My friend Henry Neufeld has posted a timely article that we are discussing on the CompuServe/Netscape Religion Forum under the title Good Theology, Bad Theology, and Demons. The discussion can be located at this page.

I find the article timely because of my recently posted sermon which gives a bow to the subject of natural revelation as a tie-breaker in the excuse game.

Neufeld has placed himself in the thick of the fray in the ongoing Intelligent Design debate, this time arguing from a Christian theological perspective that ID is bad theology.

Henry's full article can be found on Threads from Henry's Web .

Why is ID bad theology and why is this assessment shared among even conservative Christian scholars? Neufeld explains:

"If you are wondering why there is a split amongst conservative Christians over ID, it is simply that many conservative Christians are saying either that this does not prove or that it is not even trying to prove anything that actually works within their theology."

Going further, he asserts, "I don’t accept ID precisely because I believe that the universe is designed."

I'm not going to do all your work for you; you'll have to read the article and come back and comment here and in the forum.

I am still digesting Henry's article, but I did respond to him with this:

Henry,

>>I would say that while Paul does say that one can find God through creation, he doesn't offer any guarantee that we'll all find out everything, or that we'll get everything right. I think "clear enough" would be a good equivalent there.<<

My theology professor, Bill Hendricks, in his lecture on revelation, said that God has not revealed everything about Himself, but what He has revealed is true to who He is and adequate for us to know Him and relate to Him.

All Paul really guaranteed in Romans 1 was that nature offered enough revelation to point us toward "awe" "wonder" and that in human rebellion, we rejected even that.

Psalm 19 is a two-parter in my view - the revelation through creation which is adequate as a "call to worship," refined by the spoken word in the second part of the Psalm that reveals even more information.

I'll be interested in seeing how this develops ..."

Indeed I will.

Romans 1:18-20

18 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 - Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 - For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

We like our excuses. We thrive on them, depend upon them, and retreat to them whenever we are backed into a corner by the grey ghost of personal responsibility.

At the same time, we flaunt our freedom and declare it to be one of our highest values. We assert our rights to choose our destinies and determine our own fates. We lock ourselves into a very perplexing situation.

That is because, if we really are free, we have made our choices and must live with them. Among those choices are mercy or wrath, embrace of truth or willful ignorance, and faith or rejection when it comes to the divine revelation.

We are without excuse for several reasons:

• God's revelation is compelling.
• He has made the invisible visible (20). Not only has He spoken through His verbal and written Word, but Paul suggests that had He not done so, creation itself presents enough evidence of His holiness, power, and might to convict us. Even in ignorance we ought to have sought Him to worship Him.
• What do you see when you look around?
• How does your view of creation inform you about the nature of God?
  
• People really do know the truth (who hold the truth in unrighteousness -v. 18) It is not what we don't know that condemns us, but what we know and suppress.
• Consider ways that we suppress the truth in our own lives.
• Consider how we might return from this willfulness by first recognizing it as such and reorder our thinking, anchoring it again to truth.
  

• Our rebellion is considerable.
• We are ungodly. We have rebelled not only against God, but against our own true selves, the people we were made to be in His image. We were made to be godly and are not.
• Do you really understand the "you" that you were meant to be?
• What would a "godly you" look like? What potential are you not realizing because of what you refuse to be?
  
• We are unrighteous. There is nothing "right" about us. We are not rightly related to God and we are not headed in the right direction. That lack of "rightness" is unrighteousness.
• Consider righteousness in terms of relationship. What is right about your relationship with God? How about your human relationships? How about your relationship with yourself?
• Consider righteousness in terms of direction. Are you headed in the right direction? If you continue in the way you are going, where will you end up?
  

• God's righteousness is consistent.
• God is God. He is eternal and is eternally consistent. His wrath is His indignation at anything against His own character. He cannot and will not vary His nature to suit our whims or allow for our failures.
  
• Try to swim against the tide of a roaring, mighty river and you will experience wrath. Try to beat down the winds of a hurricane and you will experience wrath.
• How much mightier and true to Himself do you suppose God is?
• God manifests Himself. When we align ourselves with Him, that manifestation comes across as welcoming, gracious, merciful, and loving. When we resist His grace, that manifestation is a storm that we call wrath. The question for us is how we will respond to His revelation: as an indictment or as an invitation. He will not change, but we can.
• You have a choice to make.
• What will it be?
  

(Romans 1:11-17) 11 -For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12 - That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. 13 - Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. 14 - I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15 - So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. 16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 - For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

The Roman Road weaves through the most basic instincts of human nature in a meticulous patter designed to show us how deeply we have disconnected from our most essential relationships, how profoundly we need to return, and how hopeful and possible that return is through a simple message called "the gospel."

It is all about relationship.

Letters are wonderful. E-Mail is nearly miraculous. Any medium that helps us connect with each other is a blessing, but nothing beats person-to-person meeting between fellow humans. Nothing compares to a one on one meeting between God and man.

It is in that meeting that the just begin to live by faith. It is in those meetings between believers where God is present that spiritual gifts are imparted, mutual encouragement is shared, and people are established, built up, grounded, and made stronger.

Paul often wanted to go to Rome, not to see the great architecture or experience its granduer, but to meet with his fellow believers. He wanted to "have some fruit" among them and that fruit would come through a sharing of the gospel/good news.

