I just graduated from Hebron Colony Ministries last night. All in all, it was a good experience. There is a bond that develops among the students that is helpful in getting you through your issues. There were a few occasions where I almost walked away again but persevered with the help of the power of the Gospel. I got to spend a lot of time reading the Scriptures too, although they took away all the books I had with me when I got there. I was not too happy about that. They put them in storage and I could not access them at all even though I tried a couple of times. So, I had to sit under teaching that emphasized universal atonement and the surrender of your will. Forensic theology was considered head knowledge and not that important, ie. it is the Spirit working and spiritual experience that was emphasized, minus the declaration of justification by God and the placing of the elect into the death of Christ as described in Romans chapters 4, 6 and 8 (among other places too). I guess the imputation of Christs righteousness is not that significant a thing to them. What is important to them is the Spirit working inward renewal and righteousness into the sinner. Even though the Apostle Paul says over and over again in his epistles that he gloried in the cross of Christ alone. That is what it means to abide in the vine of Christ. It was deeply ingrained in their thinking and not worth my time arguing with them. I tried a little but stopped when I realized it was not going to do any good. I will have lots to say about it in future posts. I missed blogging on my facebook page a lot- especially feeding on the dialog about the Gospel. The three main staff members at Hebron, who ran the show and guarded the teaching there, were all believers in universal atonement, ie. Jesus died for everybody. When I tried to tell them that you have to condition salvation on the sinner then they disagreed vehemently. Choosing and surrender were up to the sinner and grace could be resisted, according to what they taught. They had some pretty sophisticated scriptural arguments in backing their positions (from what I could gather they drew a lot from Wayne Grudems Systematic Theology). I was even told, in front of the whole student body, that what I believed about limited or definitive atonement was from the pit of hell and that I had to stop discussing that with others. Surprisingly, God gave me the strength to be the minority (me against all 40 others). I had a peace about it the whole time I was there and made subtle remarks in my graduation testimony that I got away with. Everyone afterward told me I did a good job with the testimony. I guess they did not pick up on the parts that were from the pit of hell. I should write out my graduation testimony on this facebook page. I was able to write letters to my family members who I needed to make amends with and they all had favorable responses to my efforts at reconciliation. I even got a letter in response from my brother Bob. He wants to work things out with me. God is good-all the time!! More later.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 18:33:06 +0000
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