The other night I received a series of text messages from my 19 year old son Riley, a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Riley: What verses dominate Calvinism? (Meaning, what verses best answer or refute Calvinism.)

Dad: I Timothy 2:3-4 and 2 Peter 3:9

Riley: And how do you interpret Ephesians 1:4-5?

Dad: Collective not individual. God predestined that he he'd have a PEOPLE but not the individuals in it. God wants his chosen PEOPLE to be an open & growing group not closed and fixed.

Riley: What about Romans 9?

Dad: Romans 9 is the same as Ephesians 1. All of Romans 9-11 is about the people of Israel not about the eternal salvation of individuals. You are wrestling with all the same verses I did when I was your age and I'm proud of you ...

I have two main thoughts on the exchange:

1. Think of all the text messages I could have received from a college freshman:

I've been arrested ... can you bail me out?

I failed my exam, what should I do now?

I'm at the hospital after a car wreck, how do I pay?

So I'm pretty grateful.

2. The texts stemmed from a conversation Riley was having with a hallmate who is a Calvinist. With John Piper and others, Calvinism has a star power these days that we Wesleyan-Arminians lack.

While a subject as complex as Calvinism vs. Arminianism (predestination vs. free will) merits more than text message conversation, I found it's not a bad place to start with a 19-year-old.

My favorite verses in Scripture are those that describe the reality of the incarnation of God in Christ.

The concept is such that human language is frankly inadequate to describe its power and beauty.

Nevertheless, the New Testament authors do a remarkable job of scaling some literary and theological mountaintops. Here goes:

John 1:1-2, 14: In the beginning was the Word and the Word as with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning . . . and the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Philippians 2:9-11: Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Colossians 1:15-17: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 2:9-10: For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

Hebrews 1:3: The Son is the radiance of God's glroy and the exact representation of his being, susatining all things by his powerful word.

Whew.

Biblical faith has no room for a Jesus who is merely role model, teacher, or revolutionary, or ethicist.

Jesus is Lord. And there is no other.

Since church was snowed out this past Sunday, I briefly watched a televised service from another, more liturgical church in our area (they cancelled for 12.26 as well; this was a re-broadcast from back on a snow-free day in November).

As part of the liturgy, the congregation stood and recited the Apostles' Creed together.

Three thoughts came immediately to mind: 1) thank God for the brave and wise souls who compiled the creed in antiquity; 2) this is really the Christian Pledge of Allegiance; and 3) we need to use it more in our services and sermons.

In terms of the translation to use, the Creed is much like the 23rd Psalm: the older, the better. It's one of those pieces that sound more majestic and poetic in the king's English. So here goes:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN.

I read Jonah this morning and noticed a verse tucked away in its opening scene that I had long overlooked. As the storm gathered strength against Jonah's flee-to-Tarshish cruise liner,

All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god (1:5).

At first glance, it appears that the bible is here teaching some kind of theological relativism: individuals or people groups or religions all have their own gods and we're fine as long as we pick one that best suits us.

If it was good enough for the sailors on the ship, it's good enough for us.

That's what many Americans -- Christians included -- have opted to believe.

Yet that's a wrong-headed reading of Scripture as well as an irresponsible approach to theology.

Jonah 1:5 is a classic case of the bible describing what it does not endorse. Just because it reports Gentile sailors praying to their own gods does not mean people of the Book are free to pick and choose their own gods as well.

In fact, the point of Jonah 1 is the silence that meets all those prayers.

Only when Jonah the Hebrew prays to Yahweh the maker of heaven and earth does the storm still.

Rather than teaching relativism, Jonah 1 refutes it. In fact, look at the conversion of the sailors that follows the calming of the storm:

At this, the men greatly feared the Lord (Yahweh), and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him (1:16).

Instead of each having his own god, they now pay honor to the One God.

Mushy religious pluralism? Not a chance.

Instead, it's a robust defense of Judeo-Christian monotheism.

I love the last line of the Apostles' Creed:

[. . . I believe] in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

While the Creed may not have the same level of authority as inspired Scripture, it nevertheless represents the best of the collective wisdom of early Christians.

And they described our eternal hope as "the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting."

Interestingly, they did not describe it as "the immortality of the soul."

One of my most significant learnings of recent years is the discovery that Christianity is much more about the resurrection of the body than it is about the immortality of the soul.

Check especially I Corinthians 15. The whole chapter.

It's in the Creed. It's in Scripture. It's in the way the ancient mind worked.

To hear how we developed this theme last Sunday at Good Shepherd, click here and listen to Life After Death.