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"An Experiment", using a Quarter, to Demonstrate God's Permissive Will with regard to the Existence of Sin and Evil.

Alan Dale Gross

Active Member
"An Experiment", using a Quarter,
to Demonstrate God's Permissive Will
with regard to the Existence of Sin and Evil.


The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1644 and the London Confession of Faith of 1689,
have similar sentiments regarding God' Predestination as The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1646,
where in the first half of the third chapter states:
“God had Decreed in Himself, before the World was,
concerning all things, whether necessary, accidental or voluntary,
with all the circumstances of them, to Work, Dispose, and Bring about all things
according to the Counsel of His Own Will, to His Glory:

"(Yet without being the {chargeable} Author of sin, or having fellowship with any therein)
in which appears His Wisdom in Deposing all things, Unchangeableness, Power,

and Faithfulness in Accomplishing His Decree...”.

Yet, "those Articles of Faith" made no attempt to explain how God Preordained
everything, including sin without being its Author, that task was left to the
early Baptists writers in more modern times.

"These writers found different ways to express themselves
but it is plain from their writings they taught God executed His Will differently
with regard to evil than He did with regard to good.

"The Experiment", using a Quarter,
to Demonstrate God's Permissive Will
with regard to the Existence of Sin and Evil.


"Before I take up the task of dealing with this issue
I would like for the reader to participate in a simple experiment.

"Take a quarter in your hand. With the back of your hand facing up
open your hand so that the coin falls to the floor.

"Now, leave it on the floor until I tell you otherwise.

"I want to talk to you first about what has already happened.
Tell me, did you cause the coin to fall?
You might reply that you did since you let it go and such a response seems reasonable enough.

"But let me ask the question in another way.
Did you force the coin to fall? To this you would clearly see you did not force it to fall.
It fell by its own weight.

"Now we are ready for you to deal with the fallen coin so pick it up.

The principles of this Experiment may not answer every Question
How a Sovereign God Brings Evil and Good Deeds into the World but it should go a
long way toward resolving many of them.

"Section II. Evil Deeds."


"I submit God is neither the Author of sin
nor does He force His creatures to commit sin.

"God’s Permissive Will."

"What was first demonstrated by the Experiment
was that by letting the coin go you permitted it to fall.

From this let me introduce the concept of God’s Permissive Will.


"Hear me out on this. I know a lot of folk who believe in
the absolute Doctrine do not like this term. I also know Arminians and
Conditionalists readily adopt this term when speaking about God’s Will.

"Therefore, I must make sure I am not misunderstood when I speak of it.
I do not believe the term means a whole variety of things can happen.

"For example, it does not mean lightning during a storm may strike your front
yard tree or maybe it will be your back yard tree, or maybe instead it will be
your neighbor’s tree, or again, maybe there will be no lightning strikes near
your home at all.

"For another example, it does not mean God leaves it up to
you whether or not you will sin. Maybe you will or maybe you won’t.

"I do not understand Permissive Will to mean what most people think when they
use the term. They think of it as open-ended; that is, that by God’s
Permission a whole host of things might occur.

"Contrary to this view I believe God’s Will is specific to what He Permits.
God’s Purposes include all things but His Methods in bringing many of them to pass
is through what He has specifically Intended to Permit and what He intended to Permit Will happen.

"It should be observed the coin did not fall by accident.

"In order for you to participate in the experiment you both intended and permitted the quarter to
fall to the floor. You knew if you opened your hand it would fall. You did not force it to fall.


"But this brings up another point.

"The Nature of the coin had to be as it was in order to fall.

Now, consider the same Experiment, using a balloon filled with helium, instead of a quarter;

"Suppose you had released a balloon recently filled with helium.
Rather than falling, the balloon would have actually started going upward.

"Thus, the result of your release would have been different
had the object been a helium filled balloon rather than a coin.


"In all of this we see how it can be that God’s Will Encompasses sin
while at the same time He Remains Apart from it..."

"By examining yourself and by looking at the world around you it should be
sufficient to confirm to you the biblical truth that all humanity has fallen into
sin. Paul wrote “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”
(Romans 5.12).


"By referring to Old Testament passages the same Apostle concluded there
was no one righteous, there was none that understood or sought after God,
and that every one went astray and became unprofitable.

"Their throats were compared to open sepulchres, their talk was deceitful, and full of cursing and
bitterness. They readily shed blood, and along the way they found destruction and misery.
Peace was far from them. Finally they had no fear of God