Sin and Free Will

I recently had a conversation regarding the constitution of sin in general, what is sin really? Some hold sin to be the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments, others implement more stringent rules based on Biblical references. I think that it is very simple; sin is disrespecting God or anything that is God’s. We are God’s and have been lent our bodies and spirit. Since we belong to God, being disrespectful to each other constitutes sin. The Ten Commandments outline specific disrespectfulness toward each other (stealing, slandering, coveting, etc…). Before the conversation got too far I thought it important to further investigate sin and its origin. 

The Application of Free Will

The application of free will in the universe by God meant that eventually in the scope of time there would be a decision made to rebuke him. If you give something the opportunity to fail, inevitably it will. Mathematically this is true. Yes, God could have created everything to worship and love him without flaw. He could create a pseudo free will which would give his creations a “free will” but create them without the desire to do so. God does not want control of our actions; he wants us to choose him (truth and righteousness) over sin. The other side of the coin (the devil, Satan, whatever you want to call him) is who to blame for the horrible things done, because he wants you to choose against God, and is fighting to cause us to do these things.  Our entire human existence is the unraveling of nature, morality and righteousness at the expense of free will. When it is over, the lessons learned from this time and the consequences will be known for eternity.

Sin and God’s Will

Sin itself is an outcome from the concept of free will. If you have a decision to choose one thing or the other, in this case it is between God’s will and truth or man’s nature. Sin is the choice of doing man’s will. Most people sound like defiant children when speaking of God and his will. As a parent we know that our children are making mistakes or choosing poor options, and they sit back and tell us that our opinion doesn’t matter or “It’s my life, I’ll do what I want”. Yes, free will gives us this ability. The only thing we can do is watch them go through all of the things that come from these poor decisions.

Some believe that pain and suffering are the direct consequence of sin.  The belief that God punishes us for sinning against him.  Good fortune happens to those who sin, and those who don't.  Pain a suffering happen to those who sin, and those who don't.  If God stepped in on our behalf every time something bad was going to happen, would that be “fair” to the party trying to prove God is wrong?

Pain and suffering on behalf of sin for a human lifetime of 60-100 years is small when considering the implications of this process in the scope of eternity. By this logic 10,000 years from now a person would not remember the individual pain suffered from a moment in time. They will have a “scar” of what happened for eternity though.

Choosing God

I believe that the Bible helps us to know and understand the difference between right and wrong (or righteousness and sinfulness). We were never set up to fail; we as humans chose to fail because we sinned. In the society we live in today, it has become tougher to choose right as time goes on because of the number of people who choose to sin and accept sinful behavior. I do not claim to be above these things and sometimes it seems unfair to have the burden of sinful thoughts on our conscience.

We have become the society we are today because of thousands of years choosing sin little by little.  It is not God that burdens our conscience and tempts us to do these things, and suffering on earth is not a punishment for sinning. It is an earthly death that is the one and only punishment. Pain and suffering is the mechanism used by the other side to put blame on God and separate us from him.  When everything is accomplished we will know the outcome and consequences of sin, and all of creation will learn from what we have endured.

Publication Interview Part 3

I've been out of town this week, so the post is a little delayed.  I intend to write an original post next week and stagger interview posts between.  Question's from the interview start to become more directed at my particular thoughts and beliefs instead of Apologetics, so you will see the scope narrow a bit.

Q:

In saying that, how do you look at the Bible?  Is it a historical piece that no longer has a purpose in modern day society, or is it still relevant to Christianity and for salvation?  In essence, do we still need it?

A:

I believe that the Bible is the most, and possibly the only important and relevant written resource.  It is almost always the “control sample” for belief.  The Bible is timeless in its teachings, and I believe it has been relevant to any society throughout history.  It is the “Owner’s Manual” per say, for living a fulfilling and meaningful life on earth.

It fascinates and amazes me how it is written.  It has the structure and formatting of typical writings, a start page, divisions by book, chapter and verse (although verses were added to help reference), and an end page.  However, the thing that sets it apart from most resources are that the lessons, teachings and topics are layered within, creating a two dimensional reference.  Proper interpretations of these teachings are essential in educating oneself in more advanced topics of spirituality.  Imagine creating a book that covers all areas of science (physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology, microbiology) in one resource, and not having to climb a ladder to read the chapters.

The problem then is the interpretations of teachings because of the complexity of its structure.  We as mankind have an inherent sinful nature or spirit.  Once we have consumed the “baby food”, as an apostle one said, and are ready for more solid food, we tend to be doing it for a specific purpose.  We make assumptions and study to validate a thought or belief that we may have.  Having this tunnel vision can distort the truth and cause divisions of opinion.

