Barneyisfat

Rebecca has missed my blogging, and quite frankly, so have I. I have missed the cathartic excercise.

I'm working on the application process for the General Board of Global Ministries. It makes me feel so vulnerable to know that my entire life (hyperbole?) is in their hands! All they see of me is a few slips of paper. It's so weird. I know that this is just the first step, but it still feels inadequate.

I had friends over to watch Son of Rambow. You must rent it. It is one of the best moveis I've ever seen.

I'm wrestling with the whole "view of God" dialogue. It's weird, because more than anything else I agree with the ideas behind openness. Openness says that God doesn't know the future. God is still omniscient ... he knows everything there is to know ... but that doesn't include the future.

That really jives with me. Take the holocaust: Openness says that God knew Hitler was a really bad man and that he put it in the hearts of man to stop him, but that people failed. With a Calvinist perspective, God caused the Holocaust. With an Arminian view, God knew the Holocaust was coming and did nothing to stop it.

Or, take the idea of where people go who have never heard the good news. Heaven or Hell? A strict Calvinist view is that they are not of the elect and will burn in Hell. A strict Arminian view is that God knows these people will die without hearing the word and there is nothing God can do about it. A Universalist says that they all go to Heaven. Openness could believe that God has a plan to save all of those who haven't heard, but that because we are free creatures there are a lot of us who are choosing not to follow God's plan and because of that all of those people will go to Hell. God has decided to leave their salvation in our hands, and we are screwing up ... but God holds out hope.

It's an interesting proposition, really. I'll need to think more about it.