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December 27, 2020 - January 29, 2021
Does God know it because He determines it or does He determine it because He knows it? Or maybe He permits others to make determinations separately (autonomously)?
Wherever we land philosophically, however, we must refrain from bringing unbiblical conclusions based upon our finite perceptions to our understanding of God’s nature.[34]
No man will stand before the Father and be able to give the excuse, “I was born unloved by my Creator (Jn. 3:16). I was born un-chosen and without the hope of salvation (Titus 2:11). I was born unable to see, hear or understand God’s revelation of Himself (Acts 28:27-28).” No! They will stand wholly and completely “without excuse” (Rm. 1:20), because God loved them (Jn. 3:16), called them to salvation (2 Cor. 5:20), revealed Himself to them (Titus 2:11), and provided the means by which their sins would be atoned (1 Jn. 2:2). No man has any excuse for unbelief (Rm. 1:20). Chapter 4
Even when the vessels went their own way and ignored the instructions of the Potter, He remained faithful to His promise.
“He is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart.”[35]
The Messianic secret, if rightly understood, is not Jesus’ attempt to permanently keep people from knowing, believing in, and following Him. Instead, it is the temporary strategy Jesus employed to accomplish redemption on Calvary so that all may be saved through faith in Him after His plan was fulfilled.
At this vital time in human history, they are being “judicially hardened” or “cut off” (Rom. 9:1-3) or “sent a spirit of stupor” (Rom. 11:8) so as to seal them in their already calloused condition (John 12:39-41; Acts 28:27). Scripture tells us that God is hardening the calloused Jews in order to accomplish a greater redemptive purpose through their rebellion. It is God’s ordained plan to bring redemption to the world through the crucifixion of the Messiah by the hands of the rebellious Jews (Acts 2:23). Jesus is not attempting to persuade everyone to come to faith in great numbers as we see
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For what reason could they not believe? Is it because they were rejected by their Maker before the world began? Is it about their being born guilty of Adam’s sin and thus incapable of responding willingly to God’s own appeals for reconciliation? Of course not! They are being temporarily blinded in their already calloused condition so as to accomplish redemption for the world. This is not about God rejecting most of humanity before the world began as the Calvinistic systematic reads into these texts.
Clearly, Jesus used riddles, or parables, to keep the Jewish leaders in the dark for a time so as to accomplish a greater redemptive good. This completely undermines Calvinism’s doctrine of “Total Inability.” There is no practical or theological reason for God to put a blind fold on those born totally and completely blind from birth. And there is certainly no reason to hide truth from those in the “corpse-like dead” condition of “Total Inability” proposed by the “T” in Calvinism’s TULIP. Judicial
God at least allowed sinful actions to take place for a greater plan and purpose. We can also all agree that God’s involvement was completely sinless. We could simply stop there and appeal to the mystery as to how God works in such instances, but philosophers are going to do what philosophers are going to do: philosophize.
rather that He Himself brings about these evil aspects for His glory (see Ex. 9:13-16; John 9:3) and His people’s good (see Heb. 12:3-11; James 1:2-4). This includes—as incredible and as unacceptable as it may currently seem—God’s having even brought about the Nazis’ brutality at Birkenau and Auschwitz as well as the terrible killings of Dennis Rader and even the sexual abuse of a young child…”[40]
??!! God may have allowed it but I cant accept that He determined and planned something as horrific as the halocaust or the sexual abuse of a child. That is not representative of His love and care.
Mark Talbot, John Piper, and all those associated with this publication, are teaching that God actually brings about the sexual abuse of children in order to glorify Himself, yet He does so without sinning.
How can God meticulously and purposefully bring about child molestation for His glory while avoiding culpability? No consistent Calvinist has ever provided an answer to this question.
Traditionalists believe that at times throughout history God does intervene to determine some things.
I do not believe, however, these unique determinations prove God’s meticulous determination of all things, especially mankind’s evil intentions.
in every one of the instances listed above the purpose of God’s unique intervention is clearly redemptive.
thieves and murderers, and other evildoers, are instruments of divine providence, being employed by the Lord Himself to execute judgments which He has resolved to inflict” (John
all of Adam’s children have fallen by God’s will” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 4).
the Lord has created those whom He unquestionably foreknew would go to destruction. This has happened because He has willed” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 5).
“…individuals are born, who are doomed from the womb to certain death, and are to glorify Him by their destruction” (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 23, Paragraph 6).
I am not suggesting a “Calvinist” must agree with John Piper or even John Calvin on every theological point in order to be considered a “Calvinist.” But if you are going to proudly promote this label shouldn’t you at least affirm the basic theological claims over the issues that make Calvinism so controversial in the church?
God's ultimate purpose, like that of the police officer in our analogy, is only good.
Are we to believe God determined to redeem His very own determinations, or are we to believe the Potter sinlessly used a libertarianly sinful will to accomplish His redemptive promise?
foreknowing that someone will libertarianly choose to sin, as I did with my daughter standing in front of the cookie jar, does not in any way imply such knowledge causes, determines or necessitates the desire of the sinner to sin.
