TheosGuy

A quote of C.S. Lewis on God’s providence in the life of a believer.

We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.

Tags: Providence

The Bible clearly indicates God’s knowledge of counterfactuals (i.e., the description of a consequent based upon an antecedent that does not occur). For example, the statement, If you do A(ntecedent) act, then C(onsequent) result will occur. Then, you decide to not perform A(ntecedent) act.

Some denote this as middle knowledge, others reject the name.

Many rejectors do so based upon Luis de Molina’s view that the counterfactual acts would be done with, what would be considered, libertarian free will. Others such as Bruce Ware, John Frame and Terrence Thiessen will use the name, but consider the freedom of the individual to be other than libertarian freedom, such as Freedom of Inclination (Bruce Ware). Nevertheless, the concept of God’s knowledge of counterfactuals is shown in the Bible. For example, the LORD often tells Israel that she lost blessings due to her disobedience, or that she would have been blessed if she had obeyed. These are counterfactuals. Following are a few other specific ones:

Exodus 13:17 NKJV – Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.”

1 Samuel 23:8-14 NKJV – Then Saul called all the people together for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. When David knew that Saul plotted evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” Then David said, “O LORD God of Israel, Your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake. “Will the men of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O LORD God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.” Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will deliver you.” So David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah and went wherever they could go. Then it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah; so he halted the expedition. And David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.

Jeremiah 23:21-22 NKJV – “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings.”

Matthew 11:21-24 NKJV – “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. “But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

1 Corinthians 2:8 NKJV – which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

So, we should come away from this with at least two bits of information:

1. God not only knows counterfactuals, but declares them in Scripture
2. When we are discussing the issue with someone, we must ascertain whether they are including libertarian free will as part of the definition of middle knowledge.

Tags: Sovereignty, Ware

A quote from Marin Luther from one of his earliest published works:

God receives none but those who are forsaken, restores health to none but those who are sick, gives sight to none but the blind, and life to none but the dead…He has mercy on none but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace.¹

1. Martin Luther, The Seven Penitential Psalms, 1515, quoted in On the Grace of God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 25.

Tags: Grace, Mercy

“II. Let all be exhorted to accept the grace of the gospel. One would think, that there should be no need of such exhortations as this, but alas, such is the dreadful wickedness and the horrible ingratitude of man’s heart, that he needs abundance of persuading and entreating to accept of God’s kindness, when offered them. We should count it horrible ingratitude in a poor, necessitous creature, to refuse our help and kindness when we, out of mere pity to him, offer to relieve and help him. If you should see a man in extremity of distress, and in a perishing necessity of help and relief, and you should lay out yourself, with much labor and cost, out of compassion to him, that he might be relieved, how would you take it of him, if he should proudly and spitefully refuse it and snuff at it, instead of thanking you for it? Would you not look upon it as a very ungrateful, unreasonable, base thing? And why has not God a thousand times the cause, to look upon you as base and ungrateful, if you refuse his glorious grace in the gospel, that he offers you? When God saw mankind in a most necessitous condition, in the greatest and extremest distress, being exposed to hellfire and eternal death, from which it was impossible he should ever deliver himself, or that ever he should be delivered by any other means, He took pity on them, and brought them from the jaws of destruction by His own blood. Now what great ingratitude is it for them to refuse such grace as this?

But so it is: multitudes will not accept a free gift at the hands of the King of the World. They have the daring, horrible presumption as [to] refuse a kindness offered by God himself, and not to accept a gift at the hands of Jehovah, nor not his own Son, his own Son equal with himself. Yea, they’ll not accept of him, though he dies for them; yea, though he dies a most tormenting death, though he dies that they may be delivered from hell, and that they may have heaven, they’ll not accept of this gift, though they are in such necessity of it, that they must be miserable forever without it. Yea, although God the Father invites and importunes them, they’ll not accept of it, though the Son of God himself knocks and calls at their door till his head is wet with the dew, and his locks with the drops of the night, arguing and pleading with them to accept of him for their own sakes, though he makes so many glorious promises, though he holds forth so many precious benefits to tempt them to happiness, perhaps for many years together, yet they obstinately refuse all. Was ever such ingratitude heard of, or can greater be conceived of?

