How To Know: Part Two

I encourage you to first read these:
Lalaith's original post
Part One

So - obviously, I didn't get this up "the next day," but at last, here I am about to dive into the actual post. Some of it, I went over in Part One, so I'm going to skip over those things. As always, feel free to post or email questions/comments.

Do non-Christians have epiphanies? Sure. Where did they get the ability to reason? Why were they in the circumstances that led to them having that epiphany? Christians and non-Christians get good things from the same Person. They get them differently and to a different extent and such, but ALL good things come from God (James 1). The difference in the experience of the Christian and non-Christian is not that one received something good and one MADE something good. The difference is that they BOTH received something good and only one gave God the thanks for it. The difference is the ten lepers who were healed and only one came back. All ten got something. Only one showed gratitude to the Healer.

Lalaith says something quite interesting when she says that taking responsibility for your own smarts is something that takes guts. Really? It takes guts for me to say, "Hey, look what I accomplished"? "I made this." "Look, Mom, no hands!" Seriously? From the time we can show off what we can do, we show off what we can do - and it's usually something that's as lastingly marvelous as the riding a bike with no hands.

But even that - why am I able to ride a bike without needing my hands? That's not something I accomplished on my own. I'm able to ride a bike at all 'cause I have legs and don't have polio or cerebral palsy. Who gave me legs? You see? Even the smallest, "silliest" things that we can do, we can only do because God gave that to us. Now, this is a two-sided truth. Because, on the one hand, you can focus on your side of it and feel depressed because you suddenly realize that you deserve nothing. You have nothing to be proud of, nothing to think more of yourself for. OR, you can focus on the other side, the side that goes, "WOW! What a kind and generous God Who thought to give me legs and was good enough to keep me healthy so that I can enjoy riding a bike!" You know we could have looked like tadpoles. God didn't have to make us how we are, with arms and legs. We could have ALL had IQs of 40 - He didn't need to give us really smart people or talented people or strong people.

By virtue of acknowledging a creator (or creators), you acknowledge that nothing you have is of your own doing. It doesn't matter what creator you believe in - if you believe in one, you have nothing that you can say, "Look what I did all by myself!" Because someone MADE YOU with that ability. You didn't do anything by yourself.

A short, but important, point: Making a mistake, like believing that something that ISN'T wrong is God's will and then you realize, "Oh. . . . That wasn't right" does NOT mean that you are LIVING in sin. You probably sinned along the way, but sinning and LIVING in sin are two VERY different things. Everyone sins; Christians are not allowed to live in sin. And by "not allowed" I mean, our merciful Father doesn't let us. On the other hand, the unsaved are always living in sin.

There's no way to prove this, but I would imagine that most of the times that Christians think something is God's will and it isn't, it's because they didn't wait. It's because they rushed into something without taking time to stop and pray about it, to ask trusted people, to really consider it. Not always - but most of the time.

Obviously there's a problem with Lalaith's personal account. A prerequisite of being able to know God's will (with the sole exception of when God convicts you of needing a Savior) is being saved. I've gone over that MANY times and in different ways. She asks, "If I sought Him earnestly and did as His Bible told me to do, was I not following Him and considered to be His child?" IF she were actually doing those things, she would BE His child. The difference is, she THOUGHT she was when she wasn't. Like, when I think I'm being helpful, but I'm really not because, in actuality, I'm not doing the thing like the person asked me to. But I think I am. It's the same thing.

Those people in Luke 13 who are striving to enter in at the narrow gate are not striving to do it the right way. And that's why they aren't allowed in. It's not because they're doing everything right and God just says, "No." They're not doing it right. There is no contradiction of free will and predestination except where people try to fit God into a box. ANY time you try to put God in a box, you will contradict the Bible. But it's YOU contradicting the Bible - not the Bible contradicting itself.

As for differing Christian camps "warring" on each other - I've not seen this. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but I'm just saying, I've never seen Christians war with each other. War seems like a rather exaggerated term, although, to be honest, the entire post seems on the dramatic side. If there are Christians WARRING - they need to stop. However, their warring does not touch anything about the veracity of God's Word. Because Christians are sinful therefore the Bible is false? No, that's not how it goes. Because Christians are foolish and proud, therefore God is not Who He says? That's not a proof. God never said we would be perfect here. The Bible doesn't claim that everything in it is easy to understand - on the other hand, the Apostle Peter said of Paul's writing that there are things very HARD to understand. We're finite trying to understand the Infinite. It's not going to be easy all the time.

In closing - God is NOT the Author of confusion. But sinful people cause chaos. And because God is long-suffering, He allows them to work through some things without just saying, "Here's the answer." Some things He told us straight out; some things He lets us learn to help us grow.