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Do YOU Have an IMMORTAL SOUL? |
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OpenViewTheism 1 |
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OpenViewTheism 2 |
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Our TRUE Hope, the EARTH! |
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Only One Gospel-Peter and Paul |
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OpenViewTheism 2
On the other hand, let us suppose that we lived in a world that does allow for chance. How would my exhaustive definite foreknowledge be affected by it? Let’s pretend that I tell you that I foretold of a series of events that must transpire in your life within a given frame of time. Next, let us also assume that I do the same thing with twelve other friends of yours. As you cross paths, each of your futures would affect the others. I must, of necessity, govern your every move so that at no time do I risk the ripple effect of one prophecy falling out of line or else it could bring the future of the others out of line. So then, the events in your lives must fall down as a series of perfectly arranged dominoes. Every event must take place at the right time and in the right fashion. To have one move slightly out of place threatens the future of the others. This sounds complex enough on a small scale, but let us up the odds, shall we? Let us increase the population to over 6 billion people. With the added moves and events I must watch even closer to make sure that everything falls in line with my foreknowledge at all times or else one wrong move would thwart the entire model. The ripple effect would be disastrous. Any wrong move on a scale of that magnitude would destroy the domino effect and thus disprove the model. Now let us add an unknown variable. I know that this sounds far reaching, but bear with me. We will call this unknown variable “chance”. Chance would serve as a time gap in this illustration. It would be like watching a slide presentation. I must have all slides in a row and laid out in organizational fashion so that no piece is left without its sequential slide. I absolutely need every slide to follow a logical order if I am to know everything that is to come to pass at all times. To be left with a gray area would mean that I did not know the slide presentation exhaustively (foreknowledge) and that it is a threat to my model. I am sure that I do not need to go further with this illustration for you to see my point. There can not be chance if I believe in exhaustive definite foreknowledge. In fact, it is impossible for me to allow for chance because if I am not bound to live in time and I have exhaustive definite foreknowledge, then chance has been willed out of the equation. If God operated in this model, then we can only conclude that he must guarantee every step that takes place. If God sees the very end as he does the present then there can be no room for chance, he must be the cause and the effect. If God predestinated anything, he would have to predestinate everything in order to reach his goal. We have the cliché’s of this Calvinistic model, haven’t we? “Everything that happens happens for a reason”. “There is no such thing as luck”. Now granted, there is no such thing as luck in the sense of a driving force that causes things to transpire. However, I dare say that in the Calvinistic model of God, “LUCK” and “God” could be used interchangeably and it would be the same effect.
Please bare these facts in mind as you continue to read this lesson…
What picture do you imagine a God of change would have picked if he decided to convey the message that he does NOT change? It would not be like this:
Jeremiah 18:1-2 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jeremiah 18:3-4 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jeremiah 18:5-6 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
Jeremiah 18:7-8 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
Jeremiah 18:9-10 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Jeremiah 18:11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jeremiah 18:12-13 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Galatians 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
THEY THOUGHT THAT THE SITUATION WAS ALREADY DECIDED! What needed to be changed in these texts to prove that God does NOT have E.D.F? If God wanted to show you that he sees the future as open, how else could he have said it? It is clear that God is operating with his creation. God, according to these texts, can and does repent based upon the actions of his creatures. In fact, according to Gal. 1:10, God was persuadable. Surely this could not exist in a world where there the future was definitely known!
Jeremiah 18:15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
Jeremiah 18:17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
What does creation tell us about God? It shows us that although God may have certain end goals in sight, he is not limited in how he can bring his will about. His will, depending upon circumstances, may even change based upon the events that he must act upon in time, but that does not change the fact that he is able to see his own counsel and purpose carried out in the end. It would be insane to suppose that this world was governed by a model of God that has exhaustive definite foreknowledge and knew no time limitations. If the Calvinism model is correct then God is judging his creation for doing what they could not help but do. Let us take a closer look at the handiwork of the Lord.
Jeremiah 18:3-4 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
How is it possible that the project that God was working on could be marred if God literally controlled all things? It is impossible. The only way to explain it is if God does not have exhaustive definite foreknowledge, God is limited to time, and men have absolute free will. But that is only possible if genuine chance does exist. Friend, “chance” does exist!
