Trinitarian Adoption
In the beginning was God, and God was love. God was also triune—three persons in one: Father, Son, and Spirit. Before time began, they enjoyed a great fellowship and relationship of love between one another. Within this Divine Trinity there existed an amazing relationship. The Father loved the Son, the Son loved the Father, the Spirit loved the Son, the Son loved the Spirit, and so on and so forth. They laughed together, had fun together, loved together, and enjoyed each other. C.S. Lewis called this relationship of love that God has within Himself “the Great Dance,” and truly that is what it is! The great circular dance of love that God has within Himself is a wonderful celebration and relationship of love, light, and life—plus laughter, humor, and enjoyment! It is a mutual indwelling of the Father, Son, and Spirit: the Father being in the Son, the Son being in the Father, the Spirit being in the Father and Son, the Son and Father being in the Spirit. Mutual indwelling (or perichoresis) is, was, and always will be the heart of the Trinity.
So before time began there existed this circle of life—this great dance of love—within the Triune God! This great dance was of such beauty that the Father, Son, and Spirit decided to widen the circle! Out of love, they decided to extend the dance to another—to add to this amazing fellowship more creatures that would bring their own special and unique color and personality. To not only mutually indwell each other, but to also mutual indwell another. Their love was so great within themself that it spilt over into creating another being to love. Out of this immense overflow of love, man was created. And man was created in the likeness of this Triune love so that he too would be able to experience this incredible fellowship! And so God’s plan was to extend this dance to man and bring Him into this mutual indwelling by becoming man Himself! Before He even created mankind, God’s plan was to Read the rest of this entry
The Three Tenses of Salvation: Past, Present, and Future.
The Bible references three tenses of salvation: past, present, and future.
If by salvation you mean that God has already reconciled us and forgiven us and cleansed us of sin then in that case all mankind *was* saved at the cross. (Col. 1:20; 2 Cor. 5:19; 1 John 2:2; John 1:29; Rom. 5:18-19; 2 Tim. 1:9). This is the past tense of salvation. Read the rest of this entry
Christianity is Easy
Hey guys!
I wanted to share with you the message I gave this past weekend at the “Tennessee School of Whack.” This is probably my favorite message that I have ever given. Be sure to give it a listen with an open heart, and an adventurous desire to understand more of the glorious gospel of grace. This message is sure to brighten up your idea of the gospel and to hopefully challenge your already held beliefs.
http://massappeal.net/hub/lifeglobal/Christianity%20is%20Easy.mp3
Love you all! 
~ Christian Erickson
The Union of Grace and Justice
One of the biggest cop-outs that people use to reject the gospel of grace is the statement: “God is just.” And what they mean by that is that God can’t be loving and forgiving towards us unless “justice” is served first. Then they proceed to say that for God to forgive us He had to punish Jesus first in order to “satisfy His need for justice against sin” and that now because Jesus has been “punished in our place” God can relate to us from a perspective of grace.
I’m here to tell you that is wrong. Read the rest of this entry
Thoughts on “Eternal Punishment”
The term “eternal punishment” is used by Jesus at the end of Matthew 25. In His famous parable of the sheep and the goats He sends the sheep into “eternal life” and then He sends the goats into “eternal punishment.” There is much that could be said about this parable and what it means, but for our purposes I would like to focus in on the term “eternal punishment.”
What Universalists would do with this verse is they would try to tell you that the word “eternal” (aionios in Greek) actually doesn’t mean forever, but rather something along the lines of “the age of the ages.” I agree and disagree with this. This is actually one of the many reasons why I am not a Universalist; I don’t think it is right to say that “aionios” only means “the age of the ages.” The problem I see is that when you take the word “aionios” to mean “age of the ages” rather than to mean “eternity”, you make not only eternal punishment to be a short period of time, but you also make eternal life to be a short period of time, as well.
I do agree, however, with the Universalists when they insist that the term “eternal punishment” actually doesn’t mean to be punished forever, and here is why: Read the rest of this entry
Satan, Wolves, Thieves, and Pharisees
Contrary to what almost every single Christian on planet earth will tell you, when John 10:10 says that “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” it isn’t talking about Satan (although he does do those things); it is talking about religious, legalistic, Pharisees.
Let’s read some of the context of John 10:10…
John 10:10 is in the midst of the parable of the Good Shepherd. At the very beginning of the parable, Jesus directs it at the Pharisees:
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.” John 10:1
Notice, not only is the parable directed at the Pharisees, but right here Jesus gives the definition of who the thief (or “thieves” in this case) are. A thief is anyone who tries to get to God by their own works instead of Christ (not going through the gate but climbing some other way).
Then Jesus goes on to tell them that they are the strangers who His sheep won’t listen to, but the Pharisees don’t get that He is talking about them!
“But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.” John 10:5-6
Then the passage goes on to say: Read the rest of this entry
Understanding the Old Testament: Part 2
Here it is! Part two of our series on the inerrancy of the Bible and the Old Testament! If you haven’t read part one yet, you can here.
Last time, I left you with the question: how do we reconcile the Old Testament verses that seem to be factually incorrect with the belief that God inspired scripture?
I’ll try to answer that in a moment, but first, let me clear something up really fast.
People have asked me a few questions regarding what I am saying. So, let me tell you what I am not saying. I’m not saying that the Old Testament is bad or that it isn’t just as inspired as the New Testament. I am not throwing out the Old Testament. And, I’m also not saying that every single time that the Bible says that God killed someone or caused some disaster that He didn’t do it. There are many instances where it is obvious that He did (the flood, etc), however, what I am saying is that it is only through Jesus that we understand those difficult passages. What I am saying is that the Old Testament definitely doesn’t give the full picture as to why He did those things, and that it sometimes views what God did in the Old Testament through a fallen mindset. It is only through Jesus that we understand God’s heart behind those passages.
Nevertheless, there seems to be a few places where it does attribute things to God that were actually the work of Satan (we discussed this in “The Myth of an Angry God.“)
God did inspire scripture, and everything that is contained in the Bible is what God wants it to contain. So how then do we reconcile those Old Testament verses that seem to be factually incorrect, and those verses that are definitely correct but viewed through a fallen mindset with the belief that God inspired all of it, and wants all of it in His book? Read the rest of this entry