One unfortunate problem that we still face today in Christianity is that its global teachings and understandings were based on political interests originally.  The truths that we accept and build upon were interpretations to unify and inspire citizens under a political regime.  It is important to measure what beliefs one has learned with what they find to be true based on biblical references.

Publication Interview Part 2

The first few questions dealt with apologetics, so continuing on with the interview...

Q:

Christian apologetics has begun to be very popular recently.  Briefly describe why you categorize yourself this way as well as what you think it is to be a Christian apologetic.


A:
The simple answer to why I am classified as a Christian Apologetic is because I don’t belong to any particular Christian denomination.  Almost all of my core beliefs are initially based on Christian apologetic techniques.  The reason that apologetics are gaining popularity is mainly because large Christian denominations are using apologetics to defend their position and core beliefs as well.  I have seen many organizations now implementing an apologetics division to explore its effectiveness.


Apologetics are simply a defense of a belief or set of beliefs as it meets opposition.  Christianity is highly scrutinized by science and philosophy from those who do not believe in God, but more effort is spent on defense of interpretations of scripture and beliefs as it pertains to a particular denomination.  In any case it is important to know what you believe and why.


For some of us who have harnessed the power of information and knowledge via electronics, the days of searching tirelessly for resources and accepting truths on the basis of religious credibility are over.  I don’t know how many times I have gone to a leader/teacher of the word of God and asked questions only to get the answer, “You just need to have faith son”.  If that wasn’t good enough I would get an arbitrary explanation, or some rehearsed doctrine with more holes in it than a salt shaker.  I started thinking that either thier interpretation was not entirely correct, or they simply didn’t know the answer.  This was unacceptable in either case.


To use Christian apologetics effectively, a person should go into each topic from a neutral position.  Gather information from several resources, including those who don’t agree at all with your views.  This is the “visual” test, much like checking fruit at a super market.  It is easy to tell right off the bat if the fruit is damaged and needs to be discarded without much investigation.  Others may be removed later when after internal investigation.  Once this has been done the topic becomes at least logically defensible.


I have also found that historical research is very important to the process.  There is always a “control sample” for almost all topics.  If a belief has changed over time, it is important to know when it was changed and why.  By tracing this process a person can understand the stance that others may have, as well as determine if the modifications are justified by logical standards.


In most cases this level of scrutiny is not needed if the intention is to convince a party with no in depth knowledge of a particular topic.  But for most people who are considered to be Christian Apologetics, this is the only way to comfortably accept and identify what it is you believe.

Publication Interview Part 1

Last fall I was asked to interview for a book and give my perspective on Christian apologetics.  The interview was cut short due to personal complications, so I decided to post it here on my blog.  I have decided to break it up into sections, so it begins…

Q:

I will have a few questions about what it means to be a Christian apologetic and what it is that you believe in.  I really want regular people and not scholars or professionals so I can give my readers very accurate portrayals of these views.  Regular people just like them so that they can see what ordinary people in everyday society think about these issues.

This is not at attempt to dissuade you or persuade you into any other form of belief.  This is just an attempt to discuss the beliefs and the ideals that you have.  I will approach this interview from the position of an agnostic (that is someone who does not believe in anything). 

A:

Sounds like fun.   First off I am most certainly a commoner, not a scholar or professional.  So it seems like I can meet your expectations in that area.

I guess I will start with saying that Christian Apologetics is not a religion.  It is a method of defending your beliefs based on logic and scripture.  This is done on a topic by topic basis.  That being said, there is no core belief structure for apologetics.  It is really an art of finding the truth about disputed topics, both religiously and philosophically. 

Here is an example of the principals based on mathematics.

The proposal is that 2+2 = 5.

The arguments are that 2 in this case is not exactly 2.  It is really 2.49, but has been rounded based on the basic rounding down principal.

So, together 2.49 + 2.49 = 4.98.  This value is much closer to 5 then it is to 4.

So, then it is true that 2+2 = 5.

This is most obviously a lie, and if you base all mathematics on this truth it becomes more and more distorted.

2+2+2+2 = 10 instead of 8 and so forth.  You get further and further from the truth the more you build on this lie.

Over time religion can be distorted in this way as well.  People build beliefs based on perhaps distorted truth, and then build more on top of these beliefs.  It’s much like the whispering game played as a child.  The final message is usually not at all what it started as.

Christian apologetics will take a certain belief or topic and logically identify the misconceptions in truth based on logic instead of a “faith” that what they are told is true.

These topics have been done based on scientific theory, like proving that the big bang theory is not logical.  Also, things like statistical probability of prophecy in the Old Testament, meaning what’s the statistical probability of the things that were prophesied about and came true later in history.