And so we come to the "R" in Plenus EMPTOR.
Redemptor is one of the Latin names for Christ. That would make an outstanding "R," but I don't think that even Christ's name says enough. There is a LOT more to be said than just a single Name, even that Name above all names. There's even more to the story of that Name's value.
--
TULIP stops at a really critical place, and kind of an odd one. Its friends will be quick to explain that this is because the 5 points of the Remonstrance stopped just there, but that's not really of consequence to me. Whether TULIP or Remonstrance, they both stop at the same place.
Man is depraved, so God intervenes by electing some somehow, paying for their sins, converting them, and seeing them safely all the way to heaven. Through "EMPTOR" I have dealt with my thoughts on how God does these 5 things, but there is a massive, gaping hole this picture if it is going to try to explain salvation.
TULIP and Remonstrance both rest on a foundation of sin, and man's need.
The missing foundation is God. All 5 of these points concern man, and only introduce God as in relation to man's needs. That is falacious.
God has works an incredible change upon Himself in the story of salvation, apart from any effect He has on man. The most amazing thing in the redemption story is how I AM that I AM changed Himself in taking captivity captive. As long as we are pinning butterflies to styrofoam, let's catalog the greatest metamorphosis in all history, pre-history, and even non-history.
The Living God became the Resurrected Seed.
Ge 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Much like a seed, this verse contains the full fruit of God's experience, but in a nutshell, waiting to be revealed in the rest of scripture.
All of the living beings in Genesis 1 reproduce after their kind. This is a picture of God. The herbs, the trees, the fish, the fowl, and the beasts all multiply after their kind. The plants, though, are described as bearing seed, and that is a little more careful picture of Him. And the tree, in particular, is described as bearing fruit with its seed within in it, both in verse 12 and in verse 29.
Everything has its picture of the image of God, but the tree yielding fruit is called out in particular.
Ge 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Now the idea of "seed" gets transferred to human children. Satan will reproduce after his kind, and Eve will reproduce after her kind. She will bear a Seed that will grow and destroy Satan's seed, though at a cost to Himself.
Ge 12:7
And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
Paul notes a little later that this Seed is singular, but see that God is talking about His kind on earth. The children of Abraham are a better picture of God than the fruit from a tree.
Ge 15:5
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
The seed are not always singular!
Ge 15:13
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
Nor will the seed always be comfortable.
In fact, the nation of Israel is identified as the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You can track their fortune through scripture exclusively by searching for the word, "seed." You will see every time they do well and every time they fail, because God continues to refer to them as the seed over and over.
Ps 22:30
A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
Even when the kingdom is but a remnant, and only one single seed remains, God still counts that solitary seed as a complete generation.
Ps 89:29
His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
But the key meaning of Seed is still the promised One.
Isa 66:22
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
He is the Seed, and His Name will be hallowed.
So, far, I would describe none of this as terribly mysterious. Certainly, none of this involves the metamorphosis of God. This is just standard stuff for a God Who rules everything in Truth and Justice. He stands at the beginning of time, and foreordains that He will come as the Son of a woman some day, and that Abraham will be the father of the great nation from which He will spring.
Then, He says this:
Joh 12:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
And in one sentence Jesus turns two thousand years of Jewish interpretation of prophecy on its ear.
They have expected and waited on a Redeemer Who would deliver them from the hands of their enemies. They have, instead, received Jesus, Who has come to lay down His life.
Jesus is teaching His disciples that He must be lifted up, and die, but not to redeem us. Yes, Jesus must die to redeem us. Yes, He must be the sin bearer. But, this verse is about something bigger, something foundational. Jesus must die in order to bear fruit.
Jesus must be planted in the ground.
Suddenly, the seed in Genesis 1 comes rushing back into our minds. The fruit must be planted in the ground, or the tree cannot reproduce. The seed must die, or the tree must abide alone. But, if the seed dies, then kind of its kind is brought forth.
It is not just trees that bear kind after their kind, but fish, fowl and beasts as well. Could it be that God, too, bears kind after His kind? Is this one of the things nature is portraying about God?
Jesus said that unless a man was "born from above," he could not see the kingdom of God. (I know the common translation is "born again," but that is derived from Nicodemus's misunderstanding. The other three times the word is used by John in his gospel, it is translated "from above.")
Unless a man becomes kind of the kind that is "from above," he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And unless the Son of God falls into the earth as a grain of wheat, He must abide alone.
But, am I just stretching things here?
1 Cor 15:35
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
Paul doesn't seem to think so.
1 Cor 15:42
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
Paul is even ready to consider all our bodies seeds.
1 Cor 15:54
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And how did our Lord give us this victory? By being the first to overcome death by resurrection.
Joh 12:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
CS Lewis refered to a deep magic, magic that was stronger than the law of the land. Here is that magic in plain view.
What was the magic that worked the resurrection?
It was the magic of a corn of wheat that falls into the ground and dies. If the Seed sown is alive, then it must rise again.
Jesus died so that He might not abide alone.
Let that sentence sink into a deep place in your heart.
Jesus died so that He might not abide alone. Yes, Jesus died for your salvation, but He died for something much deeper, much more fundamental than that. Have you ever wondered how to "bless the Lord?" Have you ever wondered what you might bring to God to please Him? Have you ever wondered what gift you might bring that would have meaning to an omnipotent God?
Jesus died so that He might abide with you.
But maybe you have assumed that He only died because things had gone horribly wrong, because Adam rebelled.
Jesus would have had to die had there been no sin and no fall of man.
The Sabbath is a law, but its meaning changed. Thou shalt not kill is a law but it has exceptions. "If it die, it bringeth forth much fruit," is like the law of gravity. It cannot be repealed. This law springs from the very nature of Life, from the nature of God. "Kind after its kind," is a law that exists on earth before even, "but of the tree in the midst of the garden, thou shalt not eat." This law was in full effect in Genesis 1, before there was any law.
"The tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good."
But there is an even deeper, more powerful example. The image bearer bore out this image as well.
Before Adam had sinned, he was found alone in the garden, without a mate, and God Himself declared that it was not good.
Adam could not produce kind after his kind. Adam could not fulfill the basic law of creation, and it was not good. And God declared it not good for a reason. God shared Adam's problem. God could not create kind after His kind. Adam was a tragically perfect picture of the perfect God. Flawless, alive, master of all he surveyed, and in violation of the law of gravity. Neither God nor Adam could produce kind after his kind.
God was ready to change this about Himself. God was ready no longer to abide alone.
First, He showed what He would do for Himself by doing it in Adam.
