Suns 2012 Off Season Thoughts

I just posted my thoughts on the Phoenix Suns 2012 off season situation.

My suggestion for a path forward would be:

1. Try to resign Nash. Hopefully he will agree to a reasonable contract and will either take less to attract another solid free agent or two or perhaps the Suns can front load the contract to pay him more this year and less next (and possibly the year after) when they pursue the 2013 free agents. Why? With Nash, the Suns will again compete for the playoffs, will sell more tickets, and perhaps attract at least one more solid free agent. He is also the one you would like to be mentoring your next point guard. He is the face of the Suns and should retire with us. People have been forecasting his decline since before he left Dallas. He continues to amaze. I don't doubt that he can compete at a high level for another 2-3 years. Besides if you are not going to spend the money on Nash, who are you going to spend it on?
2. Go for Goran if Nash leaves. Obviously we never should have traded Dragic. Brooks has yet to show that he is an upgrade AND we gave up a first round draft pick. Arggh! Anyway, he is a talented PG who has the potential to be something special. He is a known quantity who knows the coach and the system.
3. Bring back Hill. Hill is another solid veteran who is a great example and representative for the organization. He still can contribute and will probably be reasonable with the salary. It would be great if he retires with the Suns and stays with the organization.
4. Crawford or Allen at the 2. Crawford or Allen would be great additions. Crawford probably has longer term potential but Allen is still a star whom Suns medicine might be able to work their magic on.
5. Else Shannon Brown. The Suns could do worse than sign Shannon Brown again. With more playing time, he could continue to develop into a dynamic shooting guard.
6. Pursue Gerald Wallace. He would be a nice upgrade at a weak position for the Suns.
7. Look for short term deals thereafter. After pursuing the names above, I think they should just look to round out their roster with as solid a group of players as possible with 1 year deals like they did last season. I would consider bringing back Michael Redd again and even consider some of the big guys mentioned (and others like Lou Amundson).

Hiddenness of God

Hiddenness of God

"I've never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith -— it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe." - Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

According to Christian theology, an invisible god created the universe and sustains and rules it today, making this god the most powerful force in the universe. But, why then is he so hidden from us? We know of many lesser invisible things, such as gravity, electrons, and magnetism, which we have discovered, measured, and described by their effects on visible things, but such evidences of a god are highly ambiguous at best.

from http://new.exchristian.net/2012/01/hiddeness-of-god.html

If God wants us to know him, and even punishes us for not knowing him, why does He hide from us?

Does God hide from us?

Yes?

1. Invisible God (1 Tim 1:17)
2. No longer walks with us like He walked with Adam in the Garden (Gen. 2-3)
3. Only reveals Himself supernaturally at rare and special moments

1. Garden
2. Cain and Abel
3. Noah
4. Abraham
5. Jacob
6. Joseph
7. Moses
8. Joshua
9. Judges
10. First 3 Kings of Israel
11. Prophets
12. Jesus
13. Apostles

4. Usually uses prophets / intermediary
5. Jesus was indirect about His deity

1. speaking in parables
2. not clearly and definitively asserting His divinity until pressed by the High Priest

6. He uses our behavior in His absence as a basis for judgement

1. Judging of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:32-46) (What they did to others they did to him)
2. Ruler that went away and sent servants to collect rent

7. Admonishes us to seek Him (implying that He is hiding in some sense) (Deut 4:29, 1 Chr 22:19, Ps 14:2, Matt 7:8).  We are also instructed that people do evil because they do not seek Him (2 Chr 12:14, Ps 10:4).
8. We walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7)
9. Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

No?

1. Evidence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers
2. Evident through Creation (Rom 1:20)

1. Visible and invisible worlds
2. Information
3. Laws of logic
4. Morality
5. Personality

2. He communicated to numerous people, all descended from the same parents

1. First, Adam, then Noah
2. They could be expected to pass that information on to their descendants

3. He left a record in the form of the Bible, history, and tradition (Heb 1:1)

1. We seem to know an awful lot about this “hidden” and “invisible” God
2. How?

4. Jesus was sent on a mission to “seek and save” those who are lost (Luke 19:10).

1. Jesus is THE image of the invisible God (Col 1:15)
2. Jesus said if you have seen him you have seen the Father (John 14:9)

So what is up?

It seems evident that the Biblical God intends to leave us plenty of evidence of His existence, but it is generally indirect evidence.  

