Quotations and More

Due to the nature of the next few posts, I hope to cover more than one today. First up, "Good Quotes" by Lalaith.

Not a lot to say here. I agree with both quotes, though maybe not to quite the same extreme on the second one. (The HEIGHT of ignorance? I think there is probably something more indicative of ignorance than that.)

Moving right along, I'm skipping the post "It's Coming" for what should be obvious reasons. This brings us to the post about me! That didn't take nearly as long as I was thinking it might.

First, I wanted to say that I did go and read all of Threnody's posts on the old blog that she mentioned. Second, I wonder what exactly I've misunderstood (since I apparently misunderstood ALL of the posts (on the Untangling blog), but I'm quite sure the misrepresentation is a matter of opinion and a matter on which we will certainly differ in opinion.

I already addressed in a comment on that post that I would never want them to go back to the lives they were living, so I'll not reiterate that point any farther here. However, I do find it a curious thing that Threnody only believes that parts of the Bible make up Christianity and yet, somehow, she claims it to be erroneous. Considering the quote from earlier - the one about the height of ignorance - this is especially interesting. Let me explain.

Threnody claims that she was a Christian and she is not any longer. However, according to the Bible (specifically I John 2:19 and Mark 4:1-20), those who do not "remain" in Christ were never actually in Christ. Thus, Threnody and Lalaith, by virtue of leaving Christianity, have proven that they were never Christians to begin with. Taking the rest of the Bible into account, this makes perfect sense why they have both struggled with things like God's attributes of sovereignty and justice, the measure of man's responsibility, how free will actually works, and a host of other things that (as far as I recall) haven't come out in the blog yet. I Corinthians 2:14 states that the "natural man" (men in their sinful, fallen state) CANNOT receive (or, understand) the things of God. Why? Because the things of God are SPIRITUALLY discerned. And the natural man is spiritually dead.

Now, don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean that every Christian automatically understands everything about the things of God. However, it DOES mean, that, since we have the help of the Spirit of God (Who DOES understand EVERYTHING about God), we can grow in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having been made alive, we now have the ability to understand by the help of the Holy Spirit, not just with our heads, but with our hearts as well.

There is no such thing as an "ex-Christian." Now, I have no problem with the term - I think it gets the point across just fine - but technically, it doesn't exist. Either you have been saved, or you have not been. Either you have repented and received regeneration and the Holy Spirit, or you have not. There is no, "I was once, but no longer." That just doesn't exist.

This is Christianity. Threnody claims that she was once a Christian, but real Christianity doesn't allow for that. Either she still is now (which, I think she has most adamantly denied), or she never was. I fully believe that she loved something, that her faith in it was sincere, and that she was ardently seeking after it. However, had that thing been Almighty God, she would be saved, and, therefore, she would NOT be claiming "ex-Christianity."

Threnody is not arguing that Christianity is false because of what IT IS; she's claiming it is false based on the experiences of her life. This is like me claiming that California is made of sand because it's sandy in the part of California where I live. Experience is not a solid premise for judgment.

This is getting long, and there's a whole lot left that's worthy of being addressed, so I'm going to postpone the rest into a Part II. Stay tuned. ;)