Chosen But Free Book Review

Norman L. Geisler in his book Chosen But Free discusses the age old question of “Is God in Control?” or “Do we have a Choice?” Many people wonder if this question really matters, but it is evident in this book that it does. This book gives an equal approach from both sides of the question. There is really good evidence to support both views. I enjoyed how he started off the book with the idea of God’s sovereignty, almost as if he was laying a base to the whole book. He states that human events, evil angels, Satan, good angels ,earthly kings and even human decisions are under his control. Which leads to the question, why should we be blamed for something that we ultimately have no control over? How can we be responsible for our evil actions if God is the one who allows it all to happen? He explains that some Christians try to make the excuse that the devil made them do it, but the real answer lies within the self.  Evil comes from free will and the choices that we make. This brings up another question in the book. So everything comes to pass because of God, yet God cannot be associated with evil. We make evil choices on the daily; does this mean that God is the cause of it? Taking on the middle ground view in the book, Geisler explains that we are given free will for a reason. God wants us to want him and to follow him in our own free will and that’s where our choices come into play. God knows what we will choose to do, but that choice is completely up to ourselves.  So we can pretty much blame our evil on ourselves, stemming all the way back to Adam and eve. On another note, I like how it breaks down the teachings of extreme Calvinists with TULIP. I think the most erroneous part of that teaching is the Limited Atonement. God came to this world to save the entire world, all sinners, not just a select few that he had chosen. One thing that I was a little disappointed with in this book was the lack of in depth scripture usage. Geisler uses tons of scripture references all throughout the entire book, but I feel like they barely scratch the surface of each topic. I mean, any person can flood a book with scripture references to make it sound like they apply to the topic at hand, but it doesn’t always mean that it proves the point that you are trying to argue. I loved the scripture he used, but I feel like he could have gone a little bit deeper with his usages. All in all this was a decent book that provided an equal standpoint from both sides. Wasn’t exactly my type of read, and honestly it was hard to stay focused on the task at hand, but I got the job done and learned a lot of things that I might not have ever known if not for reading this book. I would recommend this book to people who are interested in the topic, but that’s about it.

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Worship in Church

Worship is something that should be unique to each person. Since it is a way to directly talk to God, there should not be any generic way to or not to worship. For some, worship is organs and pianos, singing out of hymnals and keeping it old fashion. To others worship is dancing and jumping around in aisles speaking words that nobody can understand. And for me personally, I like my worship with loud electric guitars and smashing drums accompanied by heavy vocals. Am I here to say that any one of these is a wrong way to worship? No. Worship is an outward expression of how we feel about our Savior, and saying there is a wrong way to worship is being selfish. In my own opionion, the only wrong way to worship is to worship without actually meaning it. That’s basically just lying, and I believe that there is no place for that kind of stuff in worship. I hear a lot of stories about churchs banning certain types of instruments in church and saying they of “of the devil” and personally I think that is a bunch of garbage. Those are just a bunch of old people sticking to traditions started God knows how long ago. But anyways, that was just a little side note. They can worship like that if they want to, but I will not be attending that church ever. Worship is all about a feeling to me and if I am falling asleep during worship, I’m obviously not feeling too much. There needs to be energy behind worship, something to motivate you. I’m pretty happy with most contemporary church types. I attend a mainly young adult church and am very happy with it. I can relate with a lot of the members and typically everyone is in the same interests. Summing up, personally I’m happy with most contemporary church styles, music-wise and execution-wise. But everybody is free to worship how they please and I won’t be saying anything against them, because I’ll be worshipping how I please.

-Matt Faillace

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My Testimony

Hey there, my name is Matt Faillace and I was lucky enough to be born into a Christian family and raised in a Christian household my entire life.  I was around 8 years old when I first realized what the pastor and my Bible teachers trying to explain to me.  I accepted Jesus Christ at 8 years old, but I never really understood what it was that I was actually doing. It took a few more years and some time for my thinking and understanding to expand until I actually got a firm grasp on what it actually meant to be a Christian. Even though I had grown up my entire life with my parents feeding me Bible verses for breakfast, I was about 15 when I actually got serious about Christianity. I realized that there are people out in the world who don’t have the same priviledge of growing up Christian like me and that I needed to reach out to those people.  It’s so easy to become complacent in our Christian lives especially surrounded by many other Christians. Once you break out of the “Christian Bubble” you can really see how many people are hurting and need something more in their lives. We are here on this earth to show those people the only true way to fill that void, Jesus.