He could make Himself known to every person at all times but He clearly does not intend to.  

Why doesn’t God fully reveal Himself to all people at all times?

1. He does not have to give us an answer.  

1. If people choose to disbelieve, that is up to them.  
2. He does not owe us an explanation beyond what He has given.
3. Any belief system has to account for all of the evidence.  Disbelieving in Christianity does not help you understand the world any better.  Instead it leaves gaping holes in one’s understanding of the world.

1. They are deliberately neglecting the substantial evidence of His existence and instead choosing to believe an illogical system (i.e., atheism as it can not account for the existence of the non-material logic, information, morality, etc.).
2. Christian belief system is logically consistent belief system that is the best explanation for all of life, philosophy, history, science, etc.

2. Seeing is not “believing”

4. James 2:19: You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. (see James 2:19)
5. Hebrews 11:6: And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (See Hebrews 11:6)
6. “Seeing” God does not force belief / trust / love for Him.

1. It is NOT just about believing there is a God

7. Choosing to love and glorify God is an act of the will
8. So, even if He revealed Himself we would know that He exists, but we wouldn’t necessarily like that fact.
9. “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’  “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:19-31)

3. Everyone already inherently knows there is a God

1. The Bible states everyone knows there is a God, they just suppress that knowledge and deceive themselves. (Rom 1:21-23)
2. How often and instinctively do people cry out to God in a crisis?

4. It could be an act of kindness to them, as they are less culpable / guilty for rejecting the lesser light than they would be for rejecting the greater light they could be given.

1. Luke 12:47-48: 47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

5. In Romans 9, Paul begins to address God in relation to the Problem of Evil, and he gives us a “what if” that also is relevant here:

1. Romans 9:13-24: 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[e] 14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[f] 16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[g] 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. 19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[h] 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? 22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? (see Romans 9:13-24)
2. Paul is saying people are God’s creation to dispose of as He sees fit.  Some people are made ultimately to receive the wrath of God.  God is revealing / demonstrating something of His character through His wrath (namely, His holiness, justice, and hatred of evil).  To whom is He demonstrating this? Minimally to the objects of His Mercy.
3. Basically, we all are guilty of sin.  He is choosing to bestow mercy on some.  They are those who walk by “faith” and not by sight. They choose to seek after God to understand and know Him.  The objects of His wrath are those who reject the light that they have.

6. Author analogy:

1. God is like the author of a novel.  We are characters in His novel.  We live in the world He created.  
2. Do the characters in the novel alway know the author of the novel?  Does the author owe them something?

7. Why do people hide themselves from others?  

1. So that others don’t know they are there, so that they will see them do things they would not normally do when they are around other people (like the Parable of the Ten Minas,Matthew 25:32-46)  
2. It is a simple truth that people act differently when they think they are not being observed.
3. God knows what they will do, but it is obvious to all (including the person) when He allows them to do it.  

Conclusion

The gist of the article is that Christianity must not be true because Christians say God wants everyone to believe in Him but then doesn’t show Himself obviously to them.  An all-powerful God would be able to do what He wants so there must be no all-powerful God.

This is similar to the argument against God based on the problem of evil.  Either an all-powerful God does not exist or He is not good (i.e. good enough to prevent evil or to save everyone).

Of course, the argument is invalid because it assumes what an all-good God would do, in both cases.  Ultimately, the god that is being refuted is not the God of the Bible.

Like it or not, believer or nonbeliever, the truth is that God does hide from us.  He has left sufficient evidence pointing to His existence and explaining His plans for mankind.  His plans are NOT to save everyone.  His plans are to save those He chooses … those who seek after Him.

How is one saved?  By believing there is a God?  Even the God of the Bible?  No!  Demons know there is a God and still reject Him.  The religious leaders of Jesus’ time claimed to believe in the God of the Bible.  John 3 explains God’s plan well:

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Believing in Him does not mean simply believing that the Son exists, but rather placing your trust in Him to do what He said He would do, to have faith in the reliability, honesty, and benevolence of the Son.

The author of the article seems to be an atheist, so theoretically he believes that his atheistic worldview makes more sense than the Christian worldview he is critiquing.  However, if Christianity has a “problem” with evil, atheists have a “problem” of evil and good.  If Christianity has a problem explaining the hiddenness of God, atheists have a problem explaining the non-hiddenness of God (e.g., philosophy, Bible, information, logic).