, let me know what you think.

I like Blue Like Jazz – the book, and I briefly wrote about my “conversion” regarding this book here.

[Read more…]

Eventually I plan to write about my transition away from 5-point Calvinism. But I found something today I wanted to share.

The first point of Calvinism is Total Depravity, which essentially means that our rebellion against God is total, everything we do in this rebellion is sin, our inability to submit to God or reform ourselves is total, and we are therefore totally deserving of eternal punishment.

In Calvinism, this view naturally applies to children as well as adults, and yet even still, it was a shock for me to read the following statement by the leading American Calvinist, Jonathan Edwards:

As innocent as children seem to be to us, yet if they are out of Christ, they are not so in God’s sight, but are young vipers, and are infinitely more hateful than vipers.

Edwards said this in his work Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival, but it was later edited out by his grandson, Sereno Dwight.

Some might think this is an isolated case. Maybe it is not common, but I suspect it is more common than Calvinists like to admit. Logically, Total Depravity leads to this view. When I was a pastor, there was one Calvinistic father in my congregation who called his children “sinner black spots.”

I, for one, would have trouble worshiping a God who views children as infinitely more hateful than vipers. How about you?

---