Reprobates
Ever had difficulty with the doctrine of reprobation? I'm here to help.
All the people you see today so easily doing the work of Satan (and in the light now! they're not even hiding it anymore) --- are reprobates.
No, they are not just mislead fallen humans who could be born again at some point. Silly! They are robotic reprobates methodically and surgically carrying out the program of evil Satan inspires them to carry out. They never miss a fucking beat. Because they are robotic reprobates.
Joy in the fact that they will be in hell for eternity.
Meanwhile try to endure the sight of such demonic retards getting one victory after another over you and everything good, beautiful, and true.
11 Comments:
I’m coming to believe that God is in meticulous moment by moment direct control over all of it. He creates, upholds and sustains the lot of it.
W.
I don't even watch the news anymore, and it still seeps into my mind, and I lose it. Imagine what S. is going through in Australia! Canada is pretty bad too, though.
Hebrews 1:[3] who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Acts 17:[28] for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
Colossians 1:[17] And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
So even things which we might consider antithetical to God‘s nature he uses ultimately for his good purposes.
Philippians 4:6[6] Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; [7] and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
This is the old thing though where you don't want to acquiesce to Satan. What you're saying though us don't be uselessly angry about what's going on. A good, difficult reminder.
That is the Work in Christian language. Don’t become completely identified, remember God is directly controlling EVERYTHING! He is creating, upholding and sustaining it all right down to the last particle. That’s a direct assault on our vanity, worldly pride and self will. We want to be islands unto ourselves, mini Gods relying on our own worldly efforts to please God.
Satan is part of the creation, God created and controls him, he can’t do anything without Gods permission. W.
It's tricky though because you don't want to veer into determinism or Muslim kismet-like fatalism.
God is sovereign in creation, providence, and grace. That covers everything. He is also the first cause. Yet He also operates via secondary causes. That is where we come in. And though God is sovereign we are still responsible. And prayer is meaningful. There is some mystery in this. I think it has to do with infinity. Because since secondary causes can be either determined, contingent, or free this creates a matrix of cause and effect that is infinitely complex. God sees it. It's like 2+2 to Him. He's omniscient. We are not thus our choices are made in a real moral theatre. God knew what Adam would choose, but from Adam's perception it was a real choice.
Given Heb 1:3, Col 1:17, Acts 17:28 it now seems obvious that God determined all things. If he upholds all things moment by moment to the point that should he remove his power everything would instantly disappear, then it becomes obvious he controls everything. That doesn’t mean at the storyline level we don’t make real decisions and choices etc but we have whatever level of control God has determined we have. At the transcendental level he sustains and upholds all things. It really is the only way to make sense of it without appealing to mystery which has always been a problem for Calvinism.
Hebrews 1: [3] who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
If God must be metaphysically disconnected from you when you are sinning then he is not upholding your existence by his power - and that would contradict Hebrews 1:3. Denying that would mean you affirm another ultimate power (a big no no). There is no mystery here. I mean there is mystery in God’s existence, but the bible does speak clearly on all this and doesn’t affirm free will. We can’t have free will if God is to remain sovereign and we don’t want to venture into various forms of deism. -W
A little more - On human responsibility:
Human responsibility is an aspect of creation and is one of the ways God has chosen to make creation.
So God has chosen that people will exist, that they will be given commands, that will obey or disobey those commands - and be held responsible. And whether or not God is in control of all that is irrelevant to what human responsibility is as a concept. It’s nothing more than you being responsible to the commands of God. So there is no contradiction there.
Calvinism teaches that God controls all things, determines all things, purposed all things, planned all things, and that he holds people responsible. Yes, it teaches both are true. People assume (quite wrongly) that responsibility presupposes freedom from God, which would make it a contradiction. God holding people responsible is part of what he’s determined. -W
In my explanation at base I'm recognizing the Creator/creation divide. From God’s point of view His decree plays out as He decrees it. From our point of view the matrix of secondary cause and effect is so infinitely complex that it's almost like a living organism. Anyway the difference is like as a galaxy to a solar system. Different cosmoses.
Appealing to mystery is not a fault of Calvinism. Deut. 29:29. Calvin referenced it often. Rationalism and putting reason on the throne of the Holy Spirit is to be avoided.
One angle on evil no theologian I know of has taken is we have bodies that evil can be inflicted on. Originally Adam was to be glorified after his probation. A glorified body can't be harmed. Also, a world where everyone has what God has can't suffer from theft. This makes evil defunct. But Adam fell, and creation fell as well. So forget free will as an explanation and just talk about these easily harmed bodies and the scarcity if riches in this world.
I meant to say Calvinist theologians often appeal to mystery - in places where they shouldn’t. Sproul at times appealed to mystery and I now believe he was wrong because God in Heb 1:3 tells us that he upholds all things, AND God tells us that he holds us responsible. He can say both because he upholds all things at the transcendental level and determines that he can hold us responsible at the storyline level, where we actually make real choices, decisions and exercise our will. Everything that takes place on the storyline level is also determined by God including the point that our actions, choice and decision are real and meaningful. We like to believe we have our own little live that God knows nothing about where we can get some independence from God. Remember, he upholds everything… This is not rationalism it’s biblical. Nowhere in the bible does it say that just because God determines all things that he can’t hold us responsible. This answers many of the questions that Sproul and others didn’t, they appealed to mystery instead of just stating what the bible actually says and leaving it at that.
Deuteronomy 29 [29] "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
‘but those things which are revealed belong to us’ We should be wary of delving into the mystery’s of God but this isn’t one of them. -W
Post a Comment
<< Home