God caused Adam to sleep. Adam had to die in order no longer to abide alone. Adam had to be cracked open like a seed, and a half of him had to be removed. Maybe it was just a rib, but the Hebrew word would indicate that it was much more than a rib. If there weren't centuries of tradition to the contrary, I don't think modern linguistics would allow us to translate that word as rib. Either way, a piece of Adam was taken away in order that it might be grown into someone who could face him, love him, and receive love from him in return.
We know this is a picture of Christ, but consider that it is a picture from before sin. Sin has no part in this miracle. The only thing being rectified by Adam's death and loss was His loneliness - rather his aloneness. As Kansas Bob has pointed out, the two are indescribably different.
We have then two powerful pictures. The seed must die, or forever abide alone, and Adam must sleep to have his mate.
The unavoidable reality these pictures describe is that God created the earth so that He might Himself brave the same grave metamorphosis.
God in Jesus died for a purpose, and that purpose was not primarily to wipe away our 10,000 year stain of sin. There was eternal work afoot in Christ's passion. If Christ does not die, the Godhead, the Singular with three Persons, abides alone. Even if Adam did not sin, Christ must die. If Adam were without win, and Christ did not die, then man could never become more than Empty Humanity. We might have lived happy human lives on earth, but we could never see the God Who created us - not with spiritual eyes.
Yes, God walked with Adam in the cool of day, but only because He made Himself visible to Adam's naked eye. In this age and time of the revelation of God, we have been blessed more deeply. We see God invisibly in our hearts. We know Him as He knows us, in Spirit and in Truth. Adam would never have reached that glory, any more than my cats might write a sonnet.
Unless we are born from above, we cannot see the kingdom of God.
But, Christ did die.
And He rose again.
Joh 17:2
As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
In rising again, Christ achieved every goal of the Father. In dying and rising again, Christ broke open the shell of the Seed, and sprouted to become fruitful on a divine scale.
In Him, we rise too.
Re 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
We have in us the new Life in Christ, because He fell into the ground and died.
God has been expanded, in the same manner that Adam was expanded. Adam became Adam and Eve, and the Lord saw that it was God. God has become the Son and His bride, and that is perfect.
The "R" in EMPTOR is for "Resurrected Seed, because on this foundation, God is blessed.
Plenus EMPTOR
Showing posts with label 5 Points. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5 Points. Show all posts
09 November, 2006
08 November, 2006
Predestination: TULIP - Perseverance of the Saints
This is the fifth of six posts regarding TULIP. Just one more to go. :-) If you are not familar with that acronym, Wikipedia has a number of articles on the subject. This one is probably the most succinct and provides links to the counter positions of Arminians.
5) Perseverance of the Saints
Perseverance of the Saints gets the least debate of all the points. Classical Arminians believed that any saint could apostasize, and be damned in the end, no matter how strongly they ran the course up until that point. Almost universally, Arminians and Calvinists now functionally agree with the simple formula, "Once saved, always saved," which moves the subject pretty much out of the arena. Calvinists twist once saved, always saved pretty aggresively, though, when they look at it very closely.
Calvinists hold that every believer must persevere in the faith in order to be finally saved. They believe that every truly converted believer will persevere and finally be saved, but they are not clear who is truly converted. Some might appear to have run well and then fallen away, but really they were never saved. They had simply deceived themselves and those around them. (This creates some serious room for doubt. A believer may find that same worry he might have spent wondering whether he will fall away in the end, he spends instead wondering whether he is deceiving himself.)
Arminians, hold to, "Once saved, always saved," with more conviction. In many cases, they now believe and teach that once a person has said the sinner's prayer with conviction, he is going to heaven no matter what he does from that day forward. It is an interesting, and rather extreme, change in position from early Arminianism, but so be it.
Codepoke believes that assurance is an important goal for every believer, but not one to be assumed lightly. Both Arminianism and Calvinism handle this well in theory, and a little worse in practice. I doubt any particular doctrine can do better, but let's try anyway.
Jesus decries blind assurance as a critical threat to the seeker after God. Blind assurance cripples the seeker by contenting him with a false achievement. He believes that he has achieved eternal security, when in reality, he has only dabbled in spiritual things.
Matt 13:3-9
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some * * fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold *, some sixtyfold *, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Of the four fates for the seeds Jesus sows, two result in the illusion of assurance. The seeds on the rocky soil spring up, but die later, and the seeds among thorns do well for a while too. If the seeker assumes that the growth in his heart is a sign of conversion, he faces a big, and possibly eternal fall. Jesus invites those who have ears to hear this parable, but He explains it in detail to His disciples.
Matt 13:18-23
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold *, some sixty *, some thirty.
There is no life-long benefit to these seeds for those who have no root within themselves, nor for those deceived by riches.
I am of the number who believe that the Word of the Kingdom, the holy seed of scripture, can be sown into the hearts of those who are not, and never will be saved. I also believe that the seed can be sown into the hearts of those who will be saved, or are saved, and still be choked out. So, I don't believe that this passage says anything conclusive about whether a person can be truly born again and truly apostasize.
My point in quoting this passage is that salvation is a struggle.
We must reach out and take salvation. We must become skilled in seeing the invisible, and loving God and man. We must be prepared to suffer, and become good at it. We must expect tribulation, and then not be surprised when it comes (I know that's redundant, but it's pretty real.) We must throw off the cares of this world (yes, even the good ones,) and handle money knowing it is a deceiver.
Christianity that introduces God primarily as a Helper Who wants to ease our lot in life is selling a bald-faced, blaspheming lie. It's an easy lie to sell in the land of TiVo and mega-malls, but the deception is real and vicious. Ease is a lie of the enemy, and one that has crippled the church.
Given the state of the church, and the state of our doctrines, it is very easy to believe we are saved, and not know Christ. It is very easy to believe that, "God loves me," but not to know the fear that comes of seeing the perfectly holy God, and knowing that we must somehow be conformed to that holiness. We will never fully conform to His holiness, but it must be a passion for us.
God's bride knows this and does it. All her members grow in holiness and grace, some 30, some 60 and some 100-fold.
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1 John 5:11 - 13 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1 John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.
Our faith will not falter, because the Son of God will not let us go. He will not allow us to fail. We might trust that in ease we would not fail Him, but He promises that He can keep us through every terror, too.
Rom 8:35-37 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written *, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
God has Ordained Victory for Himself through us.
We don't need to pretend that this life is made easy by being His children. We can acknowledge that this life is always heartbreaking, and know that He has promised to see us through it anyway. This is what He must do to earn the joy that was set before Him, and He will not be denied.
Plenus EMPTOR
5) Perseverance of the Saints
Perseverance of the Saints gets the least debate of all the points. Classical Arminians believed that any saint could apostasize, and be damned in the end, no matter how strongly they ran the course up until that point. Almost universally, Arminians and Calvinists now functionally agree with the simple formula, "Once saved, always saved," which moves the subject pretty much out of the arena. Calvinists twist once saved, always saved pretty aggresively, though, when they look at it very closely.