Paul's primary and vertical relationship with God informed everything about his horizontal relationships with other human beings. In this light, he makes three strong statements about his burning drive to come to them:

I am a debtor - He was a man under conscription.

• Paul did not see himself as a volunteer soldier. In God's army there are always volunteers and draftees. Paul was a draftee. He wasn't looking for a light that night on the road to Damascus, but he saw one anyway and every road from then on became his Roman Road. It has been said (I heard it from Frank Pollard), "Because I know if, I owe it."

• His debt was to the Jews. From the Jews Paul had received his heritage and his formative spiritual education. Like us, He had come to know of Yahweh because of the Torah. While he doesn't state his debt specifically here, he does elsewhere.

• His debt was to the barbarians (and he seems to include all non-Greeks here, even his own countrymen, the Jews). He enters into the language of the people and their feelings of superiority as heirs of Greco-Roman civilization as well as into the sense of inferiority the disenfranchised may have felt. He has a debt to them - all of them. No one was a greater advocate for the multi-cultural relevance of the church and its message than the apostle Paul.

• His debt was to the Greeks as well. They had contributed much to his thinking, but because of God's great gift of the gospel, he had even more to bring to them. In displaying his own sense of calling to the grander mission of crossing cultural barriers with the good news, we are challenged today with the same call.

• His debt was furthermore to the wise and the unwise. There is no exclusivity in the gospel. It is at the same time, intellectually challenging, and childishly simple. Paul was ready to share the good news at anyone's level at any time. So must we be ready.

I am willing and eager - He was a man under compulsion.

• Paul's was a deep, internal passion that made him willing, ready, and eager to share the news that was so life changing and profound in his own life. His compulsion went to the core of his being. It defined it and drove him.

• The Road to Rome had an appeal to Paul, but it was "also." He hints that he is not bound by any one location. He has the world in his heart generally as well as specific mission points along the way. He was able to think globally and act locally to borrow from Tip O'Neil.

• In all things, we might say that Paul was a driven man. What drives you?

I am not ashamed - He was a man under conviction.
Here is what Paul believed in more than anything else about the gospel: It was and is powerful. When it is shared, it works.

• It is the power of God ... God's message is His power. It proceeds from Him verbally and visibly. He accompanies it, not just sending it forth and forgetting about it. He is present whenever the good news is proclaimed.

• It is His power to salvation. It produced a miracle in the lives of people - daily miracles of salvation, redemption, forgiveness, hope, and purpose. Paul had no desire to beat people over the head with the gospel. His motive was to share it because of the good it would produce in people's lives - and he had faith that it would do so.

• It is that kind of power to people who believe it, embrace it, and receive it by faith. It is not coercive or bund up with deception. People do not receive the gospel through manipulation but by hearing and opening themselves to it impact.

• It comes to everyone regardless of their background. Historically, it came to Jews first and has special significance to Jews, but it is also for non-Jews.

• It reveals God's simplest and yet, most profound truth about Himself with amazing implications for men and women on this planet: God's righteousness is about people living by faith. That's how they get right with Him; that is what affirms who He is among people. That is what He desires - as simple as that- faith from first to last is the righteousness of God.

(Romans 1:8-10) 8 - First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9 - For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; 10 - Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

Christian fellowship is a cause for thanksgiving.

• We first reconnect with the reality that all of our thanksgiving is through Jesus Christ. As the center of all things, He is the reason for gratitude and the agent of God's grace.
  
• Then, we reaffirm our pleasure in seeing people in whose lives we have invested much grow in faith..
• Finally, we resound with gratitude that the faith that we see can be seen by others - so much so that it is reported far and wide..
  

Christian fellowship is a crucible for service.

• It provides a larger context for wholehearted, spirit deep service to God.
• It is good news service because it is acted out in the propogation of the gospel whcih as the power to expand the borders of our fellowship/partnership and increase its reach and sweeten its blessings.
• It is the gospel of God's Son who proclaimed that He would draw all people to Himself, thus providing the common ground where all can meet around the cross.
  

Christian fellowship is a constancy for believers.

• It overflows into prayers that do not cease.
  
• It's outcome is face to face meeting of people who share a common love for the Lord.

Christian fellowship is a call for presence.

• It is indespensible. Nothing beats being there.
  
• It is incarnational.
• It is inspirational.
  

How to Introduce Yourself to the World

(Rom 1:1 -7 KJV) Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Know Your Identity

• You can identify yourself as a servant of Christ. Paul uses the word for bond-slave here and it is the highest honor of his life to see himself that way and identify himself as such.
• Called to be sent. An apostle is one who is sent out, but he must first be called to the one who will send him forth. We have been called to Jesus in order to be sent into the world.
• Separated unto the gosepel of God - We are set apart for a purpose and that purpose is the living and sharing of the good news of God, a good news that cannot be contained, and cause that cannot be ignored. Set apart as something/someone with a singualr purpose, we are declared holy unto God, useful only for what He deems important.
  

Know Your Message

• The promised good news is all about Jesus Christ from start to finish.
• Within that category and included in all that he is are resurrection, grace, apostleship, obedience, and belonging.

Know Your Audience

• Location (at Rome) and
  
• Vocation (beloved of God and called to be saints).