Questions on the extent of God’s sovereignty.

[bling]

Why does it have to be softened? I thought we had free will.

Our hearts are not just hard or soft, but we have degrees of softness and hardness. Opportunities God places before us can soften a heart further whether it starts out hard or soft. If you pass by on the other side of the road going around that hurt person in the street, your heart can become harder, but if you stop and help, your heart can become softer.

 

[bling]

What???

Yes, that is my ideal of how it would work since we do not have direct scripture, what is you conclusion from knowing God's Love?

 

[bling]

Doesn’t change that you used a fictional person as if they were real.

Jesus used lots of fictional characters to get His message across.

 

[bling]

What about those who never hear about His charity?

We do not have specific scripture, but knowing God's Love I feel they would be treated like a new born baby who dies.

 

[Hammster]

God is omniscient and omnipotent, so certainly He does know every action we might engage in, and certainly He can in principle intervene to change our action. In Scripture, we do see interventions by God that do impact human behavior.

Yes we do.

However, I would caution against regarding this as proof of Calvinism, given that these facts are known to non-Calvinists and can be universally agreed to represent Providence, but are not by themselves proof of God denying free will with respect to whether or not we opt to love Him and receive the Holy Spirit.

I don’t believe I ever mentioned Calvinism.

Conversely, this also does not disprove Calvinism. Rather, what these points establish is, as the thread title suggests, the sovereignity of God, and also, very importantly, they establish the power of prayer.

Sounds reasonable at face value.

It is for this reason that Christ our God instructs us to pray without ceasing. I strongly reccommend this, and also through personal experience I find in particular the Jesus Prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on me, a Sinner” and other arrow prayers, such as “Kyrie eleison”, and the Lord’s Prayer, extremely beneficial. I also strongly recommend seeking the intercession of our glorious lady Theotokos and all the saints who comprise the Church Triumphant.

Except for the last sentence, I think we are in agreement.

 

[Hammster]

Actually, to be fair, we don’t know that. Since Christ our God is omniscient, He could well have told true stories for his parables, through His perfect knowledge of the most exemplary highs and lows of human behavior. So while it is possible the Good Samaritan is a fictional character, it is also possible that he was a real person, who did actually do the things our Lord said he did, our Lord having knowledge of these events by virtue of His omniscience.

Since we don’t know, we have to assume it’s fiction. However, bling’s point isn’t proven by the story since the story only had one point, and that was to answer a question.

 

[Hammster]

Our hearts are not just hard or soft, but we have degrees of softness and hardness. Opportunities God places before us can soften a heart further whether it starts out hard or soft. If you pass by on the other side of the road going around that hurt person in the street, your heart can become harder, but if you stop and help, your heart can become softer.

So since we can soften our own hearts, there’s no need for a new one.

 

[Hammster]

Yes, that is my ideal of how it would work since we do not have direct scripture, what is you conclusion from knowing God's Love?

Your post made no sense at all.

 

[Hammster]

Jesus used lots of fictional characters to get His message across.

Right.

 

[Hammster]

We do not have specific scripture, but knowing God's Love I feel they would be treated like a new born baby who dies.

So again, it’s best to not try to reach the unreached people groups.

 

[The Liturgist]

I don’t believe I ever mentioned Calvinism

You didn’t; rather I felt obliged to remark, for the benefit of other readers, that the existence of Providence neither proves nor disproves Calvinism, or Arminianism or other non-Calvinist theologies, for that matter.

Except for the last sentence, I think we are in agreement.

Indeed we are. And of course I don’t expect you or anyone else to share my high church beliefs concerning the intercession of the saints; the important thing is that we agree on the Nicene Creed and certain other essential issues.

 

[The Liturgist]

Since we don’t know, we have to assume it’s fiction.

Forgive me, but wouldn’t it be more logical to simply assert that we do not know, as opposed to assuming one way or the other?

 

[Hammster]

You didn’t; rather I felt obliged to remark, for the benefit of other readers, that the existence of Providence neither proves nor disproves Calvinism, or Arminianism or other non-Calvinist theologies, for that matter.

That wasn’t even in view though.

Indeed we are. And of course I don’t expect you or anyone else to share my high church beliefs concerning the intercession of the saints; the important thing is that we agree on the Nicene Creed and certain other essential issues.

 

[Hammster]

Forgive me, but wouldn’t it be more logical to simply assert that we do not know, as opposed to assuming one way or the other?

Possibly. But either way, bling made assumptions that went outside of the scope of the parable.

 

[bling]

So again, it’s best to not try to reach the unreached people groups.

Not at all! They will thank you for the opportunity to obtain Godly ype Love, yet their are those who will refuse God's charity, but could they have already refused before you got to them and are lost already? We do not know, but those who accept God's charity as charity not only go to heaven, but go to Heven with Godly type Love.

 

[bling]

So since we can soften our own hearts, there’s no need for a new one.

We allow God to soften our hearts by ceasing the opportunity He provides.

 

[Hammster]

Not at all! They will thank you for the opportunity to obtain Godly ype Love, yet their are those who will refuse God's charity, but could they have already refused before you got to them and are lost already? We do not know, but those who accept God's charity as charity not only go to heaven, but go to Heven with Godly type Love.

Isn’t it better to go to heaven as an ignorant child than to hell as an informed adult?

 

[Hammster]

We allow God to soften our hearts by ceasing the opportunity He provides.

Why would someone with a hard heart want it softened?

 

[bling]

Why would someone with a hard heart want it softened?

People who have a hard heart like the imaginary person in the prodigal son story, might have to reach bottom by God's help before looking up, but some might stay there.

 

[bling]

Isn’t it better to go to heaven as an ignorant child than to hell as an informed adult?

We do not make that call, since we are told to go out making disciples.