Calvinists hold that every believer must persevere in the faith in order to be finally saved. They believe that every truly converted believer will persevere and finally be saved, but they are not clear who is truly converted. Some might appear to have run well and then fallen away, but really they were never saved. They had simply deceived themselves and those around them. (This creates some serious room for doubt. A believer may find that same worry he might have spent wondering whether he will fall away in the end, he spends instead wondering whether he is deceiving himself.)
Arminians, hold to, "Once saved, always saved," with more conviction. In many cases, they now believe and teach that once a person has said the sinner's prayer with conviction, he is going to heaven no matter what he does from that day forward. It is an interesting, and rather extreme, change in position from early Arminianism, but so be it.
Codepoke believes that assurance is an important goal for every believer, but not one to be assumed lightly. Both Arminianism and Calvinism handle this well in theory, and a little worse in practice. I doubt any particular doctrine can do better, but let's try anyway.
Jesus decries blind assurance as a critical threat to the seeker after God. Blind assurance cripples the seeker by contenting him with a false achievement. He believes that he has achieved eternal security, when in reality, he has only dabbled in spiritual things.
Matt 13:3-9
And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some * * fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold *, some sixtyfold *, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Of the four fates for the seeds Jesus sows, two result in the illusion of assurance. The seeds on the rocky soil spring up, but die later, and the seeds among thorns do well for a while too. If the seeker assumes that the growth in his heart is a sign of conversion, he faces a big, and possibly eternal fall. Jesus invites those who have ears to hear this parable, but He explains it in detail to His disciples.
Matt 13:18-23
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold *, some sixty *, some thirty.
There is no life-long benefit to these seeds for those who have no root within themselves, nor for those deceived by riches.
I am of the number who believe that the Word of the Kingdom, the holy seed of scripture, can be sown into the hearts of those who are not, and never will be saved. I also believe that the seed can be sown into the hearts of those who will be saved, or are saved, and still be choked out. So, I don't believe that this passage says anything conclusive about whether a person can be truly born again and truly apostasize.
My point in quoting this passage is that salvation is a struggle.
We must reach out and take salvation. We must become skilled in seeing the invisible, and loving God and man. We must be prepared to suffer, and become good at it. We must expect tribulation, and then not be surprised when it comes (I know that's redundant, but it's pretty real.) We must throw off the cares of this world (yes, even the good ones,) and handle money knowing it is a deceiver.
Christianity that introduces God primarily as a Helper Who wants to ease our lot in life is selling a bald-faced, blaspheming lie. It's an easy lie to sell in the land of TiVo and mega-malls, but the deception is real and vicious. Ease is a lie of the enemy, and one that has crippled the church.
Given the state of the church, and the state of our doctrines, it is very easy to believe we are saved, and not know Christ. It is very easy to believe that, "God loves me," but not to know the fear that comes of seeing the perfectly holy God, and knowing that we must somehow be conformed to that holiness. We will never fully conform to His holiness, but it must be a passion for us.
God's bride knows this and does it. All her members grow in holiness and grace, some 30, some 60 and some 100-fold.
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
1 John 5:11 - 13 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1 John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.
Our faith will not falter, because the Son of God will not let us go. He will not allow us to fail. We might trust that in ease we would not fail Him, but He promises that He can keep us through every terror, too.
Rom 8:35-37 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written *, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
God has Ordained Victory for Himself through us.
We don't need to pretend that this life is made easy by being His children. We can acknowledge that this life is always heartbreaking, and know that He has promised to see us through it anyway. This is what He must do to earn the joy that was set before Him, and He will not be denied.
Plenus EMPTOR
07 November, 2006
Predestination: TULIP - Irresistible Grace
This is the fourth of six posts regarding TULIP. If you are not familar with that acronym, Wikipedia has a number of articles on the subject. This one is probably the most succinct and provides links to the counter positions of Arminians.
4) Irresistible Grace
Calvinists have been embarassed by this term for centuries. "Irresistible Grace" conjures images of a man trying to better himself by arts or sciences suddenly being accosted by God. He protests his innocence, and desire to be free of God, but He has chosen this one, and this one will be saved, whether he likes it or not. All the while, a poor peasant girl standing by and watching, wishing she could only know God, is passed over and damned. Had God wished her to be saved, her wish should surely have been granted, but God wanted to prove His grace's irresistibility, so He left her to die while taking the harder case.
It's a ridiculous picture, but it's a ridiculous term, too.
(Of course, the term could refer to a grace that is irresistible like a beautiful painting, not like a tsunami, but it's a little late to suggest that now. ;-)
The term came about because the 5 TULIP points were an answer to the 5 points of the Remonstrance. The fourth point of the Remonstrance was "Resistible Grace." Nobody could think ahead to how poorly the term, "irresistible," would market, so Calvinists are stuck with it.
Then again, it's a pretty good fit for the way most Calvinists understand it.
Calvinists believe that the Holy Spirit succeeds in attracting every person whom God selected from that great mass of the to-be-born. It is that simple, really. Some Calvinists portray God as a bulldozer, breaking down every wall of opposition in the hearts of the elect, while others portray Him as a velvet-lined bulldozer. Either way, God succeeds in drawing His elect.
Arminians, again, are repulsed by the thought. That God might be thankful for love won with a bulldozer is anathema to them. The human heart is driven by its own will. God ceded this element of His sovereignty in order to make the love of His children worthy to be called love. Hence, the Spirit's call is resistible. Try as any minister might, be the Son's gift ever so beautiful, and may the Spirit woo with all His guile, most men will still reject God.
It is on this point, more than the other four, that Arminians and Calvinists cannot hear one another. As I read the scriptures, it seems pretty clear why. The scriptures are crystal clear that men resist God's will, but not on why they succeed. The scriptures are also crystal clear that no one freely wills to come to God, but not on how God changes that will. And what does God do and not do for those who are never saved?
The upshot of this ambiguity is that Calvinists and Arminians can actually use the same proof texts to support opposite conclusions. For example:
John 1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
The Arminian sees all this coming because of God's gracious reaction to man's belief. The Calvinist sees a critical sequence of events. First, a person receives God, and then he believes. They can argue together for pages on this passage, and never really hear each other's reasoning.
But this post is about Codepoke. :-)
Codepoke believes that all men are born empty and dead, and that the deadness is the lesser of the two problems!
The Arminian says that God makes every man alive enough to choose to have faith or reject it by a little gift called "prevenient grace." Prevenient grace is defined as the grace that prompts our first wish to please God. It all sounds rather circular to me, but then I quit being Arminian 25 years ago.
