HangOUT heading to the Fair

This coming Thursday the Hangout is going to head on over to the good ole Cleveland County Fair. We'll meet over at the Renfroe Center (map) @ 6 PM on Thursday ( 10/5) and leave from there. Yall be sure to bring someone with ya, and lets just see how big a crowd we can roll up with to the Fair. See ya'll tomorrow at the service.

It's Gonna Be Awesome!

Everyone who reads this needs to make sure they come to the Foundation Worship Service this Sunday Oct. 1st @ 1:30 in the Aldersgate Gym.

Man we are pumped up about the next 3 weeks, they are gonna be awesome. This Sunday's service we will be sharing the Vision for The Foundation and where we see God leading us. Rest assured you will get pumped up on Sunday when you see how much God has been doing in this ministry so far and where he is leading us to go next. So much has happened in the past week, that it is ridiculous... God has been opening doors left and right...You won't want to miss this. There will be another Service Oct. 15 that we believe is going to change people's lives, so begin planning to come and invite people to these next two services. It's gonna be awesome... and that's all I got to say about that.

Any questions email us: thecorefoundation@gmail.com

Is Religion Making Us Fat?

Is religion making us fat? Cathleen Falsani from the Chicago Sun-Times addresses this question in a recent article and gives us some interesting things to think about. Check out this quote from the article:

"he found there were more obese people in states with larger populations of folks claiming a religious affiliation than elsewhere -- particularly in states with the most Baptists."

"If they don't drink and don't smoke, what do they do?

Eat, apparently."

Interesting stuff huh? So basically we have replaced the bad habits of drinking and smoking with the habit of gluttony? Interesting thought. So what about the Baptists who eat, drink and smoke? I guess they are up the creek without a paddle!

I always new casseroles were from the Devil, haha, but you honestly can't beat a good fellowship meal after church. Some of my fondest memories from growing up in church were all the great Homecoming Meals at church and getting to eat Geraldine's famous chicken salad. Gosh, that was soo good. But thinking about this, I actually stayed for a meal after church last Sunday and I remember being told, "Alright Chance we are gonna have to see how much you can eat today?" So maybe this article carries some weight afterall.

I guess before long the new fad in churches won't be Family Life Center's but Atkins Approved Fellowship Meals!

Anyways check out the article in Sun-Times by clicking here

So what ya think, have we just replaced drunkeness with gluttony in the church?

Rock and a Hard Place

Have you ever been in between a rock and a hard place, in a situation in which none of your options were good and you felt as if you had to simply choose the lesser of two evils? Abraham was in a similar situation as this one time. Genesis 12:10-20 says that there was a famine in the land of Canaan and Abram was forced to go down to Egypt to look for food. However, before he entered Egypt he told his wife to pretend to be his sister. Abram did this because he was afraid that one of the Egyptians would kill him and then marry Sari, which must have been a culturally acceptable practice 4000 years ago. Next, Abram did something almost unthinkable. When Pharaoh noticed how beautiful Sari was, Abram gave her over to Pharaoh to be his wife in exchange for material goods, sheep, cattle, donkeys, and servants. One of the most horrible things I could ever picture is giving my beloved wife to another man. However, before we are too hard on Abram we must remember that he did not have many options. Either he let his family die of famine in the land of Canaan, or be killed and have his wife stripped away from him anyway. This was the only option, (or so he thought) to keep all of his family alive. However, God did something unexpected. He intervened. The Lord struck Pharaoh with a disease and evidently made him realize that Sari was Abram’s wife not his sister. Pharaoh then made Abram leave the country in shame. However, Abram got Sari back, and escaped with his life. From this I guess we can remember that when we are in between a rock and a hard place, we should remember that God can intervene and give us options we did not realize existed. He can restore what is already broken, and mend mistakes we have made. Let’s remember to be patient and wait for his rescue.

Does God Want You to be Rich?

If you didn't know, TIME Magazine's cover story this week is the above title: Does God Want You to be Rich? I think its a pretty interesting article and the fact that it is getting national publicity from Time may or may not be a good thing. This article relates directly to some of the comments I made on my previous blog on Left Behind. So yall check out the article and let's hear your thoughts on the Prosperity Gospel. I've included a link to a photo essay on God and Dollars from Time as well.

Links:

Time Magazine Article

CNN article on Time Cover Story

Photo Essay: God and Dollars

Calvinism vs. Arminianism Part II: Total Depravity

In the second blog of this series I am going to talk about the doctrine of Total Depravity as Calvinism teaches it and also about free will. In the next blog I will talk about irresistible grace.

