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I'm partially through, and I have come across a statement that concerns me...
This concerns me for the reason that though Jesus prayed, "Your will be done," His prayer was not born from ignorance, but obedience and submission.
This is a point I have made several times in the recent past. However, I'd go a step further, and say that God controls life and death not only according to His Wisdom, but also to His Love. This is not to say that I agree entirely that God causes every death... Merely that those He does allow to happen, happen according to Wisdom or Love; Those perpetuated by the enemy, He uses for the good.
I respectfully disagree. Perhaps, behind all disability, gained naturally. However, disease was not present upon this earth until the fall of man. It was part of the curse put on the earth as a result. Does disease exist BECAUSE of God? Yes. Is He directly responsible for this person or that person being struck by it? According to the Bible, I'd have to go with rarely.
From what I have read and studied, God normally causes disease as a punishment, or as motivation. However, I can see instances throughout history where He has caused someone to be born with some sort of physical drawback to further the Kingdom.
Again, I feel the law of exceptions applies to much of this argument.
Here we go again... I do not believe subscribe to Boyd's ideology, but neither can I support Edward's. Either the Bible is true, or it is not. Either God is All-knowing, All-seeing, Omnipresent, etc., or He is not.
Again, God sees the beginning from the end. In a more current statement, God stands at the beginning and the end, and sees all in between.
Yes, He gave us the gift of free will. However, He could also see the moment He gave it what would happen to the very end. For this reason, the plans that He puts into motion would seem to suggest that He ordained the initial decision, when in fact, he simply knew it'd be made prior to the decision-maker's mere existence.
In the case of Christ's death, it was Christ's sacrifice that was ordained from the beginning. Look at where it was initially foretold! God, in the instant He created man, knew all that would happen. Thus knowing, has moved through history, a Divine Hand guiding the flow of history, while allowing it to unfold, in general, as man's free will determines.
The interesting thing to note, here, is that just as God notes all the evil decisions, so to does He see all of the righteous ones: Salvation, seeking His Divine Will, and so on. Therefore, not only can we gather that God guides history through Divinity, but also through those who have given their lives to serve Him.
I'm partially through, and I have come across a statement that concerns me...
Jesus nor his disciples seemed to understand God's absolute power as absolute control.
This concerns me for the reason that though Jesus prayed, "Your will be done," His prayer was not born from ignorance, but obedience and submission.
Life belongs to God. He owes it to no one. He may give it and take it according to his infinite wisdom.
This is a point I have made several times in the recent past. However, I'd go a step further, and say that God controls life and death not only according to His Wisdom, but also to His Love. This is not to say that I agree entirely that God causes every death... Merely that those He does allow to happen, happen according to Wisdom or Love; Those perpetuated by the enemy, He uses for the good.
In other words, behind all disease and disability is the ultimate will of God.
I respectfully disagree. Perhaps, behind all disability, gained naturally. However, disease was not present upon this earth until the fall of man. It was part of the curse put on the earth as a result. Does disease exist BECAUSE of God? Yes. Is He directly responsible for this person or that person being struck by it? According to the Bible, I'd have to go with rarely.
From what I have read and studied, God normally causes disease as a punishment, or as motivation. However, I can see instances throughout history where He has caused someone to be born with some sort of physical drawback to further the Kingdom.
Again, I feel the law of exceptions applies to much of this argument.
He has his purposes for every roll of the dice in Las Vegas and every seemingly absurd turn of events in the universe.
More that, living outside of earthly time, and according to the Word, He sees the end from the beginning, thus He knows each role, and has already planned accordingly.
More that, living outside of earthly time, and according to the Word, He sees the end from the beginning, thus He knows each role, and has already planned accordingly.
Here we go again... I do not believe subscribe to Boyd's ideology, but neither can I support Edward's. Either the Bible is true, or it is not. Either God is All-knowing, All-seeing, Omnipresent, etc., or He is not.
Again, God sees the beginning from the end. In a more current statement, God stands at the beginning and the end, and sees all in between.
Yes, He gave us the gift of free will. However, He could also see the moment He gave it what would happen to the very end. For this reason, the plans that He puts into motion would seem to suggest that He ordained the initial decision, when in fact, he simply knew it'd be made prior to the decision-maker's mere existence.
In the case of Christ's death, it was Christ's sacrifice that was ordained from the beginning. Look at where it was initially foretold! God, in the instant He created man, knew all that would happen. Thus knowing, has moved through history, a Divine Hand guiding the flow of history, while allowing it to unfold, in general, as man's free will determines.
The interesting thing to note, here, is that just as God notes all the evil decisions, so to does He see all of the righteous ones: Salvation, seeking His Divine Will, and so on. Therefore, not only can we gather that God guides history through Divinity, but also through those who have given their lives to serve Him.