What would you have God do for you, that you may accept of it? Is the gift that he offers too small, that you think it too little, for you to accept of? Don’t God offer you his Son, and what could God offer more? Yea, we may say God himself has not a greater gift to offer. Did not the Son of God do enough for you, that you won’t accept of him; did he [not] die, and what could he do more? Yea, we may say that the Son of God could not do a greater thing for man. Do you refuse because you want to be invited and wooed? You may hear him, from day to day, inviting of you, if you will but hearken. Or is it because you don’t stand in need of God’s grace? Don’t you need it so much as that you must either receive it or be damned to all eternity, and what greater need can there possibly be?

Alas, miserable creatures that we are, instead of the gift of God offered in the gospel‘s not being great enough for us, we are not worthy of anything at all: we are less than the least of all God’s mercies. Instead of deserving the dying Son of God, we are not worthy of the least crumb of bread, the least drop of water, or the least ray of light; instead of Christ’s not having done enough for us by dying, in such pain and ignominy, we are not worthy that he should so much as look on us, instead of shedding his blood. We are not worthy that Christ should once make an offer of the least benefit, instead of his so long urging of us to be eternally happy.

Whoever continues to refuse Christ, will find hereafter, that instead of his having no need of him, that the least drop of his blood would have been more worth to them, than all the world; wherefore, let none be so ungrateful to God and so unwise for themselves, as to refuse the glorious grace of the gospel.”

Tags: Atonement, Christ, Jonathan Edwards, Salvation, Theology

A great quote by John Flavel on the necessity of good theological books.

Objection. If any say, the world is even cloyed with books; and therefore, though the discourse be necessary, yet the publication is needless.

Solution. I answer, There are multitudes of books indeed, and of them, many concern not themselves about root-truths, and practical godliness, but spend their strength upon impracticable notions and frivolous controversies; many also strike at root-truths, and endeavor to undermine the power of godliness; and some there are that nourish the root, and tend to clear and confirm, to prepare and apply the great truths of the gospel, that they may be bread for souls to live and feed on: now, though I could wish, that those who have handled the pen of the scribe, had better employed their time and pains than to obtrude such useless discourses upon the world; yet, for books of the latter rank, I say, that, when husbandmen complain of too much corn, let Christians complain of too many such books.
2. And if you be so highly conceited of your own furniture and ability, that such books are needless to you; if you let them alone, they will do you no hurt, and other poor hungry souls will be glad of them, and bless God for what you despise and leave.

From: A Saint Indeed or the Great Work of a Christian in Keeping the Heart in the Several Conditions of Life (in the “Epistle Dedicatory”).

Tags: Books, Flavel

The following outline is from Dr. David Hocking’s class on Christology. Dr. Hocking’s materials are available at his ministry website, The Hope for Today.

Primary Texts: John 1:1-18; 1 Timothy 3:16

A. HIS NAMES PROVE THAT HE IS GOD!

1. He is called “GOD” – Jhn 1:1; 20:28; Act 28:28; Rom 9:5; Tts 2:13; Hebr 1:8; 1 John 5:2-8; cf. Isa 9:6
2. He is called the “SON OF GOD” – uses huios (G5207) for son, which refers to position, not origin (word for “born one” in Greek, teknon, (G5043) is never used of Jesus Christ) – cf. John 5:18; 10:30-36; 19:7
3. He is called the “LORD” (Greek – kurios) – used in LXX for the Hebrew YAHWEH (Jehovah) – Isa 45:22-23; Joe 2:32; Act 2:21-36; Rom 10:9-10; Phl 2:5-11 (fbr: “christos” used in LXX for Hebrew word translated “Messiah”)
4. He is called the “LORD OF GLORY” – Psa 24:7-10; 1 Cor 2:8
5. He is called the “HOLY ONE” – Isa 48:17; Act 3:14
6. He is called “THE FIRST AND THE LAST” – Isa 44:6; 48:12-16; Rev 1:17-18; 2:8; 22:12-13, 16
7. He is called the “LORD OF HOSTS” – Isa 44:6 (Hebrew word is YHWH not adonai)—Redeemer is YHWH.

