Does God get angry? Or is He just a loving chilled out being in the sky that doesn’t get bothered by anything?

Watch the full sermon called Anger and Action by Mark Driscoll.

Would you worship a God who looked down and saw rape, child molestation, abuse, oppresion, tyranny, tragedy and evil? Would you worship a God who looked at this world and said “I don’t know, it looks fine to me, it doesn’t bother me”?

That would not be a good god, that would not be a loving god, that would not be a just god, that would not be a holy god; that would be Satan. God gets angry, He gets angry at sin.

Mark Driscoll

Time Magazine recently did a feature story on the “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now“.  Among the list which includes recycling, amorality and bio-banks is the almost 500 year old belief system called Calvinism.

It is interesting to see this belief system on the rise (at least according to Time), because the teaching of the most prominent churches today is not usually of a sovereign, all powerful, all knowing God.  Most churches choose to teach a weaker faith where the individual is in control of all aspects of the relationship with the god of his/her choosing. 

From my perspective, the God of the bible, when taught the way the Bible teaches Him is not as popular as the god who looks and acts like Santa Claus.  The God I know is in charge, no matter how bad the situation seems.  He is powerful enough to do anything, knows everything, and is everywhere.  That God is deserving of worship.  That is one of the main ideas behind Calvinism…

Calvinism (sometimes called the Reformed tradition, the Reformed faith, or Reformed theology) is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life that emphasizes the rule of God over all things.^[1] It was developed by several theologians, but it bears the name of the French reformer John Calvin because of his prominent influence on it and because of his role in the confessional and ecclesiastical debates throughout the 16th century.

from Wikipedia

But don’t misunderstand me, I would not say I’m a Calvinist anymore than I would say I’m a Baptist.  I follow Christ and His word, the Bible.  When a belief system teaches something that is Biblical, it is correct, but when it teaches something that is contrary (or extrabiblical) to the teaching of scripture, that belief system has gotten it wrong.  In other words, when men control a belief system, it can often become a religion void of truth and love for Christ, but when men merely interpret the Bible and allow it to be the standard, people meet and grow in love for Jesus.

I think Calvin got it right, becasue I think Calvin understood what the Bible said.  Therefore, I am a Bible believing Christ follower who happens to agree with Calvin’s understanding of some of the biggest theological concepts from the Bible.

Mark Driscoll, of the “new calvinists” mentioned in the Time article has written a couple of blog posts about this topic, I encourage you to check them out, and especially give me your thoughts on His first post.

• Time Magazine Names New Calvinism 3rd Most Powerful Idea
• John Calvin on Theology
• More Thoughts on Time Magazine and New Calvinism

I said something in my last post that needed a little bit more explanation. So instead of reading a small novel about my thoughts, here is a video from Mark Driscoll about this topic.

I’ve been trying to read more lately. But, the problem with most of what I have been reading is that most of it is dry and is not engaging. And it is hard for a dry book to keep my attention when there is so much else out there that is begging for it. This, however, is not the case for Vintage Jesus, by Mark Driscoll. So far it has been a great read; challenging my faith and making me laugh at the same time. I have been reading it for the past few nights and came upon a paragraph that I had to share.

Sadly it is too common for churches not to speak of Jesus, which is a tragedy akin to a wife rarely uttering the name of her own husband.  In our day when there are innumerable contradictory beliefs about who God is, Christians must be clear that their God is Jesus Christ alone so as to communicate the same central truth that scripture does.  No matter how many verses are used, the Bible has not been rightly understood or proclaimed unless Jesus is the central focus and hero.

Mark Driscoll
Vintage Jesus, pp. 66

Exactly. I think that Christians in general and many churches (if not most) have such a low view of Jesus and the gospel that we loose the power of our faith for powerless religion. I wish all Christian leaders had the same attitude that is extolled in this paragraph (and in the book as a whole), about their savior.

I would highly recommend that all Christians read this book, it would give us all a much better understanding of our hero. You can buy a copy of the book at amazon.com.

I can say (being absolutely convinced that it’s true), that Jesus is first in my life and that I desire to know Him more intimately and see people changed by His love. The problem is that my life so often proves me to be a liar (whether I am convinced of it or not). I find that idolatry seems to hide itself very well in my life. And it is always hidden to the degree that I can look at someone else and see their idol, and totally miss the fact that I am worshiping mine at the moment that I spotted theirs.

Mark Driscoll has a story that lends an interesting perspective to our American culture. Watch the video below and, if you can (without proving yourself to be a liar as well), tell me that you are not guilty of idolatry from time to time. I am sure that if you are anything like me, you struggle with this issue a lot. And, if you aren’t like me and you don’t struggle with idolatry at all, let me know your secret (you know, outside of moving into a cave all by myself and drinking well water and eating bugs). I’m sure there is some middle ground, Jesus help me find it.

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