Atonement is the Wisdom of God

Jesus Christ is full expression of wisdom in a person. Proverbs 8 gives witness to the eternity of wisdom--it is inseparable from the nature of God. Creation and the Atonement are two examples of things which can be credited to only God. Explaining creation as a mysterious big bang, or "Mother Nature", or "Science" is an idolatrous doctrine. Likewise, giving mankind the final word on our atonement is an idolatrous doctrine.

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Is 42:8


The properties of mass and energy as well as the entire book of nature represent the most widely recognized standard for wisdom. In fact, we judge the conclusions of a scientist by how well the agree with the observed laws of nature. To ignore the source of wisdom in nature is ignoring the basis of man's wisdom in understanding nature.


The biblical doctrine of Atonement is not only a glorious expression of the wisdom of God, it is the ultimate standard of Love. False doctrines about the Atonement, dilute the expression of Love which rightly belong to God. It is not wise to allow the perfect sacrifice of Christ be corrupted by the failings of man, and it's not Love if it ends in eternal separation. Rom 8:38-39

I Praise God

What is the most inherent, essential belief you have?  God is alive and righteous.  How can my existence be possible?  God is eternal and wise.  My Heavenly Father is inherently worthy of my praise.  This is the basis of my understanding of this world and for that I have no apology.

God created the universe and life for his pleasure.  Our senses and the physical mediums whereby we experience and learn were given to us.  I will honor the Creator by giving Him the credit for that gift. The Holy Spirit has given me spiritual life, allowing me to praise a spiritual God with carnal lips and a mortal tongue. So I will.  The beauty of music and the joy of singing are gifts with which we are commanded to praise our Lord and admonish our brethren.  So I will.  I will sing the virtue of the Lord, because He has done all things well.

Jesus lived humbly. He was poor by worldly standards, yet he gave his life serving the poor, healing the sick, and speaking truth to all. Jesus wept.  Jesus was reviled and forsaken.  Jesus suffered.  Should we expect better from this temporary, mortal frame?  The cross represents shame and sufferings.  To fulfill our duty to Christ, we must despise the applause, own the reproach, and bless the Lord now, with our life.  Christ Jesus, of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.  He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.  Christ is the first-fruit of the resurrection.  He shall return and collect our bodies--His purchased possession.

The Bible is not the reason I believe, but it testifies of the reason.  The Bible is an inspired witness to the dealings of God with men.  A revelation in our language of His truth and will.  We should value it.  It is no wonder it is despised by the vast majority of those considered wise in this world (that no flesh should glory in God's presence).  The simplicity of the Truth is a stumbling block to the religiously wise and foolishness to the secularly wise.  But to the called it is Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The Whole Law

While feeling the pressures of the world, I am conscious of my inadequacy.  It is expected to strive to impress with our achievements and skills and be judged by them, especially now that I am looking for a job.  But our God walked the earth and gave us the qualities that he blesses, and we should focus on pleasing Him; even embracing the reproach.  Blessed are the meek, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the merciful.  We should seek the Kingdom of God first, understand that the righteousness after which we hunger is the relationship with our Saviour that God has blessed us to have.  Loving God and our neighbors is the whole law and has nothing to do with our intelligence, physical strength and looks, musical ability, or level of education.

Doctrine Aids Worship

Doctrine shouldn't be a dry topic accessible to only intellectuals or lawyers.  If I ever begin to read some technical treatise on a biblical subject, I am immediately turned off.  But when Truth hits home (the heart), it moves the soul to genuinely praise God and gives so much stronger a faith than blind subscription to dogma.  Truth is that Atonement is 100% about God: his love and purpose for us, his sacrifice, and his justification of us.  Doctrine is important because it allows to grasp more Truth, and Truth makes us free and leads us to worship God.  Worshipping God is the summation of our duty.  Nothing is more uplifting or fulfilling than dwelling in the presence of God.

Optimism Is Vital

I read that millennials are characteristically optimistic and it made me reflect on scripture.  Christ said, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."  All optimism is based on faith, and if that faith rests on our Lord, that optimism will be unshakable.  I wish to remind my brethren that God has promised goodness to us not only in eternity but also now. Urge to understand better the Word and treasure it for the gift it is and have faith that it will lead us closer to our God which will be our highest fulfillment.

Worship

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Ps 139:14

What is it to worship God? David gives here two reasons to praise God: we were made to fear and wonder at the marvellous hand of God. Another psalmist says: God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all that are about him. Ps 89:7.  Praise and reverence must accompany worship. I am ashamed to confess that I can't tell you the last time I have had an appropriate amount of reverence when in the house of God. Christ said, "If you love me, keep my commandments".  There is no way we can begin to fulfill our duty and obligation to our Creator, if we are unfamiliar with his Law and Instruction.

The first of the Ten Commandments is to have no other gods before the LORD. The second is to not make any graven image to serve or bow down unto. For God is jealous, we must serve God alone. How serious was he? Read for yourself the entire volume of inspiration. God will share his glory with no one. "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed". Ex 22:20. Israel was destroyed only when idols were mixed with the service of God. Israel was commanded to drive out the inhabitants of the land that God gave them and "Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to thee". Ex 23:32-33. The Church of the New Testament is likewise commanded to be separate from the world, not to compromise with and tolerate the frivolities and amusements that the flesh seeks; because serving the flesh is a snare. How different is that to the wisdom of man?