B. HIS ATTRIBUTES PROVE THAT HE IS GOD!

1. He is ETERNAL – Isaiah 9:6; 1 John 5:11
2. He is UNCHANGEABLE – Mal 3:6; Hebr 1:8-12; 13:8
3. He is OMNIPRESENT – Mat 18:28; 28:20; Col 3:11
4. He is OMNISCIENT – Jhn 2:23-25; 16:38; Col 2:3
5. He is OMNIPOTENT – Phl 3:20-21; Rev 1:8; 22:12-13
6. He is PERFECT – Colossians 1:19; 2:9-10
7. He is INCOMPREHENSIBLE – Isa 9:6; 55:8-9; Mat 11:27; Rom 11:33-36; Eph 3:8, 19

C. HIS ABILITIES PROVE THAT HE IS GOD!

1. He CREATED all things – John 1:3, 10; Col 1:16
2. He CONTROLS all things – Col 1:17; Hebr 1:2-3
3. He CURES all diseases – Mat 4:23-24
4. He CALMS the sea – Mark 6:47-51
5. He CONQUERS death – John 11:25-26
6. He CLAIMS to forgive sins, answer prayer, and give eternal life – Mar 2:1-12; Jhn 10:27-33; 14:13-14

The above outline is copyrighted material, from The Hope for Today.

Tags: Christ, Deity, God, Jesus Christ

…we must accept the concept of paradox, believing that what we cannot square with our finite minds is somehow harmonized in the mind of God.
—Anthony A. Hoekema ¹

Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites by keeping them both, and keeping them both furious.
—G. K. Chesterton ²

1 Anthony A. Hoekema, Saved by Grace (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989) 6.
2 G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (repr. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959) 95.

Tags: Paradox

Following are some key texts on the Sovereignty of God:

Exodus 15:18
Deuteronomy 4:39; 10:14, 17
2 Kings 19:15
1 Chronicles 29:11-12
2 Chronicles 20:6
Job 25:2; 40:6; 41:11
Psalm 5:2; 10:16; 22:27-28; 24:1, 10; 29:10; 44:4; 45:6; 47:2, 8-9; 66:7; 67:4; 74:12; 83:18; 84:3; 89:14; 93:1-2; 95:3; 97:1-2, 9; 98:6; 99:4-5; 103:19; 113:4; 115:3; 145:1, 13; 146:10; 149:2
Isaiah 6:5; 33:22; 37:16; 43:15; 44:6; 66:1
Jeremiah 10:10
Lamentations 5:19
Ezekiel 18:1, 4
Daniel 2:20-21, 47; 4:34-35; 6:26
Malachi 1:14
Romans 11:36
1 Timothy 1:17; 6:15
Revelation 19:6

Following are some key texts on the doctrine of imputation:

Following are some additional related texts:

Tags: Cross, Imputation, Righteousness, Salvation

While I know the Bible teaches a strong view of God’s sovereignty over the affairs of His creation, I also see verses that tell us that our choices matter. This is one of those conundrums in theological studies. For it seems that these two things are at odds, but yet both are taught vigorously. Therefore, choices by man in the area of faith, obedience, prayer, etc. do matter. Here are a couple of my favorite verses that show that man’s choices do matter.

Eze 22:30-31 NKJV – “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord GOD.”

James 4:2 ESV – You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

Now as much as man’s choices matter, they never thwart the purposes of God.

Dan 4:34-35 NKJV – And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, “What have You done?”

The sin of Nebuchadnezzar—including pride, murder, etc.—did not thwart God’s purposes being accomplished on earth, as testified by Nebuchadnezzar, after being judged and restored by the LORD.