God saw all that he had made, and it was very good

Genesis 1:31

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

I believe that God’s creation is perfect. I believe that when he created the world he knew that it was good and that it would fulfill his divine purpose. In the comments of one of my recent posts the following was said by a good friend of mine:

“To argue that God does anything conditioned on the actions or will of man would declare Him to be a learning and changing God.” Kenneth R. Adams

I could not agree more with this comment and I began to think about how this applies to the Lord’s perfect Creation and creations by men in general. Since I am a computer geek at heart, I began to think about a computer program. Computer programs are created for a purpose. Each line of code is carefully put together piece by piece from the beginning to the end. The program is then put to use. Unfortunately, sometimes the program does things the developers (creators) did not expect. We call these bugs or flaws. So then we must go in and edit different parts of the code to fix the bug. Once a few bugs are fixed we release a patch or a new version.

For a minute I will consider what would happen if I had the ability to make decisions outside the controlling hand of the Sovereign Lord.

When God created the Earth he believed it to be very good. However, humans began to make decisions which caused creation to do things that God didn’t expect. The Lord then realized that their were bugs in his creation and began editing particular aspects of creation to fulfill his purpose. By the end of the first year, God had released Earth Version 999999.9454.45.3.4.

This brings us back to Kenneth’s statement. If God was dependent on the actions of Man then he would have to be a learning and changing God. We know from scripture that God has a plan and this cannot be denied. He revealed different parts of his plan to his children and we call this prophesy. We have seen prophesy fulfilled many times. To believe that all this could happen while dependent on the actions of Man would mean that God would have to change his creation with each decision to ensure his plan was fulfilled. As a developer I call these patches, bugs, flaws, new features. These are all packaged into versions. I believe that God made one version and it was very good.

God Bless

What Is The Best Web Hosting Company

I rarely give anyone free advertising, however I am going to make an exception. Out of all the hosts that I have dealt with over the years, my two favorite web hosts are Bluehost.com and Dreamhost.com. They both offer absolutely insane amounts of storage and bandwidth and both companies continually surprise you with additional increases. Bluehost offers the widely popular C-panel and Dreamhost offers a custom panel that is very nice once you learn to use it. The main selling point is this, you just can’t beet the price for what you get. Everytime I introduce someone to these web hosts they just can’t believe what they are offering for the money. I still can’t believe it at times. If you are looking for a great webhost, with insane options, for insanely cheap, then you got to go with one of these two hosts. Last but not least they both have great affiliate programs to help you pay your bills. You didn’t think this post was completely selfless did you?

Dreamhost

Bluehost

Predestinated to believe in Predestination….Irony anyone?

One of the most controversial issues for Christians is free will verses predestination. If you don’t believe me then you should have stopped by the McCallum residence on some Monday night when all the guys were hanging out. I have been blessed to have a diverse group of friends and the diversity doesn’t stop at religious discussion. I can already see the comment flood coming on this one. Many of you have had this free will verses predestination conversation with me and have always wondered which side of the fence I am on. I usually argue on the side that appears to be suffering, which obviously burrs my stance. So I am going to try to clarify a few things on the matter.

I will start by saying that I believe that God is in control. This is where I would be asked, “How much is he control?”. Let me say it again. I believe that God is in control and this claim should suffice. I believe that God has a plan and that his plan is enforced by his will. I also believe that his plan cannot be altered by humans and their actions since these actions do not operate outside of his plan. So what does this mean? Do I believe in free will?

I definitely believe in free will. I have the freedom to make decisions and choose my path. I live the life that I want to live day in and day out. However, freedom is a personal perspective on life. I am free because I feel free. I have free will because I have choice. Have you ever read a book? Have you ever watched a movie? Do the characters have free will? Do they make decisions? If we could ask the character would he say that he has free will? Would he say that he makes choices for himself? We watch movies and read books and at times we forget that the characters are the works of an author’s creation. They cannot escape the pages of the book. They are bound by that creation and thus “freedom” and “choice” are only words used to describe the character that was created. Do I believe in predestination?

I definitely believe in predestination. I said earlier that God is in control. He is the creator. He created the beginning from the end. I am a personal work of God’s creation and my acts of freedom cannot change pages in the book.

In short, I am saying that Predestination and Free Will are the same. They both accurately describe a work of creation. It depends on whether or not your asking the creator or the created.

This being said, am I predestined to believe in predestination? Are those that believe in predestination predestined to argue to those that are predestined not to believe in predestination. Why do those that believe in free will say “If it be in God’s will” at the end of their prayers. Irony anyone??

So where do we go from here? We live life as the created in our life of free will and choice. We look up at God because we are not capable of looking down on ourselves.