Steven Colborne's Blog, page 93

The Pray With Me App

In conversation with my Christian friends, I always try to recommend resources that I believe are helpful and encouraging, and my friends often return the favour and tell me about discoveries that have inspired them and nourished their faith. I was speaking with one such friend yesterday and she enthusiastically recommended an app called ‘Pray With Me’. It sounded interesting and so today I went to the App Store to check it out.

As I was downloading the Pray With Me app I felt a strong wave of God’s presence in my being and sensed the tremendous power of the prayers of those Christians who are members of the app’s community. I felt as though a subtle spirit of anger and fear melted away from my body and suddenly my chest felt light and I experienced a deep feeling of relief and peace. The Holy Spirit touched me and this was before I had even started using the app!

Within a feed (rather like the news feed on Facebook) members of the global community who use the app respond to prayer requests and let you know they are praying for you. I left a prayer request and I had people from Pakistan, Texas, The Philippines, Mexico, and elsewhere praying for me. What an amazing blessing and encouragement! One member left a comment with a prayer that was so powerful and beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes.

The app is great for sharing prayer requests and is also a great way to show love for others by letting them know you’re praying for them. You can follow people and get followed in a way not dissimilar to Twitter. You will need a smartphone in order to download the app which is available in the App Store for free with advertisements or ad-free for a small cost.

To find out more and download the app, go here:

http://praywithme.com/

Please note: There are two apps with the same name in the App Store, one for Muslims and a different one for Christians so make sure you get the right one!

Latria and Dulia

I’m slowly working my way through ’The Institutes of the Christian Religion’ by John Calvin at the moment and am expanding my vocabulary in the process. It’s one of those books where it really helps to have a good dictionary (or a device with access to Google!) to hand.

I came across a couple of terms today that I don’t recall hearing before and which I think may be useful to those seeking to understand the way worship operates in the Roman Catholic Church. The terms are latria (pronounced ‘luh-trahy-uh’) and dulia (pronounced ‘doo-lahy-uh’). Latria is adoration due to God alone and dulia is veneration due to those worthy of honour as creatures. The Greek latreia means service or worship and douleia is Greek for servitude.

The distinction between latria and dulia provokes an important question: Is it right to give veneration and honour to creatures? Certainly in Roman Catholicism, veneration is given to certain saints and angels, and Catholics would describe this as dulia. To further complicate matters there is the term ‘hyperdulia’ which refers specifically to adoration of the Virgin Mary.

Most Protestants would only recognise latria as true worship and would argue from Scripture that giving veneration to anyone or anything other than God alone is blasphemous. So I guess it boils down to that all-important question that all Christians must consider – is your ultimate authority in matters of faith the Bible or the teachings of the Catholic Church?

Thank You and Merry Christmas

It has been wonderful to share with you all in the study of theology and philosophy this year. 2016 brought many more visitors to the blog than in previous years and I’m grateful for every view, comment, like, and email I have received this year. Thank you!

I’ve got a big pile of reading to get stuck into in the new year, so there should be plenty of food for thought to stimulate my blogging in 2017. I am looking forward to starting a YouTube channel (this is one of my new year’s resolutions) which will be another way of discussing some of the issues that arise as I continue to grow in my walk with God. More news on that soon.

While Christmas can be a difficult time for many, I hope you will find joy and peace in Jesus Christ and in your relationship with God this Christmas. Please keep me in your prayers as we move into the new year and you are always welcome to email me any prayer requests via the contact page.

Whatever your beliefs, and whether you are new to this blog or a regular visitor, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and blessed 2017.

Thank you Jesus and Glory to God in highest heaven!

Love from Steven x

Jesus the Creator?

One of the main purposes of this blog is for me to describe and discuss some of the commonly held Christian beliefs that I find difficult to understand. One idea that I’ve been wrestling with recently is the co-eternality of the three persons of the Trinity. In this brief post I will try to describe what confuses me about this concept with reference to the Christian scriptures.

