Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of God

Let me preface with this, because I do not want anyone reading this to have any incorrect misconceptions. I love my country, and am proud to be an American. In no way do I want any of you reading this to think for one second that I am criticizing America, I simply want to challenge the philosophy of modern Evangelical Christianity in America. That being said, I will now begin.

We as a country have gravely confused our relationship with our Heavenly Father, and our view of government.  Because we feel so strongly about our libertarian freedom from governmental tyranny, we have developed a sense of entitlement from God because of this volitional autonomy in respect to our governing authorities.

All of this comes back to the three rights we possess that our government has no right to infringe upon. These three rights are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. This is true in America. The three inalienable rights we possess as Americans are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But what is theologically wrong with this statement? The problem is that God doesn't promise any of these, at least not in the same way our country has come to. News flash: there are more Christians (and non-Christians) in the world living without these rights than there are living with these rights. We as Americans own these rights proudly (as we should, we fought for them), but as humans, none of us are entitled to them by God.

From a Biblical perspective, God owes none of these freedoms to human kind. Biblically, we as humans are not alive, rather we are spiritually dead; nor are we free, rather we are enslaved; and finally we are not entitled to the pursuit of genuine happiness, rather we are creatures of wrath and will only ever pursue our own selfishness, ultimately resulting in wrath. The inalienable rights of humanity are actually: Death, Enslavement, and the Pursuit of Wrath.

 All of this is due to our sin. This is our punishment by a Holy and Just God. And there is no way around this. It is not as if we are sinners because we sin, but we sin because we are sinners. We at no point can actually choose not to sin, thus claiming these rights. This is because sin is not something we do, but something we love. Apart from God, we can do nothing but sin. We are utterly consumed by and enslaved to sin (Romans 3:23).

However, God did not leave us in our state of total and utter depravation. He has actually provided a means in which we can receive these "inalienable" rights, and that is through Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior.

At the Cross of Christ, there is life, there is liberty, and there is the pursuit of genuine happiness in God our Father. The Cross of Christ takes the dead, the enslaved, and the wrathful, and transforms them into the living, the free, and the hopeful. The Bible is clear that belief in Jesus Christ, results in life (Ephesians 2:4-5), liberty (Galatians 5:1), and the pursuit of God (I Timothy 6:11). All of this is done by the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, humanity, because of sin, has rightfully earned death, enslavement, and wrath. But God being rich in His mercy, decided to send Jesus Christ, and only through Christ can we obtain life, liberty, and the pursuit of true happiness, which is found in God our Father.

Who's Image is on You?

Jesus said, "render to Caesar that which is Caesar's and render to God that which is God's." (Matthew 22:21). He said this because someone asked him if he should have to pay taxes, and Jesus responded the way He did after He pointed out that Caesar's image was on the coin.

Did you ever think about the fact that God's image is on you? So when Jesus says "... render to God that which is God's," that means you.

We owe God everything.

Grace: If Only We Understood It

It has become very common in the Christian world today, at least in America, to act one way in church on Sunday, then act completely different the rest of the week. Too many Christians, including myself, have become very good at putting on a good face and pretending to have it all together, as if they're earning their right standing before God, while lying to everyone around them. The sad thing is, this practice is destructive to the church as a whole, and begins to bury the truth that we are saved by grace alone and that nothing we can do will ever entitle us to the grace of God.

If more Christians (most definitely including me) truly began to understand grace- that theres nothing we can do to ever be good enough for it, but also that we can never be bad enough that God withholds it based on our lack of merit, rather that it is freely given based on His good, sovereign pleasure- I think we would see an incredible and obvious resurgence in Christian holiness and godliness.

Mission Trip Summary: Nicaragua 2013

For those of you that did not get a chance to read my summary letter to those who supported my trip, this is a very large excerpt from that, explaining all that my team and I really experienced while serving in Nicaragua.

This summer, I was able to be part of and help my team run a summer camp for underprivileged children in Managua, Nicaragua; as well as build relationships with many kids in the poorest parts of Rivas, Nicaragua. Through this trip, we built some amazing relationships, grew spiritually, and got to experience the culture of Nicaragua in a very humble manor. This trip was special in so many ways, but the three significant factors that made this trip so memorable were the running of the camp in the beginning of the trip, the ministry in the town near the camp, and then living at Campo Alegría.

