The P---------- Word
Predestination. The word is familiar to many Christians. Even non-christians are familiar with it. Most think unfavorably about it. Some in Christian circles love it. It is their weapon of mass destruction, their badge of righteousness, their elitist means to frown on all the little evangelicals who don't know any better or haven't been enlightened. My own experience with it began in college. I grew up in a church where the word wasn't uttered to my knowledge. I can't remember sermons, lessons, scripture passages ever associated with the concept at all. During my junior year I was invited to a study of the book, Putting the Amazing Back into Grace. While reading it I found myself (maybe for the first time) running to my bible to see if what the writer was saying really was in the bible. I can remember thinking, "Why has no-one brought this up before?" It was the feeling I had growing up about other denominations, "Why are they all bad guys? Are we really the only right ones?"
Then, I went through what some call the Cage Stage. I'm not sure what that means but I think it means that I caged the doctrine. I divorced it from the love of God. Or, I was in a cage, like a raging tiger. Just let me out and I'll tear up the church with this discovery. Either way, I wasn't very nice! It contributed to discord in my extended family, mostly due to how I handled it.
Then, dormancy. I think I was afraid of myself, afraid of the doctrine, afraid of discussing it. I was afraid of discord. At some points I was embarrassed by it, like a friend you are glad you have but don't like to associate with at parties. Then, something arrived in the mail. A letter from my mother containing a baptismal certificate. A baptismal certificate?? For which time? Because I was so insecure of "my salvation" as a kid I was baptized at least on three occasions. I walked the aisle or thought of re-walking it numerous times. But, this certificate was different. It was in the year 1971. I was age one at the time.
As I sat and read the certificate, Fred Edward Games, child of William and Carol Games, Born...was baptized in Lake Milton, Oh. United Presbyterian Church...with elders such and such as witnesses...the tears began to roll. My heart was overwhelmed with the love of God. The love that knew and loved me and set his Church with all her weight after me. I was set apart from birth.
The whole experience began to help me make more and more sense of a doctrine that is more than a doctrine. It is of a God who like a romantic sends love letters, secret admirer letters to his beloved. She doesn't know who they are from but one day when he has proven his love to her and she says yes and they are lying in bed late at night she mentions the letters. It finally comes to light that he, her husband, was the author.
Over the years I've struggled to explain the P------- word to students. The best I can do is to say it is like a drama acted out on stage. What you see on the stage is redemption, the love of God offered to you, calling to come. But, behind the stage is a greater love. One that is doing the dirtywork of your salvation. Not just the event of the cross, but a covenant of love determined before the foundation of the earth that we would be His. Behind the scenes - alot that I don't understand but overwhelms. On the stage - the simple, free offer to come.
Then, I went through what some call the Cage Stage. I'm not sure what that means but I think it means that I caged the doctrine. I divorced it from the love of God. Or, I was in a cage, like a raging tiger. Just let me out and I'll tear up the church with this discovery. Either way, I wasn't very nice! It contributed to discord in my extended family, mostly due to how I handled it.
Then, dormancy. I think I was afraid of myself, afraid of the doctrine, afraid of discussing it. I was afraid of discord. At some points I was embarrassed by it, like a friend you are glad you have but don't like to associate with at parties. Then, something arrived in the mail. A letter from my mother containing a baptismal certificate. A baptismal certificate?? For which time? Because I was so insecure of "my salvation" as a kid I was baptized at least on three occasions. I walked the aisle or thought of re-walking it numerous times. But, this certificate was different. It was in the year 1971. I was age one at the time.
As I sat and read the certificate, Fred Edward Games, child of William and Carol Games, Born...was baptized in Lake Milton, Oh. United Presbyterian Church...with elders such and such as witnesses...the tears began to roll. My heart was overwhelmed with the love of God. The love that knew and loved me and set his Church with all her weight after me. I was set apart from birth.
The whole experience began to help me make more and more sense of a doctrine that is more than a doctrine. It is of a God who like a romantic sends love letters, secret admirer letters to his beloved. She doesn't know who they are from but one day when he has proven his love to her and she says yes and they are lying in bed late at night she mentions the letters. It finally comes to light that he, her husband, was the author.
Over the years I've struggled to explain the P------- word to students. The best I can do is to say it is like a drama acted out on stage. What you see on the stage is redemption, the love of God offered to you, calling to come. But, behind the stage is a greater love. One that is doing the dirtywork of your salvation. Not just the event of the cross, but a covenant of love determined before the foundation of the earth that we would be His. Behind the scenes - alot that I don't understand but overwhelms. On the stage - the simple, free offer to come.