Something that has been on my mind.

For the past few months, I have been going through my sophomore year at Liberty University. I came back to the school year excited for the opportunities that would arise, for the chance to hang with some good friends again, and also to grow more and more. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail with all of the things that have happened recently, but there has been something bothering me recently, and I've figured out what it is.

For some strange reason, the people at Liberty that think they understand a lot of theology seem to think that teaching the theology they believe is just as important as teaching the gospel. Now, I'm not saying it is a bad thing to know about theology outside of the gospel, or even to teach it to people. Where my issue lies is the fact that these people are putting issues such as calvinism, millenialism, and a bunch of other theological beliefs up on the same level as the gospel when it comes to preaching about things. 

Once again, I am not saying these are bad things to know about or teach, but when you are talking about a ministry to non-believers, the last thing they want to talk to you about is men have free will or God's predestination is the underlying cause of everything. It seems as if people have tried to warp the way that the gospel should be preached. I have always been taught that Jesus + nothing = everything. With the way people have been talking, it almost has been seeming like people want to add calvinism, or millenialism. I'm so tired of people saying it is super important to teach these things. Yes, it is important, but I feel that if teaching those principles becomes something more than what it is, ministry will be hurt.

Preach the gospel. We were created for a relationship with God, but since the fall of man in Genesis 3 when Eve took a bite of the apple, then gave it to Adam, who also took a bite. Because the only two people in creation were both full of sin, we are now separated from God, with no way of getting ourselves back to God. So God, in His infinite love and sovereignty sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who came to earth, lived a perfect life, at the end of His life, suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried. After all of that, He did not stay dead, but He was resurrected by God, and because of this we now have the ability to have a relationship with God. He has restored the ability for us to have that with Him forever. All we have to do is say yes.

Calvinists will cringe at that last sentence. I do tend to loosely call myself a calvinist, so here's what I believe on "saying yes"

When we "say yes" to God, we are not doing it solely because we want to say yes. I believe that God can change the hearts of those who are not yet following, and therefore works in the hearts of non-believers until they reach a point where they have no other option but to say yes. Think about it, if all we do is plant the seeds, but God makes them grow, then why wouldn't it be that God changes the heart to make the person want to say yes? Psalms even says "Delight yourselves in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart... No this does not mean God will give me free tuition(Though I would not complain if such things happened). When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He changes our hearts to want the things He wants, and therefore, our heart is changed, and our wants are different. It only makes sense.

 Arminians get their choice things, and calvinism still gets God in control. Now let's throw the pointless debate aside and just preach the gospel, please. The nutshell is written in blue. 

Also, think about the Apostle's or the Nicene Creed. I've said both of these numerous time in church. I don't recall either one having anything to do with other theology. They both essentially say we believe in God the father, Son, and Spirit, and that the son was born, suffered, died, was buried, rose from the dead. There is more stuff, and it's all good stuff, but this is all that matters. 

When we ge to heaven, I do not think that whether you believed in Free Will or Predestination, millenialism or amillenialism, heck, as stupid as the view is, even preterism, or any other type of theology other than the gospel will matter. You are saved by confession Jesus Christ being Lord, and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. It's as simple as that...

So seriously, stop putting theology before the gospel, and stop trying to say that other theological issues are just as or more important than the gospel. Yes, they are important, but we preach the GOSPEL. We do NOT preach predestination, or free will. We do NOT preach millenialism or amillenialism. Preach the Gospel.

Okay, my rant is over now. It was just something that was on my mind, and has been frustrating me to no end. Mostly because a lot of the talk about this has come from people I see every day.

Have a good night

College Life: New Experiences

This past weekend, I got the opportunity to go to Rockbridge for the 11th time. I love being there as you can obviously tell. I get this weird feeling from this camp, and it's just so addicting! Anyway, I went to serve a Wyldlife winter weekend, and I was part of the ropes course. It was definitely one of my favorite trips to Rockbridge thus far! (Beaten basically by Work Crew for the month cause nothing will ever beat that!)

My job on the ropes course was to run this tower called the High 5. In short, you climb a telephone pole, and the higher you get on the pole, the shakier it gets. My job was to keep the kids safe, so that if they fell, I would catch them, and lower them safely. It wasn't as stressful as it seems, even though it really should have been. There were many kids who came to me to climb the pole, and it was a sweet experience. Getting to let them know they were believed in, and just getting to spur them on in their ascent. Encouraging them when they got scared, and not letting them get hurt. It was a great experience.

There was one girl who came to climb it, and she was deaf. This proved to be a very difficult thing for me to deal with. Instead of the regular commands, we had hand signals, and we made it possible for her to climb it safely. She did it without even thinking twice. She seemed to have the time of her life with it. It was a cool experience.

The best part of the job though was seeing how this small part of the camp has the work of God all over it. It forces the kids to put their trust and essentially their life in my hands. They must do this because they are hooked up to a rope that is connected to me, so I can lower them safely. Putting your life in the hands of someone you don't fully know takes a lot of faith.. Which to me seems like our walk with God. We can't fully understand God's love, so putting our trust and life into His hands is not an easy thing to do. It's also not very easy to do this climb. As I said, the pole shakes. This makes it a little difficult to climb it, turn around, and essentially jump. This, in my eyes, points at our walk with God. Them being hooked to me by the rope puts me in the role of "God", and they're climbing this challenge with a little help from me. I'm telling them some things they should do to make it easier on them, and encouraging them and so on. They get to see how hard it is, while also knowing how to trust someone that holds your life in their hands. The final jump at the end is a huge leap. It's not only a physical leap, but it's really a leap of faith. They put everything on the line for a half second of flight to hit a glove in the air. This is also is saying to me "I trust you. I know you won't drop me" Which is what I hope they also said to God this weekend. There are so many things about this camp, and every Young Life camp that just points to the gospel, and Jesus's work.

This weekend had so much to offer, but that was the highlights of my experience serving those kids, and helping them have a good time.

Another cool thing was Saturday night a few of us just had a time of worship where different people led us in some worship songs. It was a truly great experience.

This is the true reason I love Young Life.

Have a good night, y'all