The camp in the beginning of the trip was the primary reason for the trip in the first place, that was what most of our preparations were for, and that was what we were most excited about. Not only were we right to have such high hopes for the camp, but I believe that I speak for my whole team when I say that it totally exceeded our expectations. When we first got to Campo Alegría, it was a Thursday and the kids were arriving on Friday, so we didn’t even have a full twenty-four hours until the kids would be showing up, so we waited with eager expectation. When the kids arrived in time for lunch on Friday, we were all just so excited to see them pile out of the vans. After lunch we kicked off the camp. I was on the arts and crafts team, so that was what I did for the most part of the camp during activity time. But when we weren’t doing activities, we were playing with the kids, doing team activities (we had divided the kids into three teams, I was on the red team), eating with them, helping them brush their teeth, talking to them, and just getting to know them. We also did a great deal of swimming. Most of the kids had never left Managua, so they had never seen a body of water the size of the lake that the camp was on, so we swam a great deal of the time! We had a perimeter of lifeguards surrounding the kids because safety always comes first, but if we weren’t on lifeguard duty, we were playing and swimming with the kids. We also had chapel times, which included singing (in Spanish), skits, testimonies or faith stories, and then lessons. The kids really seemed to enjoy every part of the chapels, but especially the singing because all the songs we sang had fun motions to go along with them. It was fun watching the kids jump around the room when they would get into the dance moves. On Saturday, we had a movie night and we watched the third ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ movie (in Spanish) which the kids loved. Being on the crafts team was really awesome because we were able to make fun crafts with the kids but also make crafts that incorporated the Gospel in it, like a craft that had the ‘Footprints In the Sand’ poem on it that they decorated and we translated into Spanish. We also had them make information cards that they could decorate, that had Scripture on it about being special in the eyes of God, and that they were made in the Image of God. The hardest part was when we had to say goodbye to them after lunch on sunday, it was a sad moment, but also very sweet because that was when we saw just how attached we had become to the kids and how much they loved us and were quick to call us their brothers and sisters. Essentially, the camp was a huge success and such a wonderful opportunity for everyone that participated. 

Working with Geo (one of the missionaries that was part of Campo Alegría) in the nearby town of Rivas was amazing because we were with a group of kids that he had already been working with in areas like teaching them English, teaching them Bible Stories, and just getting to known them. When we were with them, we played baseball. In fact, we donated a large amount of baseball equipment for the kids to keep, which they were so incredibly thankful for. Many of us expected them to be decent at baseball because of the sport’s popularity in the country, but these kids were amazing at baseball! They had only been practicing with sticks and stones but when we gave them real balls, bats, and gloves, their true abilities showed, and they were good! It was so much fun building relationships with these kids, getting to know them more, and just showing God’s real, tangible love to them by playing baseball. We all enjoyed it.

Living at Campo Alegría was an amazing experience but sometimes a nasty one. SInce we were on the water, we almost always had a nice breeze coming in and keeping us cool. It was quite comfortable, until the breeze stopped. Once the breeze stopped, the bugs came out and it became unbearably hot. If we even opened our mouths, we would have a full course meal of bugs. But as long as that breeze was around, it was pretty nice. Also, the food at the camp was delicious! Until a few of us got sick, and even though we eventually recovered, I don’t think we ever regained our appetite to what it was before... at least I didn’t. We also got to know the people that lived at and worked for Campo Alegría, which included some really amazing people. The Willards were our hosts at the camp, and they were great! Mr. and Mrs. WIllard were so nice, and we got to know their kids really well as well, which was sweet because they were both pretty cool people. We also got to know Geo, one of our leaders there, who had established the relationships with the kids we played baseball with. He was a really cool guy who just a big heart for God and ministry. The other people we met were the Saenz family, which included Oscar, who was one of the staff guys there, his wife who was a cook, and their son Jasser, who was one of our translators, and he became part of our group in no time. He was pretty funny and just a cool dude, so we all got along with him. I don’t think I could end this without mentioning the fact that we all milked cows. There was no real purpose in doing so, the camp just wanted us all to for the experience. It was honestly one of the more disgusting things I’ve done in my life, but it wasn’t as hard as I had expected. I got it on my first try, which was more than some people can say. All in all, living on Campo Alegría was quite an amazing experience we enjoyed getting to know everyone living there or working there as well.

Therefore, although this trip was special in many ways, the three significant factors that made this trip so memorable were the running of the camp in the beginning of the trip, the ministry in the town near the camp, and then living at Campo Alegría.

Saint Augustine of Hippo: Pioneer of Philosophy and Theology

In the 4th Century, one of the greatest and most influential men that ever lived was born. Aurelius Augustine of Hippo was born in the year 354 AD, on November 13th. Augustine was born into a wealthy family and was well educated through out his young life. When he reached the age of 17, he went off to study in Carthage and began an incredible intellectual journey that, little did he know, would take him to great places. Around this same time, he renounced his Christian faith, which he was raised up believing, and joined the Manichaean religion. This upset his mother, Monica, who was a devout Christian and wanted that same devotion for her son (AmericanCatholic.org). During this time, Augustine lived a life of hedonism, indulging in the more sinful pleasures of life, including sexual affairs (Augustine of Hippo).

In the summer of the year 386 AD, when he was 31 years of age, Augustine was prompted to pick up and read from his Bible. He opened up and read from the book of Romans, specifically chapters 12 through 15. The specific text that had an increased amount of impact on him, was Romans 13:13-14, which talks about turning to Christ rather than the lustful passions of the flesh and the world. It was through this experience that Augustine was converted to Christianity and believed in the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ("The Confessions of St. Augustine").