The idea that anything has existed eternally really is mind boggling. But as I contemplate the oneness of God from a panentheistic perspective (that being the belief that everything exists ‘in God’) I can almost make sense of the idea. I am much more comfortable with the idea that one thing has always existed than that multiple things have always existed.

But Christian apologists often argue that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have existed eternally along with God the Father. This seems to indicate that Jesus, the God-man who walked the earth two thousand years ago, is somehow uncreated. This is a difficult idea to understand so let’s look at a few of the key scriptures that give Christians confidence in Jesus’ eternal nature.

John quotes Jesus as saying,

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (John 17:5)

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth, explains,

yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. (1 Corinthians 8:6)

And in his letter to the Colossians, Paul further elaborates,

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)

I think that when we consider the above scriptures there is an important point that needs to be made. To say Jesus existed eternally is different from saying Jesus existed before the world began. It could be the case, for instance, that God has created other worlds and other universes before the one in which we live, when there may have been no human beings and no Jesus Christ. Let us not forget that eternity is a very, very, long time, and it’s quite possible that the revelation we have received in the Bible is for our world, and not every world and every creation that God has ever brought forth.

Perhaps Jesus was created before the world, and everything was indeed created through Him as the above scriptures suggest. I realise that this idea conflicts somewhat with the concept of an uncreated eternal Trinity, but as I have already mentioned, I find it much easier to believe that God existed as One before He existed as three persons. I realise that this is to say that Jesus was created before He became creator of our present world.

When I think about the idea of Jesus existing eternally the picture I have in my mind is of a human being existing eternally. But before the Incarnation, did Jesus exist in some other form? Was Jesus a spiritual entity not having a human form (e.g. the ‘word’ or ‘logos’ of John 1) and if so how are we to understand Jesus’ form at that time? I’m not sure the Bible tells us the answer to this question, but perhaps I am mistaken.

The intention of this post is merely to open up a discussion around the common Christian claim that Jesus has existed for as long as God the Father. So however you understand this concept, feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.

The Last Reformation

In our age of increasingly popular social media it’s not uncommon to come across videos that claim they are changing the world. I stumbled upon one such video on YouTube recently and was intrigued by the title of the film, ‘The Last Reformation’.

I have recently been reading about the 16th century Protestant Reformation that was so significant in the history of Christianity which is partly why the title of this film intrigued me. But the title of the movie is speaking of a present day Reformation, with the people behind the film arguing for a return to the kind of Christianity we see in the Book of Acts.

This film is amazing and has really rocked my world, and I’m pretty sure it will rock yours too if you give it a chance. The film demonstrates the amazing supernatural power of the name of Jesus and depicts a truly wonderful movement of God. Expect to see supernatural healing, the casting out of demons, baptisms in abundance, and the Holy Spirit moving in other miraculous ways.

I was overwhelmed by the move of God depicted in this film and it touched me, inspired me, and unsettled me. The film raised difficult questions in my mind, and caused me to question why I am not taking to the streets with the gospel and asking God to use me to bring about the deliverance of many souls. It has really focused my mind on the importance of living the gospel, and not just learning about it in an academic way (though I maintain this is important too).

After watching The Last Reformation I ordered a load of DVDs of the film, which I plan to give away. If you would like a copy, please contact me. Alternatively, I have embedded the movie below. Please leave your thoughts in the comments and if you feel challenged by the film rest assured you are not alone. Let’s talk about it. God bless.

The Authority of Scripture

The question of authority in matters of faith is important for any believer in God to consider. How can we know with any degree of certainty what God expects of us?

Within Christianity specifically, we have to consider whether the Bible is infallible and inerrant and should be considered the sole rule of faith for the church, as many evangelicals believe. A contrary position would be that God has given authority in spiritual matters to human beings (the Pope being the obvious example). I’m currently reading Scripture Alone by James White, and was struck by a quote that I believe encapsulates the predicament very well:

“…without the highest view of Scripture, we can never claim to have heard God with certainty, and hence we cannot teach and preach with any more authority than that which we can create for ourselves.” (p 68)

While I’m inclined to agree with this quote I think it raises questions as to the way in which God communicates with human beings through Scripture. For instance, what about the issue of interpretation? Isn’t the one who interprets Scripture by that very activity becoming an authority in respect of what that Scripture says?