Luke 10:30-31 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Could this be any clearer? Even the Calvinistic bible translators use the word CHANCE as the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts demand.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
God is so powerful that he can accomplish his end goals even in a world full of true free will (sometimes called Libertarian Free Will) and chance. In fact, without chance, I would have to argue that if God did have EDF that he must create sin in order to accomplish his goals. If you ask some Calvinists that are consistent with their Calvinism, they will tell you that God does perform moral evil in order that greater good will be accomplished. That is how some explain WHY sin is in the world. God is perfect in his attributes; any addition to his attributes would eventually open the door for sin. The Greek philosophers of old feared that if they did not make God to be more powerful than all of the gods then God would be inferior, so to eliminate this threat they made God after the image that he desired him to be. Anyhow, in the descriptions of our Creator we see the following pictures:
Jeremiah 18:3-4 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Isaiah 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
A God that desired to bring man into this world and desired that man know him for who he is would surely present himself as a Creator that created everything in its completed state or at least did not bring order out of disorder. Do we have that view of God in the word of God?
Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:3-5 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
We see from creation that God is a God that LIKES CHANGE. That may have an ultimate goal in mind (creation of the world), but chooses to work through STEPS to accomplish his goals. God creates things and then reforms them as he goes along. He is a God that brings unity through division. The world was not in “chaos” per se but God did not create the world instantly as one perfect whole…he works towards it, though. That is Open View Theism and Dispensationalism. God works WITH his creation to accomplish his end goal. We see this illustrated in Genesis over and over again.
We saw from his confrontation with Adam that God has all present knowledge, knowing where and when to show up and with what to say to deal with man after his sin. Let me misprint this verse-the Calvin International Version:
C.I.V. Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see him name them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Now the correct rendering…What does it tell us? Again, if God wanted to show you that he did NOT have exhaustive definite foreknowledge, how would he need to change the following verse? I am sure we would agree that he would NOT have to alter the verse to prove that man had libertarian free will and that God operated in time and without exhaustive definite foreknowledge.
Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
That was a joke. There is no C.I.V. If you kept the above verse on at face value, only the Open View Model of God would be consistent. God wants his word to be plain to his people, it is those that are hardened that he tries to hide the truth from. Moses, an uninvolved third part records the mind of GodCalvinism denies their doctrine of the sovereignty of God. God invented language but when you read God telling man that something may or may not happen they call it an anthropapism and say that is just the best that God could do to inform man of what he meant. That God said what he said for the benefit of the people and that we can not TRULY understand God and his ways because we are so finite. YET, as his creation I can communicate with man on a level that he is incapable of doing. I have more sovereign control over God's invention of language than he does. God therefore, not man, is totally incoherent. God is now less than man and has a glory like unto an idol that can not declare his will or his purpose. It would also be dishonest to say that God did know what Adam would name the animals because that is simply not the image that is conveyed. Consistent, Open View Theology is NOT the threat to dispensationalism, it is consistent Calvinism. If we were to let the word of God state it’s case, it would be clear that God wants us to see that he does NOT have exhaustive definite foreknowledge, but that he delights in learning what his creation will do.
We do have other narrations in the book of Genesis that also depict God’s dealings with man. Plan “A” for God was for Cain to grow up and live a godly life for Christ. Eve never believed the Serpent Seed doctrine.
Genesis 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Genesis 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
By the way, did you catch the phrase “in the process of TIME”. Does it sound like God orchestrated the events in this chapter or not?
Genesis 4:6-7 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Does God wish to convey the thought that he is manipulating circumstances according to a divine plan or that he lets things happen on their own? We know how Cain KILLS Abel and God judges…
Genesis 4:12-13 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Genesis 4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
God does REACT with us and works with us. He is responsive to us even when we face judgment. He shows mercy.
Jeremiah 5:18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.
Genesis 4:15-16 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
God still left the future open to himself. He did not want to see Cain killed. If something is God’s will, it usually will NOT happen when it comes to him acting with his creatures.
Genesis 4:23-24 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.
Despite what man does, God takes lemons and creates lemonade.
Genesis 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
In fact, it is through God’s “plan B” that the Son of God was brought forth into this world. When we look at the genealogy account of Christ we discover that his roots are traced through the seed of Seth.
Luke 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Luke 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,
1 Peter 1:18-19 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1 Peter 1:20-21 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
And the rest, as they say, is history. God brings unity through division. He works with his creatures in a give and take relationship to accomplish his goals. He uses the natural to accomplish the supernatural.
Mark 10:26-27 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
The strength of God works WITH the weakness of man and WITH God, all things are possible.
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