Maintaining the Eschatological Perspective

As children of God, we are recipients of God’s saving grace hence we are to act as those who are not just under the common grace. God’s salvation for us has to lead us to the original cultural mandate of God which is to subdue the earth and we are to stick to the Great commission of Christ. The problem in our Church today is the tendency to get stuck in the present temporal issues rather than kingdom purposes of significance for both time and eternity. Most Christians forget to think eschatologically and miss the fact that apart from the common grace, there is also the common curse, and that there is an idea of the catastrophic.

The Antithesis drives us to focus and maintain our journey to win more souls for Christ. This is not because we have the power to determine who are the elect but because we are made to be obedient to the Lord and do as He instructs us to do. It is only God who knows who will be saved and who will be the reprobate and our role is to live the cultural mandate and Great commission of Christ. Having this in mind, we need to understand this and take by heart because it will be dangerous to go forth and win souls and then share to them a different Gospel.

Being a missionary, I met a lot of frontliners in the battlefield who are so bold as driven by Christ’s Great Commission. Most of them inspire me but it hurts me though when some of them criticize theologians because for them, there is an urgency for the harvest and theologians just waste time figuring out and solving many errors when the great problem is actually how to bring more souls to Christ. To me, there should be a balance because missionaries, theologians, and others are all parts of the body of Christ and have important roles to work on. And actually, missionaries really need to be theologians themselves as well because in the battlefield, there will be so many false teachings and errors that will lead to the corruption of their teachings as they share the Gospel to communities. Hence there should be the clarity of revelation as per the Reformed Apologetics is concerned and theologians have an important role in this matter.

Missionary theologians will not be easily swayed by some teachings especially things like the dualism of the Romanists, which apparently introduces a different god. The Scripture teaches us that man was totally disposed to God in the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis and is not having two different natures as in the RC’s teachings of concupiscence. 

The testimony of the Holy Spirit is of prime importance when we serve in the missionfield. It is then always important to base all understanding and teachings on the Scripture which exhibits fully as clear evidence of truth . Anything that is apart from this form of God’s special revelation will lead anyone astray no matter how good the theology of a minister sounds.

  

Week 5

Digest, Sept.21-27, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

 

Roman Catholic Theology of Concupiscence

Reckoning with the Roman Catholic theology about the state of man in the garden of Eden, I can't help but think of the yin-yang principle of the "wise" Chinese men. The concupiscence, having the body and soul or the inclination to higher rational spirit and to lower physical appetite, seems to make sense as it still happens to us even today although the thought or perspective may be quite dangerous. Some people who are not deeply rooted in the Word of God can easily be taken away by this theology since it sounds easy to chew. As it may sound Pelagian, some would see ourselves like Adam who has our own battle and own share of that concupiscence. However the Scripture does not teach us this at all. We are not on our own like how Adam was in the Garden of Eden.

It is not true that the sin of Adam was just of Adam. When Adam sinned, sin was imputed to all humankind. We are all totally depraved and that we all need God's grace so we can be brought back to the perfect eternal fellowship with Him as He originally intended in the Garden of Eden.

God has made a way for us by accommodating Himself to us so we can understand His language. He condescended to reveal it in Scripture.

All throughout the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, He communicated His redemptive plan to us in a way that we understand His revelation of grace. How His covenant of works progressed to His covenant of grace is amazing and how His contextualized manner of explaining Himself and His intention for us is overwhelming. God simply became man so He can speak to man without changing ontologically nor economically as the Triune God.

God's redemptive work was for all, whether the regenerate or the unregenerate. As Van Til said that God is revealed at all, that is revealed in nature[1]. The common grace is not very common for some though. Some believers (or some unbelievers) will mistakenly see it as the saving grace that leads to the view of universalism. But the Bible reiterates that there will be judgment in the end, there will be the saved and the unsaved, the elect and the reprobate.

On another note, I feel sad about some believers who become arrogant and prideful about being in a position of an elect when actually, such gift should lead us to humility and passion for God, leading us even more to doing His will, which is to love, to obey His Great Commission, to become light and salt in this world. I feel sad about seeing Christians who were drawn in a system that is hyper-theological (if you will) where the Sunday school level believers would feel so small about.

I pray that as God has contextualized through the so-called condescension, we as His children will do the same to others. That we adjust to a language that they will learn the truth about God but of course without distorting the whole message of the Gospel. I pray that as the Lord Jesus incarnate blessed us, we will also bless the world with the incarnational ministry that God has entrusted to us.

 

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[1] C. Van Til, Nature and Scripture (Reading assignment, page 2).

 

Week 4

Digest, Sept.14-20, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

Do I Agree With Barth?