If I can make no other point, I want to highlight that there is no other priest in the New Testament than Jesus Christ.  A priest is one to bears the transgressions and petitions of the people before God; he performs the sacrifice. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: who gave himself to be a ransom for all, to be testified in due time". I Ti 2:5  Paul said he was an apostle to teach about Jesus and point children to the one and only Way to God. "Christ being come an high priest of good things to come...by his own blood he entered in once to the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us...but now once in the end of the world hath he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Heb 9:11-26.

At its core, Idolatry is the love of self and human invention: "Look what we have made".  "If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it". Ex 20:25. The tabernacle where God dwelt with Israel was built with very precise direction, after the pattern shown to Moses in the mount. No deviation from strict obedience can be considered proper worship. God struck down priests who did their own thing in God's tabernacle. God has declared man's righteousnesses as filthy rags, and will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent". Isa 64:6, I Cor 1:19.

That being said, below is a list of habits and doctrines that I believe are idolatrous and therefore shall endeavor to oppose and avoid:
Missing Church meeting for games/ amusement,
Mixing worship with games and amusement at Church,
The doctrine of Free-will, (e.g. the individual is the judge of Christ's sacrifice)
The doctrine of Armianism/Synergism, (e.g. Christ's sacrifice is perfected/applied by our work)
Papacy (e.g. A network of priests are a mediator between the individual and God)
Sacred Images
Seminaries (because it qualifies the ministry with human instrumentation and worldly wisdom)

I am carnal, sold under sin.  My flesh is constantly seeking glory and leading me astray even down paths of idolatry daily. Seeing we have these sinful tendencies in our flesh, the Church should therefore be the more adamant to stick to the simple instruction of the Word, and maintain strict separation from the world in order to be a place for worship to the most holy God

Evolution or Idolatry?

The expanding theory of evolution has pervaded our science and thought deeply, but it expressly and directly denies God his glory and contradicts Truth.

Scientific evolution is observable and quite easily proven.  It attributes great wisdom to the God who created living organisms and systems.  But the philosophical extension of evolution goes far beyond our observation and is supposed to be a viable explanation of our being.  Faith in the eternal, unchanging, power of God should never be compromised or undermined in the spiritual, mental, or physical realm by the ever evolving sophistry of worldly reason.  God is sovereign in the hearts of his people, and in the physical laws of HIS universe.

One thing I wish to stress is that our faith in God does not rest in our logic or reason.  By faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God (Heb 11:3).  There is no way we can see, with our eyes or scientific proof, how the worlds were framed.  The difference between our faith in God, and the insistence of secular thinkers to explain origins naturally, is an a priori difference.  Acknowledging God requires a conscious decision because the facts won't lead you there; the facts are interpreted based on the foundation of faith.

I have faith in God intrinsically.  It is written deep within my being so that I cannot begin to interpret my observations or trust nature's laws without nature's God being the foundation and first cause.  He alone is self-existent, eternal, immutable, and all-wise.  I believe main-stream "science" is absent that foundation and rests on arbitrary assumptions such as: we can trust our senses, natural law is constant and dependable, and human reasoning can lead to truth, to name three.  Yet while maintaining assumptions that make science possible, they deny revelation from the Holy One who makes those assumptions reasonable.

Therefore I believe main-stream science, insofar as it places human reason as more important than Divine revelation is idolatrous.  I want nothing of it.  I had much prefer lean on the sublime gift we have of inspiration in the Bible to guide my interpretations of nature.  It does not at all limit our ability to understand nature, but it allows the truth of nature to reflect so brightly on her Creator that I rejoice to see my God when his wisdom is displayed in nature. I further believe it is a mistake to ignore the timelines given in the Bible from creation to Christ in order to harmonize the Bible with the contradicting assumptions of Evolution.  I believe God is wiser than we are and that He did not use an extended "natural" process to form the universe contrary to the plain statements of Genesis.  God is supernatural. He said he spoke the earth into existence so I believe it.  He said he breathed life into man so I believe it.  He said that he was God in human flesh so I believe it.  He said that he would rise after being in the grave and I believe he is alive.  If we believe God works supernaturally according to so many statements, we don't need a natural explanation of creation that denies his supernatural account in Genesis.  Of course Genesis isn't a scientific account, but let's not pretend that creation was anything but supernatural. 

I understand that I cannot create faith in God, nor convince unbelievers to trust the Bible.  But I wish to encourage the faithful to trust the Bible instead of judging it by the arbitrary theories of the world.  I wish to reinforce the belief that creation was a miraculous work of God's power, and identifying theories that contradict the Bible as God-dishonoring.  Evolution (the extended, beyond-observation, theory) is idolotrous and is despised by God as is every false god in history.  I believe the Word of God and we can by obedience to that faith draw closer to our Savior. Let's love one another and never be ashamed to stand in the Word.  When the world hates us for it, remember that it hated Jesus first, and rejoice if ever we suffer any reproach for Christ's sake.