Day 74: Westminster Divines

Every Wednesday, I (or Pin and I!) walk to the  minister's house to catch a lift to the MET in Glasgow.  MET stands for Mutual Encouragement Time, and it involves studying the Bible or principles from the Bible and applying them to our lives in a way that encourages us in life and faith.  I love the METs because the intention is to be encouraged.  There are no foolish questions.  Nobody has 'all the answers'.  There's a MET leader,  but his goal is not to lecture, but to tease out from the others what we think - even if we feel like we may be way off base.  In this MET, we're studying the Westminster Confession of Faith, a document written by the 'Westminster Divines', Godly men who studied the Bible and wrote out a summary of what it teaches.

This week was a lively discussion about one of the most debated (and by some, the most hated) doctrines of the Reformed faith: predestination.  To believe that God ordained everyone's future to heaven or hell is a very difficult thing for most people.  One of the main reasons is that we'd like to think the best of the human race.  To believe that everyone is basically good, it will all work out in the end, and you can live your life the way you want but at the end get up to heaven and 'sort it all out with the big Man', no matter who you are.  And, we'd all like to think we have some level of power - not just the freedom to decide what we will do, but the power to choose either the evil or good.

Well, it's a long and heavy discussion, and I do not attempt in the slightest to begin that discussion here, or to try to insult the world or anyone in it.  The Bible is a strange document, for it tells us truths about God that seem (to our little minds) to be mutually exclusive: but in God's case they are not.  For instance, how does He manage to  be a God of love and yet also be wholly just?  Is He 'fair' in the sense that we understand the word, giving everyone a 'chance'?  How are God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit three completely separate beings and yet one God?  It's enough to blow your mind - or perhaps cause you to give up in despair. 

But if I've learned anything as a Christian, it is, first, that there are some things about God that I (not being God, or infinite, or all-knowing, or having any of His amazing God-like characteristics) cannot in this life understand.  The second, that if when reading the Word something doesn't make sense, my first inclination is to presume that I haven't got it right.  (I'm usually correct in that assumption.)  And the third, which we talked about tonight, was that if anyone got the 'unfair' end of the deal, it was Jesus.  Lived a perfect life, never did anything wrong, was the ultimate in kindness and grace, saved people's lives, raised others from the dead, healed thousands from illnesses, taught wise words, obeyed all God's laws, and got killed for it.  Took on Himself the punishment that I, we, His people ought to have had.  So that we can live with Him forever.  Now that's 'unfair'.  Surely  we got the good end of the deal.

Walk length:  20 minutes