Psalm 34:17-18

The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.
He rescues them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. (New Living Translation)

Psalm 121:7-8

The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore. (NIV)

Process Theology (II) - a relational process not entity

According to the view of process theology, God is not an entity but a process. In such case, who is the one directing the process? If God is some kind of a “force”’ which influences directly or indirectly in forming the universe, where is this force first originated then? If every agent in the creation has its own free will as advocated by process thinkers, without the existence of a sovereign will to control or to govern the direction or the development of this so-called “process” there would be chaos in the world. Ultimately, there will be no “process” but problematic disorder in the entire universe.

Process theology seems to focus primarily on the creation aspect of the universe and its interaction on the changing environment of the world. It fails to offer a holistic view about humankind existence in this world. In process theology, humankinds are just passing through time as event rather than being materially or physically existed as substance or being. This theology is pretty much restricted to its own perception of an evolved world with hopelessness.

In traditional theism God is viewed as Creator of the universe, and He is transcendent. God is seen as absolute in terms of power, knowledge, and his presence in all eternity. God is outside of the creation, thus anything that happens within His creation will not change or affect Him. It is within His creation that freewill exists as part of His plan for the natural activities of the creatures. Such empowerment would make all the creatures to bear the responsibilities and consequences of exercising their freewill. God would not affect by the action or freewill of all creatures, however their decision would affect themselves and their surrounding. God, out of His love and compassion for His creation, intervenes for the goodness of His people.

Traditional theism albeit is not a perfect theology for our full understanding of God, it considers a wider scope of our relationship with this God who created the universe. Traditional theists look beyond God solely as just our creator, but He is also a God of providence, who supplies all the needs for the existence of His living creatures. He is not just a God who brings about changes; He lives in the heart and mind of believers. He is not merely a process as claimed by process theology philosophers, He created human beings according to Scripture in His own image that we both have the power to think, the faculty to will, and the ability to feel like He does. We do not have a full picture of why the devil exists as God is good. All we know is that the devil is a “created” spiritual being and there was once in time he chose to sin against God and was permitted to exist until his time to be ended.

Although I rejected the idea of process theology, this however, does not suggest that our understanding of God must be trapped within our present knowledge of Him. Indeed, as modern science continues to develop in many aspects of our life and as we gain a better understanding of our relationship to the surrounding nature and environment, we should further develop a holistic view of God’s wonderful creation. We, on one hand, absolutely do not wish to restrict the advancement of science because of our personal faith, on the other hand neither do we want to let our still limited understanding of science to become the worldview and overstep our faith to claim a Godless world. Amen.

Process Theology (I) - a changing God

Process theology makes some good attempts in explaining the changing world with a new understanding of how ones can view God and His creation from a different perspective. Advocates of process theology found many contradictions within the traditional theism.

According to their view, they see God less as an entity but more as a process. This process changes over time and is carried out by the agents of free will including human’s will. Thus, God in process theology’s view is not omnipotent as classical theist understood. To them, God is actually offering possibilities to influence human’s free will to make things happened. Reality in process theology is not material substances that endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential in nature.

Process theologians believe traditional theists developed their view of an absolute God from ancient Greek philosophers, and they have claimed something more than what should be understood from the doctrine of God. Process theologians claim the God in the Bible changes His mind and at certain point in time He decides thing differently when humankind acts in certain way. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Scripture was not a God who abandoned His people after the creation. Indeed, this God was perceived in the Bible as the God who interacts closely with His creatures. They argue unless the future is open to change otherwise human being will not have any kind of freewill.

Process theology advocates or thinkers question how humanity could have any freedom if God is in control of everything. If God is eternal and in control, where is the devil from? The goodness of God and the evil of the devil cannot exist at the same time. And if God is in eternity, then He is unchangeable, and as such the prayer or the persuasion of humankind to God is meaningless and futile. Since nothing can change or affect God why does He want us to change. If God is Spirit, how can the material things come out of spiritual thing; it is metaphysically impossible to get something out of nothing.

Process theology no doubt offers a new way of looking at how God can interact closely with His creation, especially with human beings from a distance when He is not in or under the creation. On the surface, process theology seems to make a better connection that creation is actually the overall changing process of all free will agents, which come into existence. However, this theory also does not scientifically explain how the universe comes about. Much of the development of process theology is derived from human own wisdom and understanding of the physical world through observation and power of reasoning. It is philosophical, and not based on empirical studies. It comes with more flaws than the traditional theism.

Long Beach

What a beautiful place!

I said a silent prayer and truly thanked God from my heart for a lovely outing here in one of summer afternoons

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Isaiah 46:3-4

“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel.
I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born.

I will be your God throughout your lifetime—until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.I will carry you along and save you."
(New Living Translation)

Where are you God?

About God's presence in my previous post what I meant was a spiritual presence. It is not like God is leaving us. God is the God of Immanuel. When we can't feel the presence of God, what happen is we're falling away from God. Paul said (Rom 8:38, 39) nothing can separate us from the love or presence of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is sin; our disobedience to God causes us to separate from His presence.

We like to think that if we go to church, we'd feel His presence. If we come to pray to Him, we'd feel His presence, but we know this is not true. There are times we did all these and yet we can't sense His presence.

We imagine that we can lock God in a room and so when we come to Him, we'd find His presence. How naive are we sometimes. King Solomon knew better that it is impossible to take captive of our mighty God.

After the completion of the temple he prayed, "But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! (2 Chronicles 6:18a)

So, where are you God?

You'll know it when He is there…by the Spirit He gave us. (1 John 3:24b). Amen.

2 Samuel 22:2-3

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.

Do you seek God's presence?

In our modern living many Christians mostly pay lot of attentions to God’s divine protection, provision, and His promises. Few actually care about whether God’s presence is with us. This phenomenon can be easily detected in our prayer. We ask about anything except His presence.

If you look at Old Testament, you’ll notice that the Israelites concern a whole lot when they heard about the distressing news that their God is not going with them to the promise land. They mourned and took off all their ornaments showing regret for putting up a golden calf in their midst. (Exodus 33:4)

After Moses pleaded to God to forgive what Israel had committed, God told Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way." (Exodus 33:1-3 NIV)

From the above passage we see that God still keeps His promise to give the people the land and send an angel of escort to protect them from their enemies. Nonetheless, the people were not satisfied with just God’s promises, protection, and provision. They wanted God’s presence as well. Moses even boldly told God not to send them if His Presence was not with them. (Exodus 33:14)

In fact, the reason of putting up a golden calf is exactly for the sake of seeking the divine presence by the people. Look at Exodus 32:1 below:

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."

Do you seek God’s presence? Is God’s presence still important to us?

We know God is Immanuel, i.e. He is with us. However, we must admit that there are times we can’t feel or sense His presence at all. Many people said we’re not supposed to feel, we simply acknowledge God is here. While it is theologically correct, is that so in real life? Is God real to you? There is no doubt that God exists, but do you feel His presence?

You may have all the blessings, wealth, good education, and a great future or career, but do you have God’s presence? If you don’t, your heart is probably empty and lonely right now despite all the great blessings you’ve been receiving.

If you want God’s presence, my friends, you must obey Him and depend on Him. You must not substitute Him with anything else. You must not be stiff-necked doing what is pleasing to you and continue to grieve the Holy Spirit. Let us love God and obey His commandments. Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23). Amen.