Monday, March 23, 2015

The Church




How structured should the church be? I believe that the church should have lots of structure. Having no structure to a church wouldn't even be a church. No structure would make the church very unorganized. Church should require leadership, a pastor, and worship. Even though a church doesn't require a building necessarily, you can have church anywhere. My definition of church is: A group of people that gather together to worship God with a pastor that is guided by God’s Word. The definition of church has nothing to do with the “Building with the cross on it.” 11 When a woman is learning, she should be quiet. She should follow her leaders in every way. 12 I do not let women teach or take authority over a man. They must be quiet. Who should have authority in the church? Who should be in charge? I think a man should be the pastor or the head of the church. Verse 11-12 are saying that a female can’t be a pastor. Can a woman be a pastor or be part of that authoritative structure? I honestly don't think a woman should be the head of a church, but I think a woman can be a part of the authoritative structure but not as a pastor. I haven’t personally been to or have heard of a church with a female pastor but I know my church is the same on this subject. 

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Predestination


Ephesians 1:4 says, "God chose us to belong to Christ before the world was created. He chose us to be holy and without blame in his eyes. He loved us." This passage is saying that God has predestined how our lives, and he has planned how everything is going to happen before any of us were born. The question is: do we have free will to choose to be saved or is that up to God to choose who gets saved and goes to heaven? Ephesians 1:9-10 says, “He showed us the mystery of his plan. It was in keeping with what he wanted to do. It was what he had planned through Christ. It will all come about when history has been completed. God will then bring together all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” One thing that I believe that Calvinists get wrong is that God chooses that path that either you get saved or not. I believe that we have the free will to choose whether to get saved or not. No matter what we choose God already knows what we were going to choose before we do. The whole meaning of predestination is that we choose our path freely, but God already knows what we picked.