The Calvinist says that God only makes His elect alive, but He stirs up their mind, will and emotions such that they will aways believe. Before God moved, the man was dead. After God moves, the man is alive, and the Spirit continues to work in the man's nature, guiding him toward a saving faith. If a Calvinist believes in a grace that is prevenient, it is only a formality. To a Calvinist, there is grace and there is "not-grace," and nothing in between.
Codepoke says that a piece of the divine nature of God, taken from Christ, is placed within a man according to the purpose of God. Without that piece, a man cannot sense God. With it, He cannot not sense God.
Every man were born without spiritual eyes, unable to see into the invisibles, and unable to see the Son or the Father. Christ came, and they did not know Him, nor comprehend what they saw. Their will is free, but their senses lie to them, and tell them that there is no God. After they receive spiritual eyesight, and after they see Christ, the whole avalanch of experiences necessary to salvation flow from their free will the way eating flows from the hungry.
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Gal 6:15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.
Ezek 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
This newness is absolutely the core of salvation.
1 Cor 2:14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
The natural man is both dead and empty. The gift of the divine nature, given to him, changes everything.
Only the divine nature is capable of hearing the Word of God, and believing. Only the divine nature is capable of repenting. Only the divine nature can see God, even as He is revealed in the flesh in the first century.
John 10:26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
Looking right at the God of the universe in human flesh, they see only a competitor for the hearts of the people. And, of course, they are right. He's all that and more. They are just blind to the "more" part, because it is invisible, and they have no spiritual eyes.
So, I have to stand with the theory of the Calvinists, and say that God has to move first, and that God only moves for the ones He knew in His bride before He ever created anything.
Then I have to move over and stand with the practice of the Arminians, because Calvinists are not always very good at telling people they have to believe, repent, and be converted. True, mature Calvinism always does preach the necessity of these things, but too often the message is confused by the overly theological.
Placing the new man, the piece of the divine nature, is God's worry. Man's worry is to believe, repent and be converted! These things must happen to be saved, and they happen when a man can truly see Jesus. Preaching must show Jesus, Himself, in all His passion, beauty and faithfulness. It is when Jesus is presented, and the people see Him, that their hearts are pricked and they cry out to Him. Mature Calvinists get this, but every Arminian does.
2 Tim 2:10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
Salvation is not just given, it is obtained, even for the elect. For this reason, Paul must endure hardship, and everyone who would know Christ must endure hardship. Salvation is a thing to be worked out. It is no jigsaw puzzle, ready cut and made to assemble in 2 hours or your money back. Salvation requires that a man sell everything he owns.
The divine nature implanted in man, can see the value of that pearl of great price. The Christian man will do anything to have the pleasure of His Father and Bridegroom.
So, I believe in Transplanted Divinity. Not that God overcomes our will, but that He mingles His Life with ours, thereby allowing us a true sight of Him. Once we can finally see Him, the rest happens naturally. God is irresistible to us once we can finally see Him.
It is no longer fashionable to quote the Song of Solomon when explaining salvation, but...
Song 1:7
Tell me, you whom I love,
where you graze your flock
and where you rest your sheep at midday.
Why should I be like a veiled woman
beside the flocks of your friends?
Had she never seen Him, she would never have sought Him. And now that she has seen Him, nothing less will do. She has no desire to be anywhere but directly with Him at all times.
Song 5:
8 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you—
if you find my beloved,
what will you tell him?
Tell him I am faint with love
When the Lord Transplants His Life into us, our free will does the rest.
Plenus EMPTOR
4) Irresistible Grace
Calvinists have been embarassed by this term for centuries. "Irresistible Grace" conjures images of a man trying to better himself by arts or sciences suddenly being accosted by God. He protests his innocence, and desire to be free of God, but He has chosen this one, and this one will be saved, whether he likes it or not. All the while, a poor peasant girl standing by and watching, wishing she could only know God, is passed over and damned. Had God wished her to be saved, her wish should surely have been granted, but God wanted to prove His grace's irresistibility, so He left her to die while taking the harder case.
It's a ridiculous picture, but it's a ridiculous term, too.
(Of course, the term could refer to a grace that is irresistible like a beautiful painting, not like a tsunami, but it's a little late to suggest that now. ;-)
The term came about because the 5 TULIP points were an answer to the 5 points of the Remonstrance. The fourth point of the Remonstrance was "Resistible Grace." Nobody could think ahead to how poorly the term, "irresistible," would market, so Calvinists are stuck with it.
Then again, it's a pretty good fit for the way most Calvinists understand it.
Calvinists believe that the Holy Spirit succeeds in attracting every person whom God selected from that great mass of the to-be-born. It is that simple, really. Some Calvinists portray God as a bulldozer, breaking down every wall of opposition in the hearts of the elect, while others portray Him as a velvet-lined bulldozer. Either way, God succeeds in drawing His elect.
Arminians, again, are repulsed by the thought. That God might be thankful for love won with a bulldozer is anathema to them. The human heart is driven by its own will. God ceded this element of His sovereignty in order to make the love of His children worthy to be called love. Hence, the Spirit's call is resistible. Try as any minister might, be the Son's gift ever so beautiful, and may the Spirit woo with all His guile, most men will still reject God.
It is on this point, more than the other four, that Arminians and Calvinists cannot hear one another. As I read the scriptures, it seems pretty clear why. The scriptures are crystal clear that men resist God's will, but not on why they succeed. The scriptures are also crystal clear that no one freely wills to come to God, but not on how God changes that will. And what does God do and not do for those who are never saved?
The upshot of this ambiguity is that Calvinists and Arminians can actually use the same proof texts to support opposite conclusions. For example:
John 1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
The Arminian sees all this coming because of God's gracious reaction to man's belief. The Calvinist sees a critical sequence of events. First, a person receives God, and then he believes. They can argue together for pages on this passage, and never really hear each other's reasoning.
But this post is about Codepoke. :-)
Codepoke believes that all men are born empty and dead, and that the deadness is the lesser of the two problems!
The Arminian says that God makes every man alive enough to choose to have faith or reject it by a little gift called "prevenient grace." Prevenient grace is defined as the grace that prompts our first wish to please God. It all sounds rather circular to me, but then I quit being Arminian 25 years ago.
The Calvinist says that God only makes His elect alive, but He stirs up their mind, will and emotions such that they will aways believe. Before God moved, the man was dead. After God moves, the man is alive, and the Spirit continues to work in the man's nature, guiding him toward a saving faith. If a Calvinist believes in a grace that is prevenient, it is only a formality. To a Calvinist, there is grace and there is "not-grace," and nothing in between.
