This is a reply to Andrew’s initial article.

Friends I would encourage all who frequent this site, not to forget the importance of church history. Lest we make similar mistakes as those who have gone before and not learn the lessons of the past - otherwise we doom ourselves to repeat those same mistakes both in our thinking and in our lives. When we speak of evolving theology we must realize that the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob is not evolving, not becoming more perfect. (Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever.) Rather it is we who are attempting to come to a better understanding of God… it is we who are attempting to understand better who and what HE already and always has been. We are the drifting ship attempting to cast anchor and he is the unmovable continent to which we would attain. Yes, as the seas around us shift with the tides and storms and culture, we need to adjust our course, heading, and method, but we must always keep in mind that it is the ship that is adjusting while the continent itself remains steadfast.

Yes, we see in the scriptures GOD interacting with man, changing his methods in response to man’s prayer, loving, caring, crying out to His people and on the other hand we see a God who knows the end from the beginning, who brings up the name of one of his most righteous servants Job to Satan (why did he do this??), allowing Satan to torment Job to the limits GOD sets each time, who refuses to answer Job’s question about why, who choses Jacob and hates Esau before their birth, who ordains Paul for his work at his birth, who chooses us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, who becomes flesh and lives amoung us suffering humilating death which He could have prevented with more than 12 legions of angels and then three days later coming back to life… who says “whoseover will may come” and yet “no man comes to me unless the father draws him”

How can we reconcile all that the scriptures reveal about God? One way is to take the scriptures that appeal to us and reinterpret or minimize the ones that don’t… we must not fall into this common error. The multi-dimensional nature of GOD’s dealing with man can not be reduced by man’s finite logic. Thus we worship HIM who our minds cannot fully grasp or we attempt to reduce HIM to that which our minds can grasp… and in so doing create our own “god”.

How can one who exists outside of time with a name for every star in the universe, and the number of every hair on the head of more than 7 billion people be fully comprehended with the small finite created material such as our brains are made of…? We must not make the mistake of thinking we will ever comprehend God and all that He has ordained, yet the danger is very real of not comprehending that which He has clearly revealed as it pertains especially to our eternal salvation. We must keep first things first in the quest of the knowlege of God. Salvation is eternally important for our souls while eschatology for example, while important, is not a heaven or hell issue.

It is human nature to want something new, exciting, different, novel, but it is the old and ancient paths that contain the truths about the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob as David himself said over 3000 years ago. Deception by its very nature is undetected, subtle, and well used by the master deceiver who has been practising on unwary humans for many thousands of years.

Andrew, my friend, be careful of the shifting sand you are attempting to build your house on, lest you finally reach the end of your quest only to find that the God you are left with has long since ceased to be God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

There is a saying “Don’t be so open-minded your brains fall out”… the danger is very real here. This is not to say we must close our minds and accept without question a particular strand of theology/escatology/ etc. that we may have been taught or read about. It is to say that there is a very real and present danger that involves the eternal salvation of our soul and all who come under our influence.

May the wind of God’s spirit safely guide your ship to the Rock of Ages.