Here is a link to the introduction on Calvinism and Arminianism.

A little side note about Calvinist that I picked up as I was studying, was how high they regard the sovereignty of God and Grace. This idea of God’s sovereignty is crucial to them and will pop up a lot in their teachings. The idea of God’s sovereignty almost seems like a lost or ancient idea these days, so I will define it quickly. It basically means that God is God and that He created the heavens and the earth, and that He is in control of all things and can do what He likes.

Total Depravity

Total Depravity is the teaching that every part of man was affected by the fall, his body, mind, heart, emotions and even his free will.

Total Depravity does not mean that man can do nothing good in relation to other humans. It means that if those goods deeds did not proceed from faith, then it is still sin in the sight of God.

"whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." (Romans 14:23)

So Total Depravity is absolute when compared to God, but it is not absolute when compared to other humans. You still following me? It basically means that you can’t comprehend the nature of your depravity by comparing yourself to other people, only when you compare yourself to God do you get a sense of the depth of total depravity. The other four points of Calvinism logically flow from this doctrine, so total depravity will be crucial in understanding, irresistible grace, limited atonement, unconditional election, and the perseverance of the saints.

Because of total depravity, man is not able to freely choose God.

(Note: Just keep in mind that most of this deals with a person before he has been regenerated. So if you are a believer then you can’t think about some of this in your current regenerate state, you have to think about it from an un-regenerated perspective. Because now you have a new nature and can choose good over evil)

Here are some effects of total depravity:

1. Man’s fall from God is total.
There is no one that seeks God, no one that seeks holiness and no one that seeks what is right.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

“for there is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46)

“Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.” (Psalm 143:2)

(Romans 3:9-20; James 2:10-11; 1 John 1:8)

2. Everything man does is sin.
“…everything that does not come from faith is sin.” (Romans 14: 23)

“18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)

John 3:19-21

3. Man’s inability to submit to God is total
“Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8)

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

(John 3: 5-7; Romans 6: 17-18; Ephesians 2: 1-5; Ephesians 4: 17-18; 1 Corinthians 2:14)

Arminianism teaches that man was greatly affected by the fall, but he is not in a total state of helplessness. God enables sinners to repent but does not interfere with their free will. This free will is untouched by the fall and is able to choose good over evil. The person has the power to cooperate with God and be regenerated, or don’t cooperate and perish. So man needs the spirits help to believe but he doesn’t have to be regenerated before he can believe.

In Calvinism, through irresistible grace, the Holy Spirit regenerates you before you can believe. (I’ll get into this in a later blog)

To me it doesn’t make sense why everything would be affected by the fall except your free will. So the next logical step is to take a look at Free Will.

Free Will

Free will is sometimes described as why some people accept Jesus and others don’t. This position is generally taken by the Arminianist. They reject the Calvinist idea that God is completely sovereign over our free will and that He elects and predestines people based purely on His desires. The common defense of the Arminian view is that God looked into the future to see who would pick Him and then predestined them. This seems like an icky position to be in, because it states that God had to look into the future to see what a person’s free will choice would be, basically denying God’s omniscience. God’s view of time is very different than ours; He doesn’t have to look into the future.

A common objection used against Calvinism is that they take away man’s free will and make God the author of evil. Since man cannot freely choose God, God has to predestine or elect some people to believe, and the others will perish.

But this is not the case with Calvinism. Man still has free will, but his free will can’t choose to do good.

Libertarian free will states that an unbeliever is able to will whatever he wants to, independent of his sinful nature. Compatibilist free will states that an unbeliever is only able to do what his sinful nature permits him to do.

The Calvinist sees free will as containing four aspects: conception, desire, choice, and accomplishment.

1. Conception

• We must be able to conceive of an idea before we can desire, choose, and accomplish it.
• But we cannot conceive of something beyond our ability or nature to conceive.
• I can’t conceive of something I can’t conceive of.

2. Desire

• We can only desire what we can conceive.
• I can conceive of becoming a huge bird, so I can also desire it.

3. Choice

• We can only choose what we can desire.
• But we cannot choose beyond or ability or nature to choose.
• I am free to try to attempt to accomplish my desires

4. Accomplish

• We can only accomplish what can be chosen to accomplish.
• This doesn’t mean I can accomplish all my choices.
• I can conceive of becoming a huge bird but I cannot accomplish it because I cannot violate my own nature.

Therefore free will is limited by our nature and what we can conceive of, desire and choose. We are not free to conceive of anything possible, we are not free to desire anything possible since not all things can be conceived of, we are not free to choose what we cannot desire, and we are not free to accomplish that which we cannot desire.

