Comments on: A Pagan Inheritance?

By: Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:32:07 +0000

Hello,

Great stuff. God bless your effort in confronting another humanistic idea that has infiltrated the church of Jesus Christ; an idea that incorrectly represents the God of the bible. It is my prayer that this horrible, inaccurate reading of the scriptures, which has spawned such a corrupt theology, will die in our lifetime!

Your Brother in Jesus,

Bobby

By: jbarnhart

jbarnhart — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:39:05 +0000

Rey:

Excellent comment…if we define exhaustive foreknowledge the way you have at the end of your comment, I would stand in agreement.

The reality of any piece of literature or any blog is that there are conversation partners I have in the writing that you are not privy to upon your reading.

My main concern with the Calvinists that I’m reacting to in my blog is that they have a rigid, causative framework in which God works. So invested are they in this framework that their understanding of God’s sovereignty is extremely fragile.

The things you surface in your comment are the exact things that need to be addressed. How does evil enter the picture? Why is there suffering in the world? Calvinist theology has not adequately answered these questions for me.

I do not claim to be an expert on open theism. I’m just throwing my ramblings and rants out online. If this comment makes no sense, I apologize. Thank you, for your kind and assertive correction to my mischaracterization of Calvinists. You were right to do so.

Blessings, friend…though we’ve never met we have journeyed for a small while together through this blog!

By: rey

rey — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:57:45 +0000

I think you mischaracterize when you say that that Calvinists (who love to use the misnomer “Reformed” as their exclusive property) believe that God has “exhaustive foreknowledge.” That is not what they believe at all. They believe that God causes every minute thing that happens. That’s not foreknowledge. Its like that saying, “the media doesn’t report the news, they make it.” In Calvinism, God doesn’t know the future, he makes it. Thus, in Calvinism, God has no actual foreknowledge, and he is the greatest sinner of all time, since in that system’s view, he has pre-scripted every sin. It is an altogether different thing to say that God does indeed have “exhaustive foreknowledge” and yet does not micromanage the creation like a vassal! and does not deny human beings free will! Myself, I have generally always allowed for “exhaustive foreknowledge” although understanding it as only on the basis of conditionals, that the future cannot be known as an absolute, but only by taking into account all possibilities and compensating for all of them, which I have believed God can do.

By: Adam Baker

Adam Baker — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:45:19 +0000

Outside of the occasional grammatical and spelling issue, this is solid, my friend. Then again, if you employ the occasional grammatical & spelling mishap, you and Mr. Pinnock are in like company – there’s some beautiful truth & thought-provoking snazziness in his work, although I could wage war on it with a red pen at times.

I’m referring folks this way.