I believe God knows the choices of His creatures because He is omniscient, not because He is “omni-deterministic.”[49]
Teaching that God brings about all sin based on how He brought about Calvary is like teaching that the police officer brings about every drug deal based on how he brought about one sting operation.
Calvinists cite John 6 to support their understanding of Total inability and Irresistible grace.
much attention is directed toward Ephesians 1 to support the Calvinistic concept of the Unconditional election, understood as the predestination of individuals for regeneration.
Calvinists also point to Rom. 8:28–9:33 to defend any objections brought against their doctrinal conclusions concerning Unconditional election, Limited atonement and Total inability.
The audience in John 6 is a group of unbelieving Israelites looking for free food (vv. 25–31), and the twelve apostles (vs. 70).[54]
Jesus even wept over Israel because the truth was now being hidden from their eyes (Lk. 19:41-42).
their hearts were hardened in their religious self-righteousness, which led to the truth being hidden from them
At this time the Israelites were being judicially hardened, or “cut off,” (Rom. 9:1-3) and “sent a spirit of stupor” (Rom. 11:8) so as to seal them in their already-calloused condition (John 12:39–41; Acts 28:27).
God is hardening the calloused Jews in order to accomplish a greater redemptive purpose through their rebellion.
the elect of God (i.e. Israelites)
This contextual information aids the expositor of John 6 attempting to understand the author’s intention with regard to the natural abilities of mankind from birth,
The judicially-hardened Jews are not the only ones present when Jesus was speaking in John 6. The twelve apostles are in the audience, and they are the only ones who remained after Jesus finished provoking the crowd with His cannibalistic-toned, parabolic sermon (John 6:66–67).
Nothing is mentioned in the text of God using an inward, irresistible calling or work of regeneration to convince His apostles to remain faithful.
hardened in their already-calloused, self-righteous, stubborn condition.
a condition resulting from their own libertarianly free choices.
Calvinists often emphasize John 6:37 as it relates to verse 39 to argue the author intends to teach the notion that God has preselected a particular number of people to draw irresistibly while leaving all others without the ability to respond willingly to the revelation of God.[59] Consider, however, the contextual clue in verse 38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me.” Here Jesus speaks about what is happening while He is “down from heaven.” While on earth, God sent Christ to accomplish a specific part of His redemptive will. That
God’s will was for Jesus to come “down from heaven” and train a preselected group of Israelites (those given to Him to be apostles) to carry the gospel to the world and establish His church after He is raised from the dead (John 12:32; Matt. 28:19).
The purpose from the beginning for which Israel had been elected was to bring the light to the rest of the world
The reason Jesus’s audience in John 6 walked away was not because God rejected them before the foundation of the earth, as the Calvinistic rendering of this passage would suggest. Rather, God has consistently expressed His desire for the repentance and faith of every person (Matt. 23:37; Rom. 10:31; Ezek. 18:30–31; 2 Pet. 3:9; 1 Tim. 2:4; Hos. 3:1).
Israel did not reject God because God rejected them. Rather, God temporarily hardened those in their rebellious, calloused condition in order to accomplish redemption for all,[61] including the very ones who were being judicially hardened (Rom. 11:14–23; 32). God’s purpose in hardening Israel was redemptive, not retributive.
So, what is the intent of John 6? The Calvinistic systematic teaches that God decreed for all people to be born in a totally disabled condition due to the sin of Adam and has planned to irresistibly draw only a particular number of people for salvation, leaving the rest without any hope of responding to His appeals for reconciliation.
The non-Calvinist teaches that Jesus was provoking Israel in their hardened unbelief, while also drawing a remnant of divinely-appointed messengers to take the gospel to the world so as to draw all to Himself after he was raised up. As Jesus explained, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).
“in Christ”
repeated this phrase, in various forms, ten times in thirteen verses.[63]
The Calvinist contends that certain individuals were chosen before the world began and predestined to become believers,[64] but that is simply not what the text says. Paul teaches that those “in Him” have been predestined to become “holy and blameless” and “to be adopted as sons,” but he never says that certain individuals were predestined to believe in Christ. Paul speaks of what “the faithful in Christ” (vs. 1) have been predestined to become, not about God preselecting certain individuals before the foundation of the world to be irresistibly transformed into believers.
Not so sure about what Flowers says here. seems like some mental gymnastics?
NKJV
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
Ephesians 1:3-6
YLT
“Blessed [is] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who did bless us in every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, according as He did choose us in him before the foundation of the world, for our being holy and unblemished before Him, in love, having foreordained us to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He did make us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the remission of the trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,”
Ephesians 1:3-7 YLT98
If Paul had left off the “before the foundation of the world “ part then I could see what Flowers is saying but it says “he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy”. So if God chose for us to be holy before the foundation of the world, then He must have chosen us for salvation at the same time.
Nathaniel explains it from something he read....In Christ is an airliner. The Calvinist says everyone on the airliner (in Christ) was predestined/chosen/elected to be on the plane and recurve the blessings.
The traditionalist says everyone that got on the airplane got there because they were given the choice. Those who got on are predestined to receive the blessings of Ephesians because they are in Christ.