God has free will right? But God is only free to choose what is in accordance with his nature. God has the ability to conceive of lying, but he can’t accomplish it because it would violate his nature.

Calvinist believe that we have free will just like God has free will, but we can’t freely choose to do something that is against our nature. If our nature is totally depraved like Calvinists believe then we cannot choose to accomplish good, because it goes against our nature. So God has to regenerate us first and give us a new nature before we can have faith and believe.

So this is a summary of what the doctrine of total depravity is about. If the doctrine of total depravity as presented by Calvinism is true, then it would seem to me that no one would ever believe in Christ unless God predestines and elects people and overcomes their total depravity with His irresistible grace.

So from what I can gather it seems to hinge on total depravity. Is our free will limited by our sinful nature? Or is our free will fully independent of all things, including the sovereign knowledge and control of God, and equally free to choose between good and evil?

munchies back?

So, it’s been a while, I know. I can only guess the amount of confusion and disappointment yall must have been experiencing with out my contributions to the awesomeness that is http://thecorefoundation.blogspot.com aka, The Foundation. So I’ll think, what topic from my grab bag of assorted things to make people think will I pick. How about this one; living in the world, but not being of the world.

The bible says in at least two places that a person gained favor with God and man, the first is David and then about Jesus after the temple incident when he was 12 (its in Luke, any help with the bible verses would be appreciated). This is a little confusing because Jesus also says that the world will hate you(John 15:21). Somewhere, something has to give. Personally, I kinda want people to like me, even people who aren’t Christians. This might be selfish, but I still want people to like me.

I think the difference comes between the world and people. The world sets standards that are basically evil. The world barrages us with porn even in commercials and we grow so accustomed to things like this that we don’t recognize it as porn. People on the other hand we can respect. People have opinions of their own. That being said, the best way to get people to like you is to just be Christian. Christians should by nature be servants and all around really nice people. Who wouldn’t like someone who respects and actually loves them? In the book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoffer (someone check my spelling) wrote that if we act like Christians, we shouldn’t have to worry about governments persecuting us, because we should be model citizens, only doing good things.

So maybe this muchie is a little shorter, and not quite so much thinking about things as I would have liked, but maybe its enough to make you think and remember, that while we are not of this world, we are in this world, and it is very important to the world, what they world thinks of us. (think on that grammar anomaly)

"Praise the Lord, Pass the Ammo"

Sometimes Christian's bother me. Especially those who try to get rich off of the gospel. Some of you may have read the Left Behind books and I'm sure they may be good, but with the release of a Left Behind video game, were you join in during the epic battle with the AntiChrist, somehow I just can't help but question someone's motives. Even though the concept sounds cool, and actually might make for a fun game, I have a problem when LaHaye and company boast the game as a method to share the gospel and reach the lost. Afterall LaHaye says, "Our real goal is to have no one left behind." So in a game where you are killing those who lack the faith, what gospel are we sharing? Here's a quote from an article on the topic:

Yes, but reach them with what message? Convert or we’ll kill you? The message is more al Qaeda than agape; more Bin Laden than Bible. It makes me wonder if anyone who developed the game has ever actually read the New Testament.


Makes me think. I don't have a problem with the game at all. Actually it seems like it has potential to be fun, but let's not go around trying to market the game in church. This is a concept the creators believe is going to happen. In fact, the CEO of Left Behind Games said, "megachurches are very likely to embrace this game."

How about we let Best Buy do the advertising for the game and let's focus on the real gospel in Church. The last thing we need is more "Christian" junk thrown at us by people trying to get rich by slapping the label "Christian" on their product!


What do yall think about this? Should we be promoting this to share the gospel?



Here's an article which goes into more detail about the game: LINK

Check out the game website here: LINK

Directions to GroupLink Shindig

Here's a link for Yahoo Maps directions to the GroupLink Shindig, starting from the football stadium at GWU. If you are coming from somewhere else you should be able to change your starting location. Shindig starts at 2pm on Saturday 9/2 for those who are interested in small groups.

YAHOO DIRECTIONS

Foundation Calendar

We now have a Google Calendar for The Foundation. This is kinda cool because you can see when the upcoming events are, and if you click the event you can see the time and place. You can also click a button in each event that allows you to get a Map of the location for directions to that event.

Click the Google Calendar button in this blog or on the sidebar of the site to access our calendar.

What's Happening This Week?

