God Hides Things For Us, Not From Us

Not the least of my problems is that I can hardly even imagine what kind of an experience a genuine, self-authenticating religious experience would be. Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.-

When People are Big and God is Small is written by Edward T. Welch. Welch is a professor of Practical Theology at Westminister Theological Seminary. In addition to being a professor he also serves as a counselor, a faculty member, and the director of counseling and academic dean at Christian Counseling and Education Foundation. Welch has added his expertise to the field of counseling and theology by contributing to multiple books. Welch’s contributions do not end with books but expands to writing more than ten articles for the Journal of Biblical Counseling and other periodicals. Welch earned a M.Div degree from Biblical Theological Seminary and a PhD in Counseling Psychology (Neuropsychology) from the University of Utah. Drawing from his education and experiences, Welch possesses plenty of reputable credentials to warrant attention and discussion to his book, When People are Big and God is Small.

Do we Love and Listen to God’s Command because we really do love Him or because we fear the consequences?

As Christians we often believe certain things simply because it’s what our parents and the people around us believe. We often go about our Christian walk without ever giving thought or reason to why we believe what we do. The world of Christian Theology is a place where Christians can find answer to the ‘what and why’ of Christianity. If we are able to begin comprehending Christian Theology and the rudimental knowledge of it, then we can take it with us into more in depth books and discussions about theology, know the importance of it and how vital it is for Christians

Some adults may live much of their lives with a literal faith. Stage three is group faith Young people start to value the importance of friendship and often come to view God as one who treats them much like a trusted companion. Stage four is person faith. People strengthen their faith by questioning earlier beliefs. Stage five is mystical faith. At this stage of faith the awareness of God’s inner presence leads one to become more aware that God also dwells in others. Interfaith dialogue now becomes not a threat but an opportunity for new understanding. Stage six is sacrificial faith. Jesus, Dorothy Day, and Archbishop Romero are examples of this sacrificial faith. Such people display radical and consistent commitment to the doing of God’s will that is uncompromised by concern for personal security.

Michael J. Himes, in his book Doing the Truth in Love, describes theology as a way of “talking about God.” Talking about God brings many questions to mind: how do people talk about God when God is a mystery? How do people converse about what they do not know for sure? Many may think theology is inherited and even theologians talk about what they have learned from doctrines and the history they have been taught. Even though theologians know very little about God aside from what they studied, they still know it is important to talk about God. As Himes states, “God is simply too important to us not to talk about.” Although theologians are still figuring out the mysteries of God, they attempt to put forth their opinions and ideas about God in order to inspire people to find their own theology.

Christian cries out for Faithful to stop and wait so they can be companions along their travel, but Faithful replies, "No, I am upon my life, and the avenger of blood is behind me" (60). In the story, the life he is trying to save is his real, tangible life. But his running away from the avenger of blood to save his "life" actually symbolizes saving Faithful's spiritual life. Because he has sinned and broken the Ten Commandment, "You shall not kill," he is now being chased by death and if caught, he will kill Faithful; this death characterizes the death of eternal life and therefore not being able to enter heaven (Deuteronomy 5:17). In the bible there is a passage that talks about the avenger of blood and who is he. "This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having been at enmity with him in time past…he may flee to one of these cities and save his life; lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him" (Deuteronomy 19:4-6). Jesus Christ was born without sin, and never sinned throughout his lifetime. Faithful, however, who although did not try to kill his neighbor, killed him unintentionally and therefore, sinned. Jesus would never have caused pain to any living creatures, neither accidentally nor deliberately. This is one example of how Faithful differs from Christ.

