Part 1
As a kid growing up in a protestant church, I inevitably was frustrated with anything about God. Definitly not because it was His fault, but the fault of the protestant ideology. I never could get a straight answer for anything. At least an answer that made sense. There always was a severe level of cognitive disonence that went along with all of the supposed answers that I would get. We would listen to the sermons on how evil Catholisism is, and how all of the other churches that don't believe like us are going to the "h" word. And this, right after all the youth teachers said "God is love", and "we must love everyone", and all of the other bi-lines that when I looked at them as a kid just did NOT make sense. And then the biggie..."you better not read anything that we tell you not to or you may be decieved by the devil and go to the "h" word.
Then I sinned...I started to read things that were "logical" and things that made me think. Reading Sherlock Holmes really got me thinking about how he looked at things. He asked questions, that is how he learned "who dunit". He asked many, many questions, and uncovered many, many perverbial rocks. He looked at history, and all of the evidence that he could find from very indepth research of the victim, and the perpatrator of the crime. And at the end of the trail of clues he would end up with finding the person that commited the crime. After reading this heracy of logic, I was off on the hunt to find out what really happened in the bible and what was really God's church.
I had stummbled (The Holy Spirit) onto logic...the handmaiden of truth. Logic can help lead you to truth.
What is logic, and what and why should we care? Here is an exercise in logic
God makes man,
God puts man in charge of the world, even down to naming of the animals
God puts him in charge of Eve, including naming her
Adam sins, Adam is still in charge and now pays the consequences
Sinful Adam has children, but God still puts him in charge and he names them
God makes Noah and puts him in charge of building Gods salvation for man
God makes Abram
Sinful Abram is made into Abraham
God made sinful Abraham into the father of all Jews
God made Moses
Moses was sinful
God makes sinful Moses in charge of Israel
Israel is sinful, but they are still God's people
Sinful Moses is still in charge of Israel
Moses sins and strikes the rock
God still puts Moses in charge
Moses pays the price of sinning, but still is in charge
God makes Joshua, and The judges including Samuel and Sampson, and they all were sinful but still in charge
God made king Saul,
Saul was sinful and still in charge
God made king David, who is the line of Christ himself
King David was sinful but still in charge
God made king Solomon
King Solomon was sinful but still in charge
God made many kings for Israel
The kings of Israel were sinful but they were still in charge
God still made Israel his people
God sends his Son, and names him Jesus the Christ
Jesus chooses Peter as his disciple
Peter is sinful, he is sinful when he was chosen not just when he denies him three times
Peter testifies to Jesus being The Christ, The very Son of God
Jesus names Peter "rock" he does NOT rename anyone else, "You are Peter and apon this rock I will build "my" church".
Jesus gives Peter the keys and puts him in charge, and no one else. And Christ's church is started
Peter denies Jesus three times, Christ does NOT take the keys back
Peter is still in charge
Christ is crusified
Peter is still in charge
By the guidance of the Holy Spirit apostolic succession begun, and The Church begins to grow
The Holy Spirit inspires The Church in all things
Peter and then his apostolic successors are still in charge
The people in The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit in all things, are sinful
The Church is still in charge
The people of The Church continue to be sinful
The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, founded on Peter by Christ Himself,
is still in charge.
Part 2
God makes sense. God has always put humans in charge and he worked through them. If you think about it "logically", then God is giving us the ultimate freedom of choice. With the Jews they had the temple, and when they sinned they could choose to take a sacrifice to the temple and the sin would be forgiven. But, if you notice they could not just sit in their house petting the lamb or calf and say that their intention was good enough. They had to actually go to the temple, THEY had to cut the throat of the animal and then it was then butchered and sacrificed. There was an action....an action on their part....remember the "God working through man", is not an arbitrary act but a gift that can be chosen or disregarded. That is exactly what makes it a gift!
There are those that believe that when Christ came to the earth that his gift was different. His gift was mandatory, to all men for all time. But lets make a distinction:
Mandatory "Gift": Would mean a gift that whether you liked it or not, you have it and it is put "on"you. Not unlike a burden
Christ's Sacrifice: Now Christ's sacrifice is different. The bible states that His sacrifice was not equal to, but The Sacrifice. Just like the one in the temple. Except HIS was for all men not just the circumcised Jew's. But, what people don't like to hear is that just like in the Temple, you must come to God, confess your sins, and ACCEPT the gift of Christ's death. Otherwise, logically speaking, God is forcing us to do something we don't want.
So logicaly speaking, Christ could have sat in heaven and just told us and the universe that He was the sacrifice for our sins. But instead He through his actions, came to earth, took on physical man, and died a horrific and human death. Why would we then logicaly think that we could love God with just our intentions? We must, logicaly take actions as well. Chrsit died for us, and we must ACTUALLY confess our sins and "be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect..."...= ACTIONS
So, logicaly speaking, Christ's gift proves that God gives us everything...but only on our active request AND confessing of our sin. All of which are activated through human action, not human thought...ALONE
