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| so i was talking with davey, one of my good friends and roommate, and we were talking about a local church that we both know people from. This church is hyper-calvinistic, and they have some pretty wierd ideas about a lot of things (well, wierd in my view of them). for example, they believe that it is wrong to help the poor, for they are not a part of God's choosen elect, and therefore by helping them you are helping sinners who are damned to hell for eternity. i dunno, that kinda bugs me...
but then we started talking about a girl davey knows who goes to this church, and about how he tries to show her what he believes. he kept telling me that he wished she would come into those arguments without any bias or anything, because shes interpreting tons of verses based solely on what she already believes. that made me think about how we do that alot too, bring in our own bias.
so, i started thinking about our concept of salvation, where the conservative christian believes salvation (and essentially who goes to heaven and who goes to hell) is pretty much summed up in the four spiritual laws. basically, ask Jesus into your heart, you'll be saved. but, i don't know just how well this coincides with the bible:
Mat 19:25- Very difficult for a rich man to get into heaven (why, if all it takes is asking Jesus into your heart?)
Luk 19:9- It appears Jesus saves this man because of his actions of repentance
Jam 2:14- He seems to be explicitly saying that faith does not bring salvation
Then again, there are alot of verses that do support this concept of salvation, but my opinion is that we may not have the whole picture. One thought I had yesterday is that perhaps Christians are saved by faith, but maybe this is not the only way for one to have salvation. Well, these are my thoughts, now it's your turn, tell me what you think.
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| so, it's been a while since i've posted, and alot in my life has changed, but i thought it'd be cool to start posting some and maybe getting some good discussions going... so here goes...
i was in church this morning (not so much by choice, kinda was to keep the girlfriend's parents happy), and i saw a prayer request on the back of the bulletin "salvation for loved ones". it struck me as very peculiar that we use that word so much. i feel like whenever i hear that word, it reminds me of the arrogant christians who are so concerned with "soul-winning" and "evangelism" that they don't really love people. that got me thinking about how different our christianity is from the believers way back in jesus time, and the early church. from some of the writings from paul, i just get the feeling that he had a very intricate understanding of christianity, and sometimes i wish i could talk with him for a day. i just think we have missed so much in the christian church today, and i wish there was some way of comng to the truth. if you don't know what i'm talking about, here's some issues i've wrestled with and still have no clue how to resolve:
homosexuality (when did i choose to be straight? never. how would i feel if i was forced to be gay to be a christian?
salvation (if i grew up in a foreign country, and my parents were, say, muslims, wouldn't i be a muslim right now and hold to those views as strongly as i hold to christianity? why do i get to go to heaven and these people don't?)
inerrancy (how could a God who "so loved the world" (Jn 3:16) order massive genocides?)
women's rights (society today has pretty firmly established that women are people just like men. why aren't they allowed to speak in church? why must they look to their husband for everything?)
i guess that's all i've got for today, more thoughts to follow soon...
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| oh man, so, life has been good lately. i've been in field session (which for all of you non-mines kids is basically summer school that is required at some point) and it has been ok, but it's almost over. plus, the last bit will be awesome. then, i start another class (which will be many infinite times better than the current one) as well as a job as a physics ta, which should be semi-fun.
and, i've been able to hang out with the canadian girl i referred to a couple of posts ago, because she just happened to get her layover in denver instead of washington dc. plus, she's gonna come to school out here next semester (at UCD) so it's great. i'm so excited, she's awesome.
there's so much more to say, but i'm feeling lazy right now...
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| today, in field session, i was involved in the process of interferometerizing a space ship. yeah, that's right.
life has been good, though. i really wanna be at camp, but i think i'll get over that when i get the chance to hang out with some of my friends from last summer.
i'm learning to swing dance (although, at this point, i'd say i'm pretty much a pro, right beth? :) ). but, its frickin' amazing, i love it so much. it's taught me alot about how guys should act in relationships, too, i think.
i'm also learning to play guitar, but that's a little harder, i'm pretty bad still, and my fingers hurt, so i'm not quite as excited as with swing dancing, but it's still pretty fun.
i've been alright spiritually. i just feel so far from god right now, and i don't really know why.
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