HangOUT: Thursday @ 7pm at the Center. The new day and time for the HangOUT is starting. We'll be in the basement as usual. Directions can be found at this link. We had several new folks from GW last week and I'm sure more are on their way. Great having yall and be sure to tell others, because Stephanie Kay from GW is going to be leading the discussion this week so it should be awesome.


GroupLink Shindig: We are having our small group kickoff this Saturday from 2 - 4 pm @ Aaron's house. If you want to be in a small group starting this fall, you need to be at this event. We will be picking days, times, and locations. We have leaders for atleast 3 groups so bring a friend. The party will also include: swimming, watermelon, homemade icecream, and college football on the big screen. Directions to Aaron's will be posted to the blog later this week.


Worship Service: THIS Sunday, 1:30 @ Aldersgate Gym. We have some good things planned for this worship gathering so be sure to invite some friends. Also a group of us will be going out to eat after the service, so if you can hold off for lunch until after the service you can eat with us. Aldersgate is the big methodist church located on 74 between the Ingles on 74 and Taco Bell.


Any questions? Leave a comment or email us at: thecorefoundation@gmail.com

Calvinism vs. Arminianism: Introduction

From the title you can probably guess what this blog is going to be about. I have been studying Calvinism lately and have been struggling with what I think about it. I just always assumed I was an Arminian and haven’t ever really thought about Calvinism or studied it in depth.

As I was studying it, it started to make sense, which kind of turned everything I had always thought upside down. So, as of right now I am still in the middle of it and thought that writing a series of blogs and having other people input their thoughts would maybe help me clear things up and also other people might learn something too.

For this blog I am just going to give some background on the whole Calvinism vs. Arminian debate which will help set up the rest of the blogs and introduce the debate to people who are new to it. I am not an expert on this stuff, so if you find a mistake with the background info just point it out.

I am just gonna present Calvinism and Arminianism here, this doesn’t mean you have to be either of the two; I am just going to present these two. There is also, 4 point Calvinist, hyper-Calvinism, molinist and so on, so you don’t have to be reading this thinking you have to be either one of the two.

Background
Calvinism is sometimes referred to as Reformed theology, and is generally held by Presbyterian and Reformed churches and many Baptists, while Arminianism has been held by the Methodist and also by many Baptists.

The history of the Calvinism vs. Arminian debate goes back along time. It was first formulated in the fifth century by Augustine and Pelagius. Pelagius was upset at the lack of holiness in the church, so he started to preach a Gospel that began with justification by faith alone but finished through human effort and morality. He disagreed with Augustine’s view on salvation, and later Pelagius’ followers took it farther and removed justification by faith alone and adopted a works based salvation that came to be known as Pelagianism. In response to Pelagius, Augustine taught a theology that included original sin, limited atonement, irresistible grace and predestination.

John Calvin adopted, refined, and clarified Augustine’s theological system that later became known as Calvinism.

In Holland in the early 1600’s, Jacob Arminius was brought up and studied under a strict Calvinist. He gradually came to reject certain Calvinist teachings (which was what the majority of people in Holland held) and the controversy spread all over Holland. He drew up a creed titled “The Five Articles of Remonstrance” and presented it to the authorities in Holland. The Calvinist initially responded with the Counter-Remonstrance, but their official response “Synod of Dort” came later and is now known as the Canons of Dort. They state the Five points of Calvinism in response to the Five Articles of Remonstrance. So the Five Points of Calvinism are not necessarily a summary of Calvinism, but a response to the Arminians which chose these five points to disagree with.

These five points came to be summarized by the acronym TULIP.
T – Total Depravity
U – Unconditional Election
L – Limited Atonement
I – Irresistible Grace
P – Perseverance of the Saints

Throughout history many important people have added to both sides of the argument.

Important Calvinist:
John Calvin
Martian Luther
George Whitefield – A Methodist who is known for his debates between fellow Methodist John Wesley who was an Arminian.
The Puritans
Jonathan Edwards – known as one of Americas greatest theologians, started the First Great Awakening
Karl Bath
Charles Spurgeon – Famous British preacher known as the “Prince of Preachers”
Albert Mohler Jr. – Current president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Recent Theologians
D.A. Carson
R.C. Sproul
John Piper

Important Arminians
Jacob Arminius
John Wesley
Hugh Grotius
Stephen Ashby
C.S. Lewis

Sometimes Calvinism I think is looked down on and misunderstood. When people hear it they usually think of predestination or no free will, and think Calvinist are people who don’t believe in missions and all that. But as I started to study it I came to realize it wasn’t like that at all and I started to see it differently. Calvinism has produced some of the greatest theologians and thinkers in Christianity and their theology, from best I can tell, is solid and air tight in how it all fits together, even more so than Arminian theology. I think they differ in how you understand total depravity, if you understand total depravity like the Calvinist do, I think the rest of their teaching makes sense.

