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God controls quite a lot or God controls all?

Discussion in 'Calvinism & Arminianism Debate' started by MennoSota, Aug 6, 2017.

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  1. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    God’s omniscience GOD IS OMNISCIENT. HE KNOWS EVERYTHING: EVERYTHING possible, everything actual; all events and all creatures, of the past, the present, and the future. He is perfectly acquainted with every detail in the life of every being in heaven, in earth, and in hell.

    “He knoweth what is in the darkness” (Dan 2:22). Nothing escapes His notice, nothing can be hidden from Him, nothing is forgotten by Him. Well may we say with the Psalmist, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it” (Psa 139:6). His knowledge is perfect. He never errs, never changes, never overlooks anything


    . “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb 4:13). Yes, such is the God “with whom we have to do”! “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether” (Psa 139:2-4). What a wondrous Being is the God of Scripture! Each of His glorious attributes should render Him honorable in our esteem. The apprehension of His omniscience ought to bow us in adoration before Him. Yet how little do we meditate upon this divine perfection! Is it because the very thought of it fills us with uneasiness? How solemn is this fact: nothing can be concealed from God! “For I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them” (Eze 11:5). Though He be invisible to us, we are not so to Him.
     
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  2. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Your habit of putting words in people's mouths is dispicable.

    Sent from my Motorola Droid Turbo.
     
  3. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Past and future “Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite” (Psa 147:5). God not only knows whatsoever has happened in the past in every part of His vast domains, and He is not only thoroughly acquainted with everything that is now transpiring throughout the entire universe, but He is also perfectly cognizant of every event, from the least to the greatest, that ever will happen in the ages to come

    . God’s knowledge of the future is as complete as is His knowledge of the past and the present, and that, because the future depends entirely upon Himself. Were it in anywise possible for something to occur apart from either the direct agency or permission of God, then that something would be independent of Him, and He would at once cease to be Supreme.

    Now the divine knowledge of the future is not a mere abstraction, but something which is inseparably connected with and accompanied by His purpose. God has Himself designed whatsoever shall yet be, and what He has designed must be effectuated. As His most sure Word affirms, “He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand” (Dan 4:35). And again, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand” (Pro 19:21). The wisdom and power of God being alike infinite, the accomplishment of whatever He hath purposed is absolutely guaranteed. It is no more possible for the divine counsels to fail in their execution than it would be for the thrice holy God to lie. Nothing relating to the future is in anywise uncertain so far as the actualization of God’s counsels are concerned. None of His decrees are left contingent either on creatures or secondary causes. There is no future event which is only a mere possibility, that is, something which may or may not come to pass: “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning” (Acts 15:18). Whatever God has decreed is inexorably certain, for He is without variableness, or shadow of turning (James 1:17). Therefore we are told at the very beginning of that book, which unveils to us so much of the future, of “Things which must shortly come to pass” (Rev 1:1)
     
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  4. MennoSota

    MennoSota Well-Known Member
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    Say what you mean about Ephesians 2:8-9 if I am wrong.

    Both 1 Timothy 1 and Ephesians 2 support the position that faith is a gift from God.

    Meanwhile, 2 Timothy 3:15 never says that the scriptures create faith in a person.

    14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

    Notice that the scriptures give Timothy wisdom (not faith).
    Faith, on the other hand, is in Christ Jesus. Jesus gave Timothy faith. Faith is a gift from God.
     
    #104 MennoSota, Aug 7, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2017
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  5. SovereignGrace

    SovereignGrace Well-Known Member
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    This from Pink's "The Attributes of God", iirc.

    I just read that excerpt tonight on my Nook ebook.
     
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  6. utilyan

    utilyan Well-Known Member
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    John 15

    15“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.


    One good give away one is not elect, they don't know who the elect are. They don't know God's motive, intention, they don't know what God is doing.
     
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  7. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Yes after reading several bad posts about disparaging God's attributes I have to go to a good source once in awhile and refresh myself.
     
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  8. Reynolds

    Reynolds Well-Known Member
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    You again have ignored the context of scripture. God created gravity, it directs those branches to the ground. That would be His natural law at work. On occasion, He may impose super natural intervention.

    I know. I know. I am now a deist.
     
  9. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    What would be outiside the control of God? The only way to get to that would be to have say an Open Theist God, who limited Himself, but that is not the God of the Bible!
     
  10. SheepWhisperer

    SheepWhisperer Active Member

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    "Open Theist", now there's a new one on me.

    "Open Theism
    is the thesis that, because God loves us and desires that we freely choose to reciprocate His love, He has made His knowledge of, and plans for, the future conditional upon our actions. Though omniscient, God does not know what we will freely do in the future." Open Theism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    Sorry, that one doesn't fit me either. I believe the God of the Bible knows the beginning to the ending because He is the "Alpha and Omega", the "I Am", and He "inhabiteth eternity" the Bible says. He knows who will believe but He forces no one. He isn't limited either: He just doesn't do things He chooses not to do. Simple huh?
     
  11. MennoSota

    MennoSota Well-Known Member
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    You are forcing human labels onto God. For example, where do we find the term or idea of "natural law" in the Bible.
    Just as God ordains gravity for each millimeters of His universe, so he ordains the movement of every molecule, including the molecules of the branches that fall.
    There is no such thing as natural and super natural in God's universe. There is only God's creation under His perfect control. Yes, even all the evil that exists is under God's perfect control and it all works to God's good and perfect purpose.
     
  12. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Do you believe that God controls what you will have for lunch today? Tomorrow? Next week? A year from now?

    When you pass gas on October 18, 2029, will that be of God's perfect purpose?
     
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  13. MennoSota

    MennoSota Well-Known Member
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    Ordained by God.

    His omniscience and omnipotence is over all things. When I get food poisoning from bad food, it happens by God's good and perfect ordination. Not one thing, good or bad, happens except by God's will.

    Job declares: "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"
     
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  14. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    So God is ordaining that you have a hamburger and fries on September 23, 2022?
     
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  15. MennoSota

    MennoSota Well-Known Member
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    If that is what he wills.

    ITL, Sovereign means sovereign. As humans we are either a slave to sin or a bond-slave of Christ. Freedom from either is never an option. I am grateful for God's grace, which made me a bond-slave of Christ my Savior.
     
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  16. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    So basically, whatever happens in this world, no matter what, is ordained by God.

    I pour a glass of Coca Cola and 487 bubbles form and rise to the surface. Not 486. Not 488. But precisely 487 bubbles, as God ordained for his glory.

    Is this what you believe?
     
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  17. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    If it happens, if it comes to pass,it was ordained to come to pass
     
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  18. MennoSota

    MennoSota Well-Known Member
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    That is by God's good and perfect ordination if that happens.
    Either God is in absolute control of his creation or God has lost control of parts or all of it.
    The Bible says God is in complete control. I believe the Bible even if my frail little mind can't see it with my eyes.
     
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  19. SheepWhisperer

    SheepWhisperer Active Member

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    so, according to that logic, if a serial killer decides to do his thing this aftenoon, it was ordained by God?
     
  20. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
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    Could God had stopped him at any time? Yes, but why did he allow him to do that sinful act, is that the question?
     
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