Something Happened: Why Wrestling With God Is Essential | Pete Enns | Watershed Charlotte

Is hell real? What does is mean that God never changes? What do we do when our ideas about God no longer make sense? Guest speaker, Dr. Pete Enns, shares with us how the Biblical story of Jacob and Enns' own experiences make it clear that wrestling with God is not a problem but the entire point of living a life of faith.

[@darkknightsds]

These are very Western, Protestant problems. Catholic and the Orthodox have long understood that Genesis is not telling a literal story. As well, the New Testament authors are not at all concerned about what happens to us immediately after we die. The focus is on the bringing of God's kingdom and the new creation that the resurrection of Christ points to. I really do feel bad for Evangelicals who have to have this crisis.

[@rogersacco4624]

Introduction To The Cognitive Science of Religion by Claire White

[@halfvisual]

I just recently converted to Christianity and wrestling with God has been the central concept that God seemed to assure me of. Things wouldn’t be neat and tidy. My one concern is the thought that at what point are we no longer wrestling with God, but rather stumbling off the mat? I notice that these bouts with God sometimes lessen my own sense of closeness to God. How then can I say I was wrestling with Him and not simply listening to the opposition?

[@Air-wr4vv]

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

[@BarbaraDiederich-ut8zg]

Well put. You are a new Christian, I've been a Christian for 28 years and the last sentence you wrote describes how I feel at times. I just trust that I"m not taking Him by surprise and he can deal with me if I'm going off the matt. God bless you. You're in for the ride of your life.

[@irenebernardi703]

Amazing. Thank you for sharing

[@johntobey1558]

I thought the emergent church had died. Why is this gentleman trying to revive it. He lost his faith at Harvard Divinity and has been confusing people ever since.

[@mad4nertz]

“Emergent” is now called “Progressive Theology.” By the way, Timothy Keller agrees with Peter Enns that God used Darwinian evolution. Keller has much in common with progressive “Christians.” Also, progressive theology goes back to emergent goes back to Walter Rauschenbach and the Social Gospel” theology of early 1900s, “liberation theology” of 1950s, “Sojourners” organization, the Christian Left, and so forth. Basically it’s all Marxism - the goal is to make God invisible and claim to treat humanity better than God does, to replace God with a human oligarchy - whether they are elected “civil servants” or “elite/celebrity pastors.”

[@marcusanthony488]

He didn't lose his faith, he is honestly wrestling with it

[@stephengorman1025]

We are saved by the faith of Christ and as we wrestle with God our faith is brought into alignment (resonance) with the faith of the Son who always pleases the Father. The faith that we are called to in the trust that God is our Father, always Good and is Love. It is this that transforms our lives and enables us to walk worthy of the calling we have received. God wants us to live righteously because it is good not because we're frightened of what he will do to us if we don't. Perfect Love casts out fear and this is Good News for All people.

[@sojourner8229]

You said that very well (asking why Peter Enns is trying to revive the emergent church, and that he lost his faith at Harvard Divinity and "has been confusing people ever since"). And the people he confuses end up thinking they had made progress even as they go backward.

[@goodnight787]

​@@sojourner8229how exactly have they gone backwards?

[@monicadhaliwal1791]

Please Help me I Believe Jesus Is The Son of God and God The Son of The Holy Trinity I Believe Jesus Shed His Blood and Died in the place to Pay for All my Sins He was Buried Then 3 Days Later Jesus Arose From The Dead!!! But I am struggling with some Sins that I honestly don’t know how to quit I hate my Sins But I genuinely don’t know how to stop them Am I still Saved because of my faith in Jesus or am I Not Saved because of my Sins? Thank you for All your Help and Time God Bless you

[@downenout8705]

Why the need to post this? Perhaps you should ask yourself why the god you believe hasn't already given you the answer. You just might discover that you don't have good reasons or sufficient evidence to justify your god beliefs.

[@derkardinal9781]

Sadly, there is no Gospel in whatever remains of Pete Enns's theology. Also, although he does reference a "story" in the Bible, he clearly is not treating the Bible as the unique authoritative source of spiritual truth. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).

[@ryanp8159]

Bless his heart, my man is so cookie-cutter in his argumentation. It lets me know that we in the West all too often, ignorantly presuppose the white man's religion (Secular Humanism) and the white man's basis for "human" anthropology, psychology, and ontology (the theory of evolution). I thought that I was gonna get something deep here, and this dude stumbled and failed on the most basic objections of our age. It's too ironic. He then filters his theology through his presuppositions and we get the same ol', same ol' trajectory (aka journey). I can definitely empathize...however, can we please go deeper than this? A little time under tension and thinking critically under stress will go a long ways, folks. If you're going to deconstruct, do so with intellectual honesty and rigor. Take aim at "organized religion" for sure, just don't forget to include subtle, inconspicuous orthodoxies as well. And most importantly, substantiate your tools. Make sure that you can account for you objections objectively. Otherwise, realize that you are a thief, relinquish the tools and go seek out a basis your tools of deconstruction.

[@rodfriesen4370]

Thanks for clearly showing us that your wisdom surpasses and eclipses Dr Peter Enns

[@ryanp8159]

@@rodfriesen4370 I'm detecting some serious sincerity here. Thank you kindly. In all seriousness, sorry for pointing out modern, Western folly. I know that it's beyond the bounds of allowable critique.

[@rodfriesen4370]

@@ryanp8159 I admire your sarcasm. That's my love language

[@rodfriesen4370]

@Ryan P seriously though... at 51 years old, I have changed so much. My dogmatic, systematic theology had to be set aside. God didn't fit that box anymore. It's like my eyes are again open to WONDER! Really hard to let that certainty go. I miss it sometimes

[@ryanp8159]

@@rodfriesen4370 At 41, after battling through a few existential and theology criseses, I can pretty firmly say that dogma is pretty pervasive, even amongst folks who use the term pejoratively. It appears the only true divine revelation we modern folks want is that god glories in man alone. If one trespasses this fundamental tenant then he is to be tarred and feathered with labels like "fundamentalist" for his heretical beliefs.