Rob Bell, John Calvin, and coasting

And another post I never submitted:

Warning: The average reader may not agree with the contents of this post. If it looks like the content will tick you off, avoid reading. If you still read it and disagree, be nice, and address my questions in a reasonable manner.

Rob Bell is making a name for himself. From what I hear about the book, he casts doubt on the idea that anyone will go to hell, but that we will all end up in heaven. Much discussion has been going on about the book, and rightly so.

Here are a few questions I have: if we are all going to go to Heaven in the end anyway, why not "live, drink, and be merry?" Living the Christian life isn't easy, so why do it? Why bother trying to win souls to Christ, if they are going to go to Heaven anyway. And why did Christ even bother dying on the cross?

Conservative Christians across the nation, and world, are upset about the book. Bell is being condemned and criticized, and if his book says what they are saying it says, he should be.

I'd like to use Bell's book, and the topic of universalism in general, as a springboard for something else that has been on my mind for quite some time. A very controversial topic. By the way, universalism is the belief that all will go to Heaven in the end, and no one will go to hell. A dangerous and heretical belief. But on to my topic: Calvinism.

From what I read and understand, and from talking to people who are practicing Calvinists, there are these varying beliefs: When you become a Christian, God forgives you of all sin: past, present, and future,  No mattter what sins you commit after becoming a Christian, your eternity is secure and you will go to Heaven, and all Christians sin daily in word, thought and deed.

I disagree with all of the above. Sinners sin. Christians don't. I believe it is possible to live above sin, if one lives close enough to God. Can a Christian sin - stumble? Yes, but I believe it should be rare.

I've read the verses. 1 John 1. Verses that say if we say we are without sin we lie, etc - but I take that to be before we are Christians. The follow up verse says "if we confess our sins, He will forgive them" - if it is talking about a Christian and all of his sins - even future are covered, then what is to forgive or confess?

I am no major theologian, but here is what really bugs me about the eternal security/sinning Christian thing. Only certain sins are ok. Even if - and it is a big if - even if Christians sin daily, who decided what sins are ok? Stay with me......

Pride - ok
Lying - ok
Cursing - ok
Stealing - not ok
Murder - not ok
Adultery - not ok

I'd like a serious, non-ticked off answer from someone who believes Christians sin daily on this. Where can you prove that God expects the murder, the thief, the adulterer, the child molestor, the homosexual, the drug addict to stop THEIR sinning, but the "small" sins are ok for Christians to do, and no one can stop doing them. Really? So God is only powerful enough to deliver the "big" sins, but not the "little". By the way, big and little are in quotes because in God's book, sin is sin.

I worked for some people for a few years who were Christians and ran a Christian business. They were staunch Calvinists, and it showed. They lied - a lot. They had all kinds of dishonest business practices. I finally reached a point that nothing shocked me that they did, but I was shocked for a long time.

I asked them once about this once-saved, always saved thing, and threw out a scenario for them. It went something like this: Say a man becomes a Christian as a teenager. He has a genuine Christian experience. As life goes on, the devil fights him. Life gets hard, and he gets discouraged. He quits praying, quits church, walks away from God, starts going deep into sin, and one day becomes a violent serial killer. You mean to tell me God is going to allow him into Heaven because he became a Christian as a teenager?! Their answer? "Well then he probably didn't have a true experience with God in the first place." Really?! That is the best defense they could give?

And yes, my scenario was made up, but there are similar scenarios. People who become Christians in their youth, only to be lured into destructive sinful habits, some of them ending up in prison. And yes, God will forgive them if they repent, but to believe all that they are eternally secure through all of that? No way. I can't swallow it.

There are those among us who have a besetting sin. We have asked Jesus into our heart, repented, but we have struggles/addictions: sex, drugs, alcohol, porn - God instantly delivers some, while others have a daily fight. If our eternity is secure, then why fight it? The man who is a sex addict? Why bother fighting sex with countless women? The man who has same-sex attractions? Why not give into them? The man who is addicted to drugs - why fight them, why not give in?

Another question I have never gotten a good answer to: if a Christian's eternity is secure, if it is impossible to fall away from God and miss Heaven, then why does the devil fight Christians so hard? Why does he tempt so much? Some say to make us ineffective, but really? Where is that in Scripture? And not every Christian is going to be so instrumental that if their ineffectiveness would be an issue, yet he fights us all.

I myself...... this will be a sad statement to make, but I can't see where I have affected anyone to the point that they followed Christ because of me, but then I consider myself a failure in even being a good Christian - so why would the devil fight me so hard if my eternity was secure?

I think Romans 6 pretty much blasts the Christians sinning daily out of the water. I won't quote it here, but read it if you disagree with me. Another verse that sticks out to me is from 1 Jon 2:1: My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Know what I get out of that? That it is possible for Christians to not sin "that you may not sin" - what else could that possibly mean? And that it is possible for a Christian to stumble and sin "and if anyone sins". If. Let me type that again. If. Not when, if. Need I say more?

It is possible that a definition of sin can make a difference. I grew up Arminian in theology, Methodist. I learned catechism as a kid that sin "is a willful transgression of a known law of God." That doesn't mean perfections or no mistakes to live above sin. It means not purposefully disobeying God's commands.

I'd like to chat with Max Lucado. I like his books, but don't always agree with him. One such occasion was in a book he wrote some years back. I think Grace was in the title, but could be wrong. Anyway, he made a statement that we (Christians) cannot go a certain period without sinning. He started out I think with a month or week, and went down to at least an hour. Christians cannot go an hour without sinning. I was shocked. I'd like to ask Max, "so Max, just what sin did you commit this past hour? Lying? Did you kill someone? Just what did you do sinful? And the hour before that, and the hour before that?" (Sorry, Max Lucado fans).

I guess what really ticks me off and makes me question this whole once-saved, always saved issue is my own personal struggle. I have asked Jesus into my heart. I have lived for Him. I have become discouraged, tempted seemingly beyond what anyone should have to bear, and fallen. Sometimes I have immediately repented - and oh, if you knew the sins, you'd say I needed to repent. Other times, I was even more discouraged by my fall, that I gave up completely, and dove into the sin. The average Christian would say there is no way I could be a Christian and do THAT sin...... yet some of those very Christians lie if they feel the need, and God says liars will go to hell...... so what is up with a belief system that says you can do some sins and be a Christian, but can't do others?

I honestly am not out to just nitpick and criticize people who believe this way, but what if they are wrong? Universalists have gone just a step further, and we say they are heretics, saying everyone will go to Heaven, regardless, yet the staunch Calvinist says once you ask Jesus to forgive your sins, you will go to Heaven regardless, no matter how you live.

And me? Ah, I am not setting myself up as judge, just questioning. I am far from perfect, far from what I should be. Disppointed in God's people, whether they be Arminian in theology, or Calvinist. Not liking the theology of either some days, to be honest. Maybe I have just become too cynical.

Maybe it is asking too much, but I want an experience where I can live above sin. Not sinning daily, but if I sin, asking God's forgiveness for that sin, yet not live as I have for so much of my life struggling to believe this God cares about me, and isn't just waiting for me to mess up.