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It is an undeniable truth that among Christians who share a high view of Scripture there are contradictions in their views on doctrinal issues. Can it ever be the case that one particular reading of Scripture reflects what is absolutely true? Are some readings right and some wrong, or are different perspectives equally valid? How are we to know?

Whenever we read anything (Scripture or not) God is working in our bodies and minds to bring about understanding. The words we read are merely markings on a page; there is no inherent meaning in these symbols, as if somehow the markings contained ideas within their ink, or could interpret themselves. No, understanding is a work of God who uses His infinite knowledge to illumine our finite minds as we read. I believe this work of God is not solely limited to people of a particular faith or to a particular activity – God as ‘cosmic animator’ is at work in every human being and all His creatures, directing the activity of our minds and all our thoughts, words, and deeds, as we go about our daily lives.

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I would not deny, however, that God might use Scripture to speak to a specific group of human beings in a unique way; a way that brings spiritual knowledge and understanding in a manner that we might distinguish from the way God works in the mind of someone who is reading a secular novel, for instance. Christians talk of having a ‘personal relationship’ with God, and I believe there is a kind of closeness with God, a dialogue and an intimacy, that I have as a believer but that I never had before I became a Christian.

So while I believe it makes sense to accept the authority of Scripture within the Christian faith, we should not neglect to think about the deep issues of how meaning and interpretation work on an epistemological level. The power of the gospel is not so much in the words on the page but in God (or the Holy Spirit) bringing understanding from the domain of the infinite to our finite minds as we read.

Does God Have Foreknowledge?

The problem with claiming God has ‘foreknowledge’ is that it implies all future events are already determined. This would only be the case in a kind of clockwork universe where cause leads to effect and nothing can change the wheels that have been set in motion, presumably in the first moment of creation, as those who believe in a ‘big bang’ theory might suppose.

But does it make sense to suggest that God waved a magic wand, said ‘Go!’ and then reclined back on His cloud in heaven to observe the universe unfolding for all eternity? Of course not. God is not just the creator but the sustainer and animator of all things. He is working in this very moment to carry out His will, and the future, although it may be planned by God, is not certain until He brings it about. God is living and He is everywhere in this single eternal moment – He is all that there is and all of existence is contained within His being.

In any moment God can choose to unfold the next chapter of the story as He chooses and according to the infinite possibilities available to Him. To deny this would be to limit His power, and I believe He is omnipotent. Those who believe in a clockwork universe must either deny God altogether, or if they do believe in God, I would ask them to explain who or what God is, where He is, and what He is doing right now.

What is God doing right now? Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.

God’s Omnipresence and the Incarnation

I often hear Christians speaking of what a miraculous and wonderful thing it is that God chose to enter into His own creation in the person of Jesus Christ in the event known as the Incarnation.

The problem with this notion is that it implies that God is normally somehow separated from creation. How can this be? The God I believe in is omnipresent and pervades and sustains the whole of creation. The universe and everything in it is part of His being.

Isn’t it God who grows the trees and flowers, moves the planets by His power, and grows the hair on our heads? How could He do these things if He isn’t present everywhere all of the time?

I cannot conceive of a God who is somehow separate from certain parts of existence as this would imply a limit to His power and to the very things, ontologically speaking, that make Him God. I feel uncomfortable with the idea that before and after the Incarnation God is somehow existing in a place outside of the world in which we live.

Surely, as believers, we know intuitively that God is everywhere. If, for instance, I pray to God asking Him to plant me in a great church, isn’t the implication that He is in control of my actions?

God is the cosmic animator, and I find it illogical to say He entered into creation at a specific moment in history when all of creation is part of Him.

My Guilty Americano

As a Christian and a person who believes it’s right to try to live in pursuit of holiness and to practise godliness wherever possible, I sometimes find myself experiencing moral dilemmas concerning how to act appropriately in certain situations.

