An atheist, Armenian vs Calvinist, blind men and an elephant, and the Bible?

A couple weeks back my friends Caleb Hugo and CJ, and I had a run in with a man who would lead you to believe that he isn't a Christian. He made claims about the Christian faith and the Bible that some were plain out wrong, and some were skewed at best. It was nearly impossible to get a word in edgewise, once he started getting on a role. The assertion he made that most stuck with me was that if he had 5 good kids were would have a good life and if he had a sixth that he new would have a terrible and tormented life why would he have the sixth? Opposite that I thought what if he was going to have 5 that were going to be tormented all their lives, but that sixth one would have an amazing life, blessed beyond compare? Would it be worth it to have the sixth child then?

Two weeks ago in college group, we had discussions about the Calvinist doctrine of "Perseverence of the Saints" versus Armenian doctrine of "Falling from Grace." Finally, some chance at real discourse and discussion. I can see both sides of the argument, having spent 9 years in a Christian Reformed school (predominantly Calvin) and growing up Nazarene (predominantly Armenian). I side with Armenias on this one, defending against such claims as one sin and your out, goodness even the fallen sport of baseball gives you 3 chances. Falling from Grace isn't that. Falling from Grace is a willful action to walk away from God. It's like if you dated someone and you broke up. Did you have a relationship with the person, even though you've walked away from them? The answer is yes, of course, the answer isn't, "well we never really dated, it just appeared that way." Under Calvinist doctrine I have a hard time believing that some teenager who gave his life to Christ and did the work of the Holy Spirit, before rennouncing his faith and does horrible things was never a believer.

The argument that perhaps someone was never really saved in the first place scares me, what if you aren't one of the lucky elect? What if you go through all the Christian motions and well, sorry but you didn't make the list? But furthermore how would a Calvinist know their relationship with God is ligitament? But I digress

In small group on Thursday we talked about what it means to be a man, which quickly changed to what is our perception of God and the Bible and all that jazz. The fable of the blind men and the elephant came up. It was in reference to how everyone has a different perception of God. I personally, haven't quite worked out all of my thoughts on that. But I have some, one being that God is not a mute elephant that we have to touch and feel to draw conclusions about. He speaks to us and seeks us out. I mean seriously if he didn't why would we need missionaries? And people must also not forget that this was not originally a Christian story, it came from a Bhuddist or Hindu background.

Lastly the Bible, my friend Jen posted about the Bible in reference to discussion in her Theology class. An interesting topic indeed. So I'm just going to say this about it. The Bible is absolute Truth, and should be read and people should be well versed. But if a believer is not, such as illiterate tribal converts or deathbed conversions, they are not going to go to Hell for not having read it. Think of the earliest Christians, the Bible wasn't even fully cannonized at first and reading was not what the majority did, they had to hear the stories and such.

I sum up with this "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins... If only for ths life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." I Cor. 15:17,19