Who Do You Think I Am?

Something that came up during our study of Church History last night: we were looking at the second century Arrian controversy. Arrius denied the divinity of Christ. This heresy very nearly became the prevailing doctrine of the Church.

The commentator (we use a dvd), John Gerstner, made the statement that "most Christians" today don't believe that Jesus is God.

I was floored. I'm sure that some professing Christians have hazy notions about the deity of Christ, but "most?"

First, this seems an impossible statement. Gerstner gave no basis for it and though I know there are lots of liberals in the church, this seems to me to be a core belief.

Which brings me to my second point, which is more in the form of a question: Can a person truly be a Christian without believing that Jesus is divine?

It troubles me that Christianity may have come to this. The Southern Baptists fought a long bitter struggle to regain control of the teaching in their seminaries. I left a denomination because it had strayed from these essential truths.

If Jesus is not divine, do we even have a religion? What do you think?

What I Learned Last Night

Deon finished his sermon series on the book of Ruth last night. Across the board, this may be one of the most loved books of the Bible. Even that famous skeptic, Ben Franklin, admired it. You have probably read it numerous times, as I have.

Deon brought out two wonderful points about Ruth that I hadn't considered.

The first point is: God brings order out of chaos. To compare the beginning of the story (a time of famine and disorder) to the end (a kinsman-redeemer has been born and a kingly line established) illustrates this wonderfully, and in a section of scripture where I hadn't noticed it before.

The second point: Our lives have significance in God's plan. The geneology at the end of Ruth spans centuries and there, 3/4 of the way down the list, we read "Boaz, the father of Obed." The characters in this story occupied a mere blink in the eye of time. Yet, the actions of these folks, guided by the hand of God, have had eternal significance. Who knows the effects, down the years, of the seemingly most mundane tasks you and I perform today?

We serve an awesome and sovereign God.