I believe that telling the truth is very important. Sometimes it can be tempting to tell a white lie. When I’m shopping in my local supermarket and the cashier asks me “is it your day off today?” part of me wants to simply reply “yes” and pick up my shopping and be on my way. But I don’t want to lie. The truth is I’m out of work due to health issues and to be true to myself I feel I need to explain this, even in a brief conversation with someone I don’t know.

Why does it matter? Well, in my experience, even little white lies come back to haunt us. What happens when I see the cashier again the following week and she starts to open up a conversation by asking “so, what do you do for a living?”. Either I tell another lie and get myself into deeper trouble, or I have to explain that I was lying the week before. The situation becomes complicated. It’s so much better just to be honest with everyone from the outset and to keep a clear conscience. Speaking the truth means peace of mind.

I do sometimes slip up, and I think sometimes God tests me by putting me in situations where my conscience is tested. The other day I was in a coffee shop ordering an Americano, and as a regular customer I know the price is always £2.55. I saw the price come up on the till as £2.20, and so I figured the barista had made a mistake. I decided to be honest and mentioned that it’s normally £2.55, but he said he realised that but felt like doing me a favour.

For a moment I thought this was a friendly gesture from a barista who I see often and who knows my order. But immediately after I accepted the discount I felt a sense of guilt consume me. All of a sudden I was in two minds – do I go back and pay the difference and explain that it feels morally wrong to take the discount? Or do I accept that the discount was the barista’s responsibility and go happily on my way?

The guy was trying to do me a favour, but by breaking the rules he was causing trouble for me (by testing my conscience) and for himself. What if his manager found out he was discounting certain people’s coffee on a whim? How would the person next in line to me feel about this partiality? What happens the next time I go in for a coffee and he serves me – will he feel obliged to offer the discount every time?

I feel I shouldn’t have accepted the discount, but it all happened so quickly. I feel like I need to be more on my guard in order to keep a clear conscience and know the difference between right and wrong in everyday circumstances and situations.

For some people, telling white lies is an everyday thing, and I don’t know how they live with themselves. For instance, yesterday I was in a pub and there was a man sitting alone near me having a few pints. His phone rang and I heard him explaining to the caller that he was in a meeting. I don’t think I could tell a lie like that in good conscience.

I think that when we tell the truth, good things happen. When I am open with people about my mental health problems it allows for a deeper level of understanding and intimacy with people than if I were to hide the truth or tell a lie. Being honest and vulnerable also has the effect of tackling stigma, as people realise it’s possible for someone to have a mental illness and still be friendly, mature, warm, and intelligent.

Some may argue that accepting a 35 pence discount on my Americano is no big deal. Perhaps it isn’t a big deal, but I am determined to live with a clear conscience and to do all I can to be honest, for my own peace of mind and to ensure I am doing my best to love my neighbour as myself, as Jesus instructed. The next time someone tries to do me a favour in an underhand way, I pray I will act with conscience and do that right thing, not the easy thing.

What is the Holy Spirit?

Christians believe in one God in three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Having watched a few debates between Christians and Muslims about the Trinity, I’m aware that it’s a concept that can at times be confusing. For instance, while Jesus walked the earth He prayed to God the Father. But if Jesus is fully God (as in the Chalcedonian Creed), is there a sense in which He was praying to Himself? Also, did Jesus maintain attributes we normally associate with God (such as omnipotence and omniscience) during His earthly life?

As well as attempting to define the role of Jesus within the Trinity, the ecumenical councils in Christian history have also tried to define the Holy Spirit. In this article I would like to look at Scripture and make a few points and raise a few questions about what the Holy Spirit is and how it operates.

