Salvogesis

Doctrine 5:  We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall , all men have become sinners , totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God. …and/but… Doctrine 6:  We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will, may be saved.   Doctrine 5 has been referred to as the doctrine of Original Sin (or more precisely ‘originating sin’) and that concept goes back at least to Irenaeus and Augustine. Doctrines 5 & 6 are how TSA explains corporate (as opposed to individual) Salvation; Corporate Salvation is like getting back to the Garden of Eden – what life was like before the Fall.   This is the garden. Reading from Genesis 2:15-18: 15  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and ...

You need to read  Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée Ilibagiza. You really do. This is an amazing book that speaks about the power forgiveness. The author lost most of her family in the Rwandan Genocide and she only survived by being hidden in a secret bathroom with a number of other ladies - the space was too small for all of them to stand at once: she was in that room for months without much food at all and when she was released she found out that her parents and her two brothers were murdered by machete. This is a lady who has experienced the power of forgiving. The media and government of Rwanda was encouraging Hutus in their country to hunt down and kill Tutsis. There was one part in this book that my mind has not been able to forget. Immaculée tells of some of the Hutus who risked their own lives to save specific Tutsis from Hutu killers. She mentioned (with at least two specific examples) Hutus who would risk their lives to hide a speci...

My teenagers have become big 80s Rock fans. They know more about 80s Rock and 80s Rockers than I ever did - and I lived through the 80s! Sammy Hagar, before he joined Van Halen, of course, had his big solo hit, I Can't Drive 55 . My mind often plays this song and Golden Earring's Radar Love as I drive the highways here. We have recently moved to the Island from Toronto. Driving the highway is quite different. The speed limit might be the same in some places but there are many times in Toronto where it wouldn't matter if the speed limit was 100 km/h or 200 km/h, because of the traffic you aren't travelling quicker than 5 km/h or 10 km/h. It can be really frustrating when you are stuck in traffic and going nowhere fast and it is great when you can travel unimpeded on nice stretches of road. The other day as I was cruising down the Island Highway I was thinking of how this relates to our walk with Jesus. Our life is like a trip down the highway. Everyone travels a high...

One day at the McDonald farm there is a rumbling in the air; something is a foot. In the chicken coop something isn’t just quite right. The old farmer walks all around the chicken wire fence. It seems to be in tact. The barbed wire along the perimeter looks undisturbed. Everything looks fine as he locks up the hens for the night. But inside the henhouse on the top rung, something is stirring…it is Henrietta the poultry hen. Now, as soon as Farmer McDonald closes the door to the coop, Henrietta the hen, speaks up: “It’s time.” Quickly Henrietta, Polly, Mick, and all the chickens on the top rung run to the southeast corner of the coop. They peck and they peck the ground in the corner like never before. Last night they had almost made it. Tonight would be the night. Finally – breakthrough! Henrietta and the other chickens are free. They are free from the farmer’s coop. They are free from the barbed wire and the chicken wire; they are free from the tedious ritual and routine. They a...

Peter, who is not only a good synagogue-going person but also a devout follower of Jesus, has a dream. One day he dreams of all these foods he is not supposed to eat - now I am not talking about chocolate or cake or things that were bad for his diet. I am talking about things that in his day good people who followed God wouldn't touch because they were good, God-following people. Peter has this vision: the Lord asks him three times to eat this food. Now Peter isn't daft and he, not long ago, has already been caught denying Jesus three times and so he is not going racing to any rash decisions; he shows the Lord that he is faithful to his Jewish covenant and declines the invitation three times. This is not what is wanted here though and this is not what the dream, it turns out, is even about. This passage is not about dietary laws and what foods a good follower of Jesus will or will not eat and Peter should know this because he was there when Jesus fulfilled/abolished th...

In 1957 the average cost of a brand new house in North American was only about $12 000. A gallon of gas only cost $0.24 and this was good because the average wage (even figuring into the equation the big bucks that CEOs made) was only $4.50 an hour. 1957 Canada was different in other ways too: Canadians were swearing oaths on the Bible and meaning it; officially breaking one’s marriage covenant through divorce was rare; and people, more or less, did what they said they would do. The proverb applied: a man’s word was his bond. Today we are going to look a little bit at oaths, vows, and covenants. [2] (For more on this I will mention quickly my book, Praise The Lord For Covenants . If you want to look into this topic more after the service today, let me know.) [3] Today we are looking at Numbers Chapter 30. Ronald B. Allen reminds us that, “This chapter is a significant Old Testament text on the subject of the vows.” [4] And Numbers 30:1-2, “Moses said to the heads of the tribes of...