Codepoke says that a piece of the divine nature of God, taken from Christ, is placed within a man according to the purpose of God. Without that piece, a man cannot sense God. With it, He cannot not sense God.
Every man were born without spiritual eyes, unable to see into the invisibles, and unable to see the Son or the Father. Christ came, and they did not know Him, nor comprehend what they saw. Their will is free, but their senses lie to them, and tell them that there is no God. After they receive spiritual eyesight, and after they see Christ, the whole avalanch of experiences necessary to salvation flow from their free will the way eating flows from the hungry.
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Gal 6:15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.
Ezek 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
This newness is absolutely the core of salvation.
1 Cor 2:14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
The natural man is both dead and empty. The gift of the divine nature, given to him, changes everything.
Only the divine nature is capable of hearing the Word of God, and believing. Only the divine nature is capable of repenting. Only the divine nature can see God, even as He is revealed in the flesh in the first century.
John 10:26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
Looking right at the God of the universe in human flesh, they see only a competitor for the hearts of the people. And, of course, they are right. He's all that and more. They are just blind to the "more" part, because it is invisible, and they have no spiritual eyes.
So, I have to stand with the theory of the Calvinists, and say that God has to move first, and that God only moves for the ones He knew in His bride before He ever created anything.
Then I have to move over and stand with the practice of the Arminians, because Calvinists are not always very good at telling people they have to believe, repent, and be converted. True, mature Calvinism always does preach the necessity of these things, but too often the message is confused by the overly theological.
Placing the new man, the piece of the divine nature, is God's worry. Man's worry is to believe, repent and be converted! These things must happen to be saved, and they happen when a man can truly see Jesus. Preaching must show Jesus, Himself, in all His passion, beauty and faithfulness. It is when Jesus is presented, and the people see Him, that their hearts are pricked and they cry out to Him. Mature Calvinists get this, but every Arminian does.
2 Tim 2:10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
Salvation is not just given, it is obtained, even for the elect. For this reason, Paul must endure hardship, and everyone who would know Christ must endure hardship. Salvation is a thing to be worked out. It is no jigsaw puzzle, ready cut and made to assemble in 2 hours or your money back. Salvation requires that a man sell everything he owns.
The divine nature implanted in man, can see the value of that pearl of great price. The Christian man will do anything to have the pleasure of His Father and Bridegroom.
So, I believe in Transplanted Divinity. Not that God overcomes our will, but that He mingles His Life with ours, thereby allowing us a true sight of Him. Once we can finally see Him, the rest happens naturally. God is irresistible to us once we can finally see Him.
It is no longer fashionable to quote the Song of Solomon when explaining salvation, but...
Song 1:7
Tell me, you whom I love,
where you graze your flock
and where you rest your sheep at midday.
Why should I be like a veiled woman
beside the flocks of your friends?
Had she never seen Him, she would never have sought Him. And now that she has seen Him, nothing less will do. She has no desire to be anywhere but directly with Him at all times.
Song 5:
8 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you—
if you find my beloved,
what will you tell him?
Tell him I am faint with love
When the Lord Transplants His Life into us, our free will does the rest.
Plenus EMPTOR
06 November, 2006
Predestination: TULIP - Limited Atonement
This is the third of six posts regarding TULIP. If you are not familar with that acronym, Wikipedia has a number of articles on the subject. This one is probably the most succinct and provides links to the counter positions of Arminians.
3) Limited Atonement
This is the one that turns everyone off from Calvinism. Everyone. And that is odd, because both Calvinists and Arminians believe in a Limited Atonement. Calvinists believe it is limited when God decides only to die for those He sovereignly elects, and Arminians decide it is limited when men sovereignly decide not to accept the benefits of Christ's death for themselves.
Calvinists teach that Christ did not die for every man, but only for every man whom the Father gave to Him.
Arminians universally find this point unscriptural and offensive. I know. I was one, and I still have never found an Arminian who can accept the idea that Christ did not die for everyone. The scriptures that say, "everyone," are so clear that they consider any other interpretation reprehensible.
John 3:14-18 - "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
2 Cor 5:14-15 - "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."
1 Timothy 2:3-6 - For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
1 Timothy 4:10 - "For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe."
Titus 2:11 (ESV) - "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people."
1 John 2:2 - "And He [Christ] Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world."
These verses are powerful.
Against them, the Calvinists array a barrage of verses of their own. I will quote only my favorite.
John 10: 11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
...
25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
The bottom line is that the Lamb knows the names of the sheep that are written in His Book of Life.
But, again, the Calvinists have one huge thing wrong. They are thinking about God sovereignly and semi-randomly selecting the weak of this world to be saved as if His focus were upon masses of humanity. Their statement is not false, but it is insufficient.
Jesus is thinking of His Father and His bride when He is dying on that cross.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Heb 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The Son dies for His bride; specifically; purposefully.
When, in Israel, the lamb was sacrificed to atone for the sins of the past year, God could have accepted the blood of that lamb as atonement for the sins of everyone on earth. He didn't. That lamb that was killed in Jerusalem was killed for the sins of Israel. The rest of the world died without that blood to cleanse them before God.
Israel was God's bride pictured on earth, just as that lamb was God's Lamb pictured on earth.
The Calvinists are wrong because they focus on people in time, and on God's sovereign plan to not atone for some. That is clearly not taught in scripture. There is never the sentence, "I will not die for you."
The Arminians are wrong because they focus on people in time, and on God's submission to their free will. They have Christ dying in doubt as to who would be saved by His sacrifice.
Christ died for His bride. Period. He knew whom she would be, and every name of every member in her. He laid His life down for her in particular, and not for just anyone. His death was not intended for men in time, but for His bride whom He knew perfectly before He ever put on the likeness of sinful flesh. And He knew their names, because they are written the Book of Life of the Lamb.
When He died, it was not to make possible her salvation, but to redeem her. The blood of that Lamb is powerful, and it is handled as a precious gift.
Heb 9:12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining [b] eternal redemption.
The difference between obtaining a possibility of eternal redemption and the actuality of it is huge. Christ secured the redemption of His bride - absolutely.
Could anyone have been redeemed by that blood? Yes. Of course. Either way, He knew those by name for whom He died, and He spent His blood for them. He spent His blood for her.
But maybe He died to give a chance to those who had no chance, whose names were not in that book? I cannot grasp my Lord's blood shed for those who will never profit by it, but I cannot fight over this one. If the atonement was only limited by the coldness of faith among men, the difference is moot. We agree together that His blood was precious, and that is the third point of EMPTOR.
Precious Blood
His blood cleansed all that which it touched, and we are made clean by His sacrifice. All those whom He has redeemed are made holy enough and pure enough to know and be with Him. He is greatly satisfied with His work.