Well, I’ve barely begun and already we have a problem. I just described the Holy Spirit as ‘it’. Christians believe the Spirit is a person and would normally refer to it as ‘He’. There are many scriptures that support the idea that the Spirit is an agent with His own volition. Here are a couple of examples:

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. (John 15:26 ESV)

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:13 ESV)

These scriptures show Jesus talking to His disciples about the Holy Spirit and it is clear from what Jesus says that the Spirit can bear witness, guide them, speak, and declare; all activities that we would associate with personal agency. The above scriptures are from the New Testament, but references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament are numerous as well. For example:

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2 ESV)

Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6 ESV)

In John 14:26 (in the New Testament) the Holy Spirit is referred to as the “comforter” (or “advocate” or “helper” depending on the translation) which clearly distinguishes Him as a person in contrast to any concept of the Spirit as an impersonal force.

So if the Spirit is a person, like God the Father and God the Son, does it makes sense to pray to Him? Well, I can find little evidence of prayer directly to the Holy Spirit in the Bible. Instead, we are told to pray in the Spirit (see Ephesians 6:18). But there is some confusion about this among Christians. I have often heard Christians praying the phrase “Come, Holy Spirit”, which I suppose is a prayer to Him. In my experience, when praying or worshiping with a group of believers, there can be a real sense of the presence of God which we might also describe as the presence of the Holy Spirit.

So we could say that the Holy Spirit is a feeling of the presence of God during prayer and worship. Christians also ask for the assistance of the Spirit when studying the Bible. This implies that the Spirit is directly linked to our minds and has the power to speak to us and give us knowledge and understanding. It could perhaps be said that the Spirit is God’s way of communicating with us – the link between God the Father in heaven and the human mind here on Earth.

Perhaps the most well-known incidence in the Bible of the Holy Spirit working is on the Day of Pentecost; a historical event still celebrated by Christians today. We find in Acts 2 the following passage:

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4 NKJV)

We see from this passage that an aspect of the Holy Spirit is that it can imbue certain supernatural powers into believers; in this case speaking in tongues. In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul explains the role of the Holy Spirit in more depth and describes the different gifts that believers can expect to receive from Him:

Brothers and sisters, I want you to know about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You know that at one time you were unbelievers. You were somehow drawn away to worship statues of gods that couldn’t even speak. So I want you to know that no one who is speaking with the help of God’s Spirit says, “May Jesus be cursed.” And without the help of the Holy Spirit no one can say, “Jesus is Lord.”

There are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given to believers by the same Spirit. There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people.

The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge. To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. To others he gives the power to do miracles. To others he gives the ability to prophesy. To others he gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others he gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others he gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages. All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides. (1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 NIV)

One of the most well-known scriptures that references the Holy Spirit is Matthew 3:16, where Jesus is being baptised. The scripture describes Jesus coming out of the water and the Spirit of God “descending like a dove and alighting on Him”. This is a very visual description of the Spirit but it is clearly a metaphor so shouldn’t be taken too literally. Nevertheless we see here another insight into how the person of the Holy Spirit acts.

Despite what has been explored in this article, there remains a mysterious element to the Holy Spirit, for me at least. When I am reading a novel, or a book about history, and I receive understanding – is that the Holy Spirit working in me? Does the Holy Spirit leave me when I am not engaged in prayer or Bible reading or other spiritual activities? Does the Spirit come and go, and is the Spirit absent from all non-Christians? What is the substance or essence of the Spirit, and is that linked with thoughts and feelings?

I suppose I think of God as a spiritual being, meaning that His essence is spirit rather than anything physical. I also believe God is omnipresent, which means His spirit (or He as Spirit) is everywhere without exception in existence. One scripture that supports this idea is Acts 17:28, which says “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being”. It seems to me that this scripture only makes sense if God is a spiritual being. But it does beg the question – how might we describe God the Father ontologically as distinct from God the Holy Spirit?

Hopefully I have touched upon some of the most important aspects of the Holy Spirit as revealed in Scripture in this article (which is by no means exhaustive). In any case, it seems that there are some questions about the nature of the Holy Spirit that Scripture does not answer explicitly. But then maybe God is happy for there to be an element of mystery in relation to this subject. Like so many of God’s mysteries, it may be a subject that only fully makes sense when we have passed on from our earthly existence.

How would you define the Holy Spirit? Feel free to leave a comment below.