David Engelsma, a strong Calvinist, says of this position and the Calvinists who retreat to mystery “that God is gracious only to some in predestination, but gracious to all in the gospel, and that God wills only some to be saved in predestination but wills all to be saved by the gospel, is flat, irreconcilable contradiction. It is not paradox, but contradiction. I speak reverently: God Himself cannot reconcile these

He specifically advises the reader to learn directly from the church fathers rather than just trusting his explanation. By doing this, Hall allows the reader to individually process the theological issues outlined in the text. The mystery of God is interlaced through the chapters of the text, and through the arguments of the early church fathers as described in the book. Hall uses controversies pertaining to each topic to help readers understand that, even in the church’s early days, there were those who were against Christianity, and there was discord within the

Faith operates in a unique way by providing the average, the noble, or the distasteful with a means to understand the world we inhabit. However, our worldly experiences also operate as a means to understanding the complexities of our faith. For St. Augustine, faith provides more questions than answers, but consequently leads to his life as a bishop and eventually sainthood. For some, however, the Bible provides the answers to all the questions that go unanswered by common sense. In St. Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine is able to further understand himself and his faith in Christ by reflecting on anecdotes of his past. Conversely, the Bible’s use of etiology provides spiritual justification for physical realities.

From Augustine of Hippo to Theodosius Dobzhansky, Christians have a strong intellectual heritage. At one point, we stood on ethical and intellectual high-ground. Unfortunately, throughout recents years, we have stripped the Gospel of much of its power, and without realizing, have fallen into the abyss of today’s naturalistic and empirically subjective society. As Moreland claimed, in this new age society, progress has replaced wisdom. Progress is not measured in a moral or purposeful sense, but in the increase of technology and freedom from natural restraints. It has become assumed that scientific knowledge is the only type of knowledge, or at least the most superior form. According to secular sources, the only knowledge we can have about reality is empirical knowledge gained by the hard sciences.

Humans have a tendency to build a wall of pretense around themselves in an effort to have a social standing among their peers. This wall, however, does not stand up to God. He knows what goes on in the hearts of men. And while to everyone else it may seem as though a person may be leading an honest and faithful life, God can see just how much fruitful that person is. After all, in the end – all the believers will be taken to Heaven while the nonbelievers will wither away – just like the fig

After the fall of man in Genesis 3, God gave his first promise for salvation known as the Protevangelium. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). This prophecy, however, would not be fulfilled until the death and resurrection of Christ thousands of years later. Because of this, people in the Old Testament era had no knowledge of Christ or the gospel, but we assume they were saved by faith. In The Fate of The Heathen, John Gerstner makes several statements in line with this idea. ..What is unfair in God’s damning sinners? If God damned them because they did not believe the gospel, they could legitimately protest that they had no opportunity to believe the

My journey with God started in February of 1993, when I went to a ladies’ conference in Columbus, Texas. It was while the speaker was explaining that she knew there were some of us out in the audience, who felt guilty about something they had done in their past, and they did not feel that God could forgive them for it. But then she quoted from God’s word; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 NASB) The speaker continued on to say that all we need to do is

My mom once told me when I was young and ignorant, “Faith is the foundation of a beautiful friendship with the one person who will always remain by your side”. These words were expressed even more profoundly every Sunday in the echoing corridors of a small church by a priest I had yet to know or even care about. Preaching with his perplexing words in which I could only muster barely a fourth of my full attention span listening to. Thus, the term faith did not exactly resonate with me until many years later. My early years were filled with the teachings of the bible in Sunday school and later on as well in middle school during Friday night sessions. Unfortunately, my mom was an extremely strong enforcer of our faith for she was also raised Catholic from birth, but my dad on the other hand has a more scientific approach to how the world came to be. The years I spent in Sunday school blurred into an everlasting line of bleak nothingness just a ticking clock waiting till an end. Even today I do not remember anything that occurred within those taxing sixty minuets of constant bible studies it’s as though I lost the key to the inner workings of my childhood. Nonetheless, there have always been unbelievably great role models in my faith such as my mom, youth ministers, and friends who encourage me to be open to my faith. However, it’s always been my own restrictions that prevent me from furthering my relationship with God. So when my sister suffered her first severe