Plenus EMPTOR
3) Limited Atonement
This is the one that turns everyone off from Calvinism. Everyone. And that is odd, because both Calvinists and Arminians believe in a Limited Atonement. Calvinists believe it is limited when God decides only to die for those He sovereignly elects, and Arminians decide it is limited when men sovereignly decide not to accept the benefits of Christ's death for themselves.
Calvinists teach that Christ did not die for every man, but only for every man whom the Father gave to Him.
Arminians universally find this point unscriptural and offensive. I know. I was one, and I still have never found an Arminian who can accept the idea that Christ did not die for everyone. The scriptures that say, "everyone," are so clear that they consider any other interpretation reprehensible.
John 3:14-18 - "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
2 Cor 5:14-15 - "For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."
1 Timothy 2:3-6 - For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
1 Timothy 4:10 - "For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe."
Titus 2:11 (ESV) - "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people."
1 John 2:2 - "And He [Christ] Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world."
These verses are powerful.
Against them, the Calvinists array a barrage of verses of their own. I will quote only my favorite.
John 10: 11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
...
25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
The bottom line is that the Lamb knows the names of the sheep that are written in His Book of Life.
But, again, the Calvinists have one huge thing wrong. They are thinking about God sovereignly and semi-randomly selecting the weak of this world to be saved as if His focus were upon masses of humanity. Their statement is not false, but it is insufficient.
Jesus is thinking of His Father and His bride when He is dying on that cross.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Heb 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The Son dies for His bride; specifically; purposefully.
When, in Israel, the lamb was sacrificed to atone for the sins of the past year, God could have accepted the blood of that lamb as atonement for the sins of everyone on earth. He didn't. That lamb that was killed in Jerusalem was killed for the sins of Israel. The rest of the world died without that blood to cleanse them before God.
Israel was God's bride pictured on earth, just as that lamb was God's Lamb pictured on earth.
The Calvinists are wrong because they focus on people in time, and on God's sovereign plan to not atone for some. That is clearly not taught in scripture. There is never the sentence, "I will not die for you."
The Arminians are wrong because they focus on people in time, and on God's submission to their free will. They have Christ dying in doubt as to who would be saved by His sacrifice.
Christ died for His bride. Period. He knew whom she would be, and every name of every member in her. He laid His life down for her in particular, and not for just anyone. His death was not intended for men in time, but for His bride whom He knew perfectly before He ever put on the likeness of sinful flesh. And He knew their names, because they are written the Book of Life of the Lamb.
When He died, it was not to make possible her salvation, but to redeem her. The blood of that Lamb is powerful, and it is handled as a precious gift.
Heb 9:12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining [b] eternal redemption.
The difference between obtaining a possibility of eternal redemption and the actuality of it is huge. Christ secured the redemption of His bride - absolutely.
Could anyone have been redeemed by that blood? Yes. Of course. Either way, He knew those by name for whom He died, and He spent His blood for them. He spent His blood for her.
But maybe He died to give a chance to those who had no chance, whose names were not in that book? I cannot grasp my Lord's blood shed for those who will never profit by it, but I cannot fight over this one. If the atonement was only limited by the coldness of faith among men, the difference is moot. We agree together that His blood was precious, and that is the third point of EMPTOR.
Precious Blood
His blood cleansed all that which it touched, and we are made clean by His sacrifice. All those whom He has redeemed are made holy enough and pure enough to know and be with Him. He is greatly satisfied with His work.
Plenus EMPTOR
05 November, 2006
Predestination: TULIP - Unconditional Election
This is the second of six posts regarding TULIP. If you are not familar with that acronym, Wikipedia has a number of articles on the subject. This one is probably the most succinct and provides links to the counter positions of Arminians.
2) Unconditional Election
Here the Calvinists and Arminians part ways, and the Arminians usually take a bit of an undeserved beating. Calvinists usually treat Arminians as if they were Open Theists, but many of the staunch opposers of Open Theism are Arminians. Arminians don't believe that God is surprised by the actions of men, nor that He is unsure of the outcome of His creation.
Both see God looking into a future over which He is the Master. They acknowledge that God knows the future perfectly, and that He knows all who will be saved. They agree that God elects before time begins. They differ over the whether the election is conditional or not.
Calvinists portray God contemplating the entirety of time, and observing that some people will be strong and beautiful, and that others will be weak and helpless. God, they observe, chooses the weak and helpless. They see God choosing from amongst the billions of souls who will live on His earth a relative few, but absolutely a great company. He chooses some fraction of those whom He will create, and decides to love them. The rest, the average Calvinist believes, He either chooses to hate or to watch until they willfully earn His hatred, depending upon the interpretation of a couple of key passages.
Arminians believe in conditional election. They believe God lives as much in the future as the past, so it is well within Him to elect those whom He knows will believe in Him when the time comes. He loves every man equally, and desires all to be saved, but He is unable to influence them all to believe in the Son. This willing inability of God's is established in point 4, so I am not going to dwell on it here. The point is that God does choose whom He will save, but His choice is based effectively on whether they will subsequently choose Him. If He could, He would choose everyone, but He cannot.
Codepoke believes that God foreknows and foreordains, but that this is not the most significant point. Both Calvinists and Arminians focus upon man's salvation, when salvation was not even at issue when God was making these decisions.
When God was contemplating the creation of a thing called "a physical universe," there was only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They were One, and yet they always had each other. They lived by perfect Love, and their Food was to know each Other. They were not deciding to create billions of people, but to create a single bride for God the Son. They were deciding to create an ezer kenegdo - a one outside of and facing Themself, suitable to Themself, equally yoked. The bride would not be equal, but she would be equally yoked with the Son.
God purposed in Himself a mystery.
Eph 3:9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
This mystery was hidden in God for ages, but Paul was charged with making it known. And this hidden mystery was all about an eventually betrothal between Christ and His church.
Eph 5: 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing [b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Eph 5: 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
God purposed for Christ to somehow leave the Godhead, and to be united to His wife. This He did when He came to earth.
Now, I am going to tell you that I cannot picture God leaving anything about this process to chance. Nothing. God knew everything about this bride before They did anything to bring that purpose to fruit.
God did not elect a billion people to salvation. He elected a single bride. But he didn't stop there. He chose in Christ those portions of His Life that would be made into that bride. Just as Eve was made from a specific part of Adam, the bride was chosen from specific parts of Christ. God knew, before He ever considered creating people, how many living spirits would go into the perfect bride. He knew the color of her eyes, and everything else about her, because He knew every cell in her body by name.
Then, and only then, God decided to create a universe, and a galaxy, and a solar system, and a world, and a species of man, and every individual who would eventually carry a piece of that bride around in her heart. And He knew each of us by name.
