On these pages, I hope to provide some sound, foundational biblical insight into a variety of topics concerning Christianity and the Christian faith - insight that I hope will be a benefit and a challenge to serious students of the Bible and to sincere seekers of truth and purpose. Some of the topics will be provocative and controversial; others, I trust, will be informative and edifying.
In his first letter to the Church in Corinth, the apostle Paul writes, "the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort" (1 Corinthians 14:3). My hope is that the words of truth found on these pages will strengthen faith, encourage hearts, and comfort souls by providing a deeper understanding of the amazing treasure that is the true God - the God found in the pages of the Christian Bible.
The first series of postings will be selected excerpts from my book - God's Elect: The Chosen Generation (available summer 2022). The book will cut through the frustrating inconsistencies, and conflicts of the traditional Calvinistic and non-Calvinistic views of divine election and predestination, and will propose a non-contradictory, true-to-Scripture understanding of this critical biblical doctrine.
Since this is my first foray into blogging, be sure to read my personal profile in the "About Me" column on the Home page. I know that my bio reads a bit like someone who either didn't know what he wanted to be when he grew up, or a person who finds interest and challenge in a variety of endeavors. I confess to being guilty on both counts.
Here's a bit of the backstory to the upcoming series about divine election. The first chapter is called, "What Happened to God?" In this chapter I struggle with a common Calvinistic/non-Calvinistic conflict; is God the One who loves, or the One who chooses?
Let's get started.
What Happened to God?
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us (Acts 17:26-27 ESV)
Acts 17:26-27 is one of my favorite passages of scripture. I once heard a well-known and much-admired pastor paraphrase the passage this way; “God arranges things in our lives – people, places, events - to give us our best chance of finding him.” In other words, God stacks the deck for us. He wants us to succeed in our journey to find the true spiritual treasure – an authentic, satisfying relationship with our Creator and an unwavering sense of our value and purpose in his kingdom. As I reflect on the circumstances leading up to my search for clarity regarding the doctrine of election, there was definitely a bit of “deck-stacking” on God’s part.
My wife and I attended a Reformed Church for about four years. During this time, my teenage son began to struggle with drug addiction. He dropped out of his sophomore year of high school. His eyes became dark and vacant. His attitude became defiant and combative. His wholesome, respectable friends were replaced by new friends of questionable character. He became involved in gang-related criminal activities and spent a couple of stints in juvenile hall. He had been arrested multiple times by the time he was nineteen years old. The final arrest was for six “strike-able” felonies at a time when California had the infamous “three strikes law”. Upon a person’s third strike, the law mandated an automatic 25-years-to-life sentence. However, since my son’s six felonies were concurrent, the court charged him with two strikes and sent him to prison.
A New Ministry
What I just described in a single paragraph is a very abbreviated account of an incredibly challenging ten-year ordeal for my wife and me. However, during that time, the church we were attending announced that it was forming a new ministry. They were putting together a team to conduct church services for the inmates in the local county jails. We attended a meeting, raised our hands, and became part of the jail ministry team.
For the next several years, at least one Sunday each month, my wife and I would minster to the incarcerated men and women in the local jails. Each Sunday, our team would be escorted through the catacombs of the facility hallways to our assigned module. We would arrive early enough to set up the chairs, organize the classroom and pray. Then we would wait for the inmates to be escorted to the room.
As the men (or women) came in wearing yellow or orange jumpsuits, we would stand at the door and warmly welcome them. Many were covered from the tops of their shaved heads to the tips of their fingers with tattoos. Some walked with a swagger, some looked scared, some smiled, some scowled. Most were obviously gang-affiliated. Yet all came voluntarily. They came of their own accord. I’m sure there were some who were just looking for an opportunity to get out of their cells for an hour, but I sincerely believe that the majority were drawn by a God-given sense that something was broken in their lives. I’m convinced that these meetings were divine appointments arranged by a loving God so that these struggling souls would seek him, reach out for him and perhaps find him, though he was not far from each one of them.
One day, as I stood in front of a group of young men with my prepared message, ready to offer them a chance to experience a love beyond understanding and to find hope and grace and mercy and joy and purpose, I could see the face of my own son in each of them. No doubt they too, have broken-hearted mothers and fathers who had great hopes for their children and who were struggling to understand where it all went so wrong. Yet what I saw in the faces of these young men was not the vacant stare of drug addicts or the hardened countenance of career criminals, but the faces of lost children, the kind of lost children that the Bible tells us God cares for, and searches for, and rejoices over when they are brought back into the fold. And as I witnessed to these inmates month after month, I had a profound sense of gratitude for all the other church volunteers who love and care and minister to those in prison. Perhaps someone, somewhere was reaching out to my son, inviting him to enjoy the grace and forgiveness of God through the love of Jesus Christ.
While there was great satisfaction in serving God in this ministry, a conflict was beginning to stir within me. There were two questions that my new-found Reformed theology suddenly made personally consequential:
- Did Jesus die for these young men? (Did Jesus die for my son?)
- Does God love these young men? (Does God love my son?)
Those two questions began to haunt me. This was the beginning of a decades-long search to grasp the truth about God’s love, and justice, and sovereignty and plan. In short, it stirred in me a passion to really understand the God of the Bible, and specifically, his doctrine of election and predestination. Looking back on the timing and circumstances leading up to this point – my move to the Reformed church, my son’s struggles with drugs, my involvement in the jail ministry, the stirring of my spirit – it was obviously the work of God “stacking the deck” to lead me here.
To learn more, please consider picking up my book - God's Elect: The Chosen Generation
(also available on Kindle)
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Elect-Generation-John- Chipman/dp/1632695723/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1507WZLOS9FHL&keywords=god%27s+elect+chipman&qid=1682632127&sprefix=god%27s+elect+chipman%2Caps%2C293&sr=8-1
(Also available at Barnes & Noble & Christianbook.com)
Next Post: My Bible "Junk Drawer" and the "Aha!" moment. Here's the link:
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