I must say that I agree with Barth in two points: (1) Jesus being the Geschichte in whom the life of all humankind is realized and that (2) Jesus Christ and His work of reconciliation of God and man envelops the entire history of the world and every man. However, when Barth says that Jesus is distinct from God (the Father) I surely disagree because Jesus is the Word.. He is God Himself in flesh.

Jesus was not an agent who came from on high on behalf of a superior God that is outside Him. I believe in the triune God who was, who is, and is to come. Jesus was the electing Christ with an absolute decree and not as what Barth says that Christ is the electing God and the elected man.

The subordination within the trinity is not ontological but economic, as Jesus the Son is not inferior to God the Father nor any distinct from the God the Holy Spirit. The subsistence, aseity and immutability of the trinity are incommunicable attributes of the triune God that would explain such economic or relational subordination of the three Persons.

I must admit that reading the different perspectives of theologians make me think more critical and also lead to some levels of confusion because in some ways, their positions at a certain degree make sense to me. But getting into their teachings, like that of Barth, is like going into a tunnel and the farther you go into it, the more you realize that you are being led into a bad destination.

I believe there is no perfect theology but there is always a sound theology. I would say that we should just go with the sound one but do not worship it. Worshipping God is always the goal not the theology.

  

Week 3

Digest, Sept.6-13, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

The Knowledge of God is of Prime Importance in our Christian Walk

 

With all the different perspectives about God, I always remember the Apostle Paul’s constant reminder in his writings where he would always stress the great need  to grow in the Knowledge of God. This is because knowing God more in the deepest and truest sense will protect the early Church and even us today from the non-Christian philosophies that will seriously shaken our view of history, facts, the Law, the Bible per se and so forth.

The Knowledge of God is such a critical matter in every Christian’s life that will determine his destination of faith. As God’s children, we are taken by Him out from the world of misinterpretation and now placed in His world of truth. Plainly we can see that in His truth, we are truly set free.

I am raised in a place dominated by Romanism and so my worldview was initially shaped in this context of clericalism and all the distortion and offense to the person of Christ. When I met Christ in my early twenties, I have met different kinds of Christians who have views that could have shaken my faith early on. Some of them were Arminians and some were hyper Calvinists. There have been different kinds of worshippers along the path from Pentecostals to Baptists and Fundamentalists. It has also been a common thing to encounter Christians who get confused with the theology of Saving Grace and theology of Common Grace. Sadly, some would emphasize common grace in their own theology leading to universalism.

There were times that I get frustrated with all the various views that seem overwhelming. God and His absolute truth can be taken too much at times that even the teachings about the Trinity basically cracks my brain giving me a feeling of not recovering again but the Lord is good because He constantly reminds us that we are not to depend on our own understanding but in Him alone.

I agree with Van Til when he said that we are dealing with an inexhaustible God and that what we have is an approximation to the fullness of truth as it exists in God. We cannot understand God fully and totally because once we do, He is not God anymore. He is a great God and there is an unimaginable amount of knowledge of Him and relative to that, we all have our limited brains and time on earth to know it all.

I personally am thankful for the Bible, the Scriptures, to which God’s thumbmark is manifested through It’s authority, perspicuity, necessity, and sufficiency for His people, His children.

Week 2

Digest, Aug 29-Sept.5, 2022

Lanilane Ocbina

WCTS, ThM program

 

Amazing Love | Guitar Ukulele Piano | Cover | Chris Tomlin | Hillsong | Lanilane

On my birthday, let me pray for you.. I pray that you will have the courage and wisdom from the Lord as you face the storms in your life, that the hurricanes will not uproot you from your faith and that you will soar on wings like eagle above all these impossible trials. I know it's tough but you've got to hold your head up high and let Jesus take the wheel for His love is perfect and amazing! PS: pwede pa hirit ng birthday gift, kahit hindi gcash haha . I'm trying to have my pages rallied by likes and subscriptions and yours will be deeply appreciated! Pa like and subscribe nalang ha? ^_^ Blog: http://www.lanilaneocbina.online/ FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChibiLanilane youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LanilaneOcbina Instagram & Tiktok: lanilaneocbina #amazinglove Chris Tomlin Amazing Love D-Bm-G-A G-A-D

I'm forgiven because You were forsaken, I'm accepted, You were condemned. I am alive and well, Your sprit is within me, Because You died and rose again. (Repeat x2) [Chorus:] Amazing love, How can it be? That You, my King would die for me? Amazing love, I know it's true. It's my joy to honour You, In all I do, I honour You. I'm forgiven because You were forsaken, I'm accepted, You were condemned. I am alive and well, Your spirit is within me, Because You died and rose again. You are my King Jesus You are my King