Eph 1:11 In him we were also chosen, [e] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
Rev 13:8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
Rev 17:8 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.
2 Tim 1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
The bride is not amorphous. The names of all those who make her up are known to God, and written in His Book of Life before the beginning.
In point 3 we will talk about what saves those who make up His bride, and in point 4 how they obtain that salvation. Here we talk only about whether God elected these people, and how.
Arminians and Calvinists both agree that God elected these people. They disagree about how He did it. I side with the Calvinists on the point that He elected them without consideration to anything they might do (for example, foreknowing their believing or not believing in Him.) I step away from the Calvinists, though, when they talk about Him electing from a vast sea of people who would be born.
God elected the members of the bride. He called them by name, before He even considered making a world to put them in. Their living spirits were marked off in Christ and named from before the beginning. When time began, and God created the physical realm, the men and women that He created were all empty, living souls, in need of living spirits. They were empty humans, needing and waiting to be filled with that piece of Christ God had marked off for them.
Only they didn't know that!
That's why it's called a great mystery. God's eternal purpose was hidden from men, and not even fully revealed by Christ when He was here. Jesus fulfilled that purpose, but He did so without fully explaining it. Paul was given that calling.
Unconditional Election falls vastly short of describing what God truly did. I would like to replace the term with, "Mysterious Purpose."
Yes, we were chosen by name in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid, but not in a simple "you're a sheep - you're a goat," kind of a way. We were all blessed parts of a bride chosen in Christ for God's own good and glory. We were named and known for His good purpose in a way that no man could have guessed, but in a way that was finally revealed in the church.
This Mysterious Purpose is all about the Godhead. And God is satisfied with His purchase.
Plenus EMPTOR
2) Unconditional Election
Here the Calvinists and Arminians part ways, and the Arminians usually take a bit of an undeserved beating. Calvinists usually treat Arminians as if they were Open Theists, but many of the staunch opposers of Open Theism are Arminians. Arminians don't believe that God is surprised by the actions of men, nor that He is unsure of the outcome of His creation.
Both see God looking into a future over which He is the Master. They acknowledge that God knows the future perfectly, and that He knows all who will be saved. They agree that God elects before time begins. They differ over the whether the election is conditional or not.
Calvinists portray God contemplating the entirety of time, and observing that some people will be strong and beautiful, and that others will be weak and helpless. God, they observe, chooses the weak and helpless. They see God choosing from amongst the billions of souls who will live on His earth a relative few, but absolutely a great company. He chooses some fraction of those whom He will create, and decides to love them. The rest, the average Calvinist believes, He either chooses to hate or to watch until they willfully earn His hatred, depending upon the interpretation of a couple of key passages.
Arminians believe in conditional election. They believe God lives as much in the future as the past, so it is well within Him to elect those whom He knows will believe in Him when the time comes. He loves every man equally, and desires all to be saved, but He is unable to influence them all to believe in the Son. This willing inability of God's is established in point 4, so I am not going to dwell on it here. The point is that God does choose whom He will save, but His choice is based effectively on whether they will subsequently choose Him. If He could, He would choose everyone, but He cannot.
Codepoke believes that God foreknows and foreordains, but that this is not the most significant point. Both Calvinists and Arminians focus upon man's salvation, when salvation was not even at issue when God was making these decisions.
When God was contemplating the creation of a thing called "a physical universe," there was only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They were One, and yet they always had each other. They lived by perfect Love, and their Food was to know each Other. They were not deciding to create billions of people, but to create a single bride for God the Son. They were deciding to create an ezer kenegdo - a one outside of and facing Themself, suitable to Themself, equally yoked. The bride would not be equal, but she would be equally yoked with the Son.
God purposed in Himself a mystery.
Eph 3:9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
This mystery was hidden in God for ages, but Paul was charged with making it known. And this hidden mystery was all about an eventually betrothal between Christ and His church.
Eph 5: 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing [b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Eph 5: 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
God purposed for Christ to somehow leave the Godhead, and to be united to His wife. This He did when He came to earth.
Now, I am going to tell you that I cannot picture God leaving anything about this process to chance. Nothing. God knew everything about this bride before They did anything to bring that purpose to fruit.
God did not elect a billion people to salvation. He elected a single bride. But he didn't stop there. He chose in Christ those portions of His Life that would be made into that bride. Just as Eve was made from a specific part of Adam, the bride was chosen from specific parts of Christ. God knew, before He ever considered creating people, how many living spirits would go into the perfect bride. He knew the color of her eyes, and everything else about her, because He knew every cell in her body by name.
Then, and only then, God decided to create a universe, and a galaxy, and a solar system, and a world, and a species of man, and every individual who would eventually carry a piece of that bride around in her heart. And He knew each of us by name.
Eph 1:11 In him we were also chosen, [e] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
Rev 13:8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
Rev 17:8 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.
2 Tim 1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
The bride is not amorphous. The names of all those who make her up are known to God, and written in His Book of Life before the beginning.
In point 3 we will talk about what saves those who make up His bride, and in point 4 how they obtain that salvation. Here we talk only about whether God elected these people, and how.
Arminians and Calvinists both agree that God elected these people. They disagree about how He did it. I side with the Calvinists on the point that He elected them without consideration to anything they might do (for example, foreknowing their believing or not believing in Him.) I step away from the Calvinists, though, when they talk about Him electing from a vast sea of people who would be born.
God elected the members of the bride. He called them by name, before He even considered making a world to put them in. Their living spirits were marked off in Christ and named from before the beginning. When time began, and God created the physical realm, the men and women that He created were all empty, living souls, in need of living spirits. They were empty humans, needing and waiting to be filled with that piece of Christ God had marked off for them.
Only they didn't know that!
That's why it's called a great mystery. God's eternal purpose was hidden from men, and not even fully revealed by Christ when He was here. Jesus fulfilled that purpose, but He did so without fully explaining it. Paul was given that calling.
Unconditional Election falls vastly short of describing what God truly did. I would like to replace the term with, "Mysterious Purpose."
Yes, we were chosen by name in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid, but not in a simple "you're a sheep - you're a goat," kind of a way. We were all blessed parts of a bride chosen in Christ for God's own good and glory. We were named and known for His good purpose in a way that no man could have guessed, but in a way that was finally revealed in the church.
This Mysterious Purpose is all about the Godhead. And God is satisfied with His purchase.
Plenus EMPTOR
04 November, 2006
Predestination: TULIP - Total Depravity
This is the first of six posts regarding TULIP. If you are not familar with that acronym, Wikipedia has a number of articles on the subject. This one is probably the most succinct and provides links to the counter positions of Arminians.