In these series of blogs I am gonna go through each of the five points (but not in the same order), and hopefully we can all learn something.

This debate will probably go on for along time, but even if everyone can’t agree on all points I think it is helpful to discuss the different sides and viewpoints. This can help deepen our relationship with God as we try to understand who He is and what He has done for us.

These five points I think are very important because they greatly affect how we view God, man, the atonement, assurance, missions and on and on.

Subscribe to The Foundation Blog

We finally have the email-update feature working for our blog. If you would like to recieve emails whenever the blog is updated, all you have to do is enter your email in the form located on the sidebar under links and click Subscribe Me. This will send you an email of the newest post's text and a direct link to that post on the blog website. Don't Delay Sign Up Today!

Uplifted Snakes?

One of the most intriguing characters in the Gospel of John is Nicodemus. He does not stand in the limelight but rather remains at the back of the stage, only popping up a few times (3:1-21, 7:50-52, 19:39) as John writes about the Messiah. Nicodemus’ story is not a momentous and immediate coming to faith in Christ, but rather a slow and steady process. This process begins in John 3 with Nicodemus pictured as one who comes to Jesus at night when others cannot see him. Furthermore, Nicodemus is shown at first, to be a man who is at best, confused by Jesus’ words and unable to understand about the Kingdom of God.
However, Nicodemus’ story comes to culmination at Jesus’ burial in chapter 19. Even though religious Jews were not supposed to touch dead bodies, (Pharisees indeed would cringe at even the thought of this, and Nicodemus was a Pharisee) with a servant’s heart, Nicodemus takes down the dead body of his Lord and lays it in the grave.
So what causes this change? I believe the starting place may be Jesus’ words in John 3:14-15. John 3:16 usually gets the most attention but the two verses before it are important for Nicodemus. In John 3:14-15 Jesus says that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Since Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he would have had all the Torah, (including the book of Numbers) memorized, and Moses would have been his hero. When Jesus spoke these words, Nicodemus definitely knew what he was talking about. Numbers 21:4-9 tells a story of when the Israelites were wandering into the promised land and complained against Moses and God, saying, “why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert.” Because of their complaining, God sent judgment on them in the form of venomous snakes which entered their camp and bit people. When the people realized that they had sinned they came to Moses and begged him to pray to God on their behalf. The Lord then told Moses to make a snake and put it on a pole, so that a person bitten by a snake may look at it and be healed of the venom. Looking upon this snake, therefore, took away the punishment and judgment from the people.
Back to Nicodemus, I believe that when Jesus initially spoke these words in John 3:14-15 to him, he was puzzled about their meaning. However, when Nicodemus saw the Savior hanging on the cross the words became crystal clear. Just as the carved snake on a pole took away the Israelites’ punishment and judgment, so the Son of Man takes away the sin, punishment, and judgment of not only Israel, but also of anyone in the world who believes in him. After seeing Jesus hanging on the cross, Nicodemus knew that he himself could look upon the Savior and have his venomous sin atoned for, and be released from God’s judgment. Though other Jews may have told him that he was “unclean” because he touched a dead body, I believe Nicodemus may have felt the cleanest he had ever felt as he reverently wrapped Jesus’ body for burial.

Weekly Update

• HangOUT THIS Wednesday 8/23 @ 8:00 at the Center: the basement of the Renfroe Center near Sandy Run. If you need directions, click this link. This will be the last week that we will meet on Wednesday's @ 8. Starting next week (8/30) the new time will be Thursdays @ 7. This is so all of us working people can get to bed a little earlier, or if you're in college, so you can get back to your homework ( haha, yeah right). Confused? Send me an email: thecorefoundation@gmail.com or call 704-472-5576

• Worship Gathering: Sunday Sept. 3rd @ 1:30pm in the Aldersgate Gym. (Aldersgate is the big brick church on 74, at the stoplight between the Ingles on 74 and the Taco Bell.)

• Small Groups are starting this fall. We will be having a Grouplink Shindig on Sept. 2nd which will be a time were we will kick off the small groups, eat some grub, and put people in groups. If you are interested in being in a small group, try to come to this event. If you still want to be in one, or want more information, shoot us an email; thecorefoundation@gmail.com

Until next time, stay classy folks.