Shortly after that, Augustine was baptized, returned home, sold everything he had except his family home (he actually turned his home into a monastic foundation for himself and others) and became an ordained priest and began a career of preaching in 391 AD. He was eventually made Bishop of Hippo in the 395 AD. He remained in that position until his death, in the year 430 AD (Saint Augustine of Hippo). Although Augustine had an incredible impact on just about every discipline of study, he is most famously remembered for his influence of philosophy and theology.

First, Augustine had a significant influence on philosophy. He was no stranger to the various schools of thought, having dabbled in Manichaean, Neo-Platonic, and Christian philosophy. Just about every student of philosophy has or will at one point read Augustine. He has covered topics such as anthropology, astrology, ethics, issues of war, issues of sexuality, and so many others. One of his many contributions of study in the realm of philosophy, is his work on epistemology. Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know, or simply one's theory of knowledge (Ligonier).

In Augustine's day, there was a great debate between the skeptics and those who weren't so skeptic, on the reliability of the senses or, more specifically, sensory perception as a means of understanding truth. The skeptics argued that since our senses can be wrong (i.e. we can perceive something to be true that in reality is not true), then they cannot be trusted at all. 

Augustine, being a man of certainty rather than skepticism, refuted this claim that our senses cannot be considered trustworthy at all, with a wonderful illustration. He used the example of a person in a boat paddling with an oar. When the oar is in the water, the man in the boat can see the oar up until the oar is in the water. Now, if the water is clear and the man can see into the water, then he can see the whole oar, but the half of the oar that is in the water appears to bend, but in reality it remains straight. This means that what is perceived is not entirely true, because the oar is not bent. But it is partially true, because there is an oar and it is in the water (R.C. Sproul, The Consequences of Ideas: Augustine).

What Augustine was arguing, was that when dealing with issues such as these, there are three things to consider: what is true, our perception of what is true, and how we feel about what is true. He made the point that even though our senses cannot be considered an autonomous, dogmatic means of recognizing truth, it can still play a part in it. Or in other words, Augustine was arguing against full skepticism and arguing for the basic reliability of sense perception. This helped silence some of the skeptics of his day and played a part in mending the two opposing opinions on this issue, also leaving behind a tremendous influence in the area of epistemology (R.C. Sproul, “The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding the Concepts That Shaped Our World”). 

Second, Augustine was a pioneer of, and had a great influence on, theology. Unlike Calvin, Luther, Knox, Zwingli, or any other well noted theologian, Augustine didn't really have anyone behind him that he could build from doctrinally. Despite that, he took on the responsibility of paving a wide road for people to follow in with regards to just about every theological issue or doctrine imaginable. He wrote on topics such as ecclesiology, eschatology, mariology, theology proper, pneumatology, the theology of sin, and just about every Christian doctrine. Two of his many significant contributions of theology are his sacramental theology and his soteriology. 

Augustine was a strong advocate of the belief that the bread and wine in the Eucharist became the literal body and blood of Christ and that Christ was in the literal bread and wine (Augustine, “Sermons to the People”). This belief had a great impact on the Roman Catholic theology of transubstantiation. This was not as widely believed by Protestants, who maintained that it was not the physical presence of Christ in the bread and wine, but the spirit of His presence in the sacrament as a whole (Augustine, “Explanations of the Psalms”).

His most significant influence in Protestant/Reformed theology, is his soteriology. During his time, there was a significant controversy called the Pelagian Controversy. The Pelagian Controversy was started by a man named Pelagius, who came out with some preposterous views of salvation, views that were contrary to the teaching of the Bible and of the church. He believed that the fall only affected Adam, and that there was no imputation of original sin to the rest of mankind. He argued that anyone born after the fall, retained the ability to live holy, and righteous lives apart from the grace of God. He stated that grace could have "facilitated" righteousness but said that it was not necessary to live a sinless life. He taught that man was not enslaved to sin and was actually morally capable of choosing God, apart from God's sovereign grace (R.C.Sproul, “The Pelagian Controversy”). 

Augustine refuted this by stating that man is totally and utterly depraved and is in full necessity of God's sovereign grace for salvation. He argued that the very cooperation with grace was the effect of God, by His sovereignty, empowering the sinner to cooperate. Augustine insisted that all of those who were numbered among the elect were given a gift of grace that brought them faith (R.C.Sproul, “The Pelagian Controversy”).

This served as the precursor to the Reformed doctrine called monergism. Monergism teaches that salvation is one handed. It presents salvation as God reaching down out of Heaven, saving spiritually dead sinners by Himself, giving them life with Christ (Theopedia). This doctrine was very much influenced, inspired, and coined by St. Augustine, making him an incredibly influential church figure.

Therefore, although Augustine has been remembered as many things, and for his influence in many areas of study, he is most famously remembered for his influence of philosophy, specifically epistemology, and theology, specifically sacramental theology and soteriology.