1) Total Depravity
Calvinists hold that man is shot through with sin. They don't believe that man is as sinful as he can be, but that there is no part of him that is not sinful. He is so sinful that he cannot muster up a saving faith in Christ without God doing it for him. Man is truly dead in his sins, and like any dead man, he cannot help himself at all. Man cannot have the faith it takes to be saved.
Arminians also believe that man is dead in his sins, and that he cannot come to God without divine help.
Codepoke believes that man is dead in his sins, but that this is not the most significant point. Man died in the garden, the day he ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. He died, and was shot through with sin completely, so I agree with the Calvinists and Arminians on the point they make. I just believe that they miss the point that needs to be made.
Even before he ate that fruit, man was not alive.
1 Cor 15:45 So it is written: "The first Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
Adam had only a living soul, not a living spirit. He was supposed to take Life into himself, and did not.
Gen 2:9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Had Adam eaten of that Tree, it would have made him alive as surely as eating of the other tree made him dead.
Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
The Life God talks about here is not clearly defined. We find that often in scripture, upon the first mention of a thing. It is more fully explained as the scripture goes on, though. Let me fast forward to the gospels.
John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people.
John 4:14 but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 6:33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
John 6:53 Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
I see two things in the Garden of Eden. There is a Tree of Life, and there is Fruit on that Tree. Then I look at the rest of scripture, and I see Jesus as a Vine Tree, and Jesus as Bread. Jesus commands us to eat to gain eternal life, to eat Bread and to eat His Flesh.
If we look at the Garden of Eden as a one-dimensional experience for Adam and Eve, merely as a chance for them to not sin, then it is easy to overlook the other Tree. Adam's and Eve's experience was not a simple choice between "obey" and "disobey," though. They had to choose between "Life" and "Knowledge."
Knowledge, the serpent correctly told them, would make them like God. (Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.) Life, though, would have made them one with God. (John 17:21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us ...)
The question is not whether man is totally depraved - he is - but whether he was ever even a little bit alive.
So, on the first point, the one on which the Calvinists and Arminians agree, I believe they have spoken far short of the truth.
So, while not completely disagreeing with Total Depravity, I have to say that I believe in Empty Humanity. Adam and Eve were empty vessels, waiting to be filled with either life or knowledge. They chose knowledge. That choice was a rebellion and a sin that led to their immediate spiritual death, and eventual physical death.
Now man needs not only to be filled, but also to be restored.
Christ has done this for us.
Plenus EMPTOR
1) Total Depravity
Calvinists hold that man is shot through with sin. They don't believe that man is as sinful as he can be, but that there is no part of him that is not sinful. He is so sinful that he cannot muster up a saving faith in Christ without God doing it for him. Man is truly dead in his sins, and like any dead man, he cannot help himself at all. Man cannot have the faith it takes to be saved.
Arminians also believe that man is dead in his sins, and that he cannot come to God without divine help.
Codepoke believes that man is dead in his sins, but that this is not the most significant point. Man died in the garden, the day he ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. He died, and was shot through with sin completely, so I agree with the Calvinists and Arminians on the point they make. I just believe that they miss the point that needs to be made.
Even before he ate that fruit, man was not alive.
1 Cor 15:45 So it is written: "The first Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
Adam had only a living soul, not a living spirit. He was supposed to take Life into himself, and did not.
Gen 2:9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Had Adam eaten of that Tree, it would have made him alive as surely as eating of the other tree made him dead.
Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
The Life God talks about here is not clearly defined. We find that often in scripture, upon the first mention of a thing. It is more fully explained as the scripture goes on, though. Let me fast forward to the gospels.
John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people.
John 4:14 but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
John 6:33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
John 6:53 Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
I see two things in the Garden of Eden. There is a Tree of Life, and there is Fruit on that Tree. Then I look at the rest of scripture, and I see Jesus as a Vine Tree, and Jesus as Bread. Jesus commands us to eat to gain eternal life, to eat Bread and to eat His Flesh.
If we look at the Garden of Eden as a one-dimensional experience for Adam and Eve, merely as a chance for them to not sin, then it is easy to overlook the other Tree. Adam's and Eve's experience was not a simple choice between "obey" and "disobey," though. They had to choose between "Life" and "Knowledge."
Knowledge, the serpent correctly told them, would make them like God. (Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.) Life, though, would have made them one with God. (John 17:21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us ...)
The question is not whether man is totally depraved - he is - but whether he was ever even a little bit alive.
So, on the first point, the one on which the Calvinists and Arminians agree, I believe they have spoken far short of the truth.
So, while not completely disagreeing with Total Depravity, I have to say that I believe in Empty Humanity. Adam and Eve were empty vessels, waiting to be filled with either life or knowledge. They chose knowledge. That choice was a rebellion and a sin that led to their immediate spiritual death, and eventual physical death.
Now man needs not only to be filled, but also to be restored.
Christ has done this for us.
Plenus EMPTOR
Predestination: TULIP versus EMPTOR
What's the fun of looking at ancient and honored doctrines if you can't thumb your nose at them. :-)
The previous post is how I like to think of predestination. It is, admittedly, not a good format for discussion though. TULIP has proven, over the years, to be pretty effective in that right, so let's talk about TULIP for a little while.
If you are not familar with that acronym, Wikipedia has a number of articles on the subject. This one is probably the most succinct and provides links to the counter positions of Arminians.
I had intended to write one post comparing Calvinists and Arminians, identifying where I thought they were both wrong. Then I started writing. That one post would have been long, even by my standards.
Not only that, but I believe there is a missing point in both systems - *the* missing point, actually. So, I am going to write 6 posts on Plenus EMPTOR. Plenus means satisfied and emptor is supposed to mean "buyer." God is the satisfied buyer of our salvation.
So, some time tonight, I would imagine, I will post on Total Depravity, comparing it to the mysterious "E" in EMPTOR.
See you then. :-)
The previous post is how I like to think of predestination. It is, admittedly, not a good format for discussion though. TULIP has proven, over the years, to be pretty effective in that right, so let's talk about TULIP for a little while.
If you are not familar with that acronym, Wikipedia has a number of articles on the subject. This one is probably the most succinct and provides links to the counter positions of Arminians.
I had intended to write one post comparing Calvinists and Arminians, identifying where I thought they were both wrong. Then I started writing. That one post would have been long, even by my standards.
Not only that, but I believe there is a missing point in both systems - *the* missing point, actually. So, I am going to write 6 posts on Plenus EMPTOR. Plenus means satisfied and emptor is supposed to mean "buyer." God is the satisfied buyer of our salvation.
So, some time tonight, I would imagine, I will post on Total Depravity, comparing it to the mysterious "E" in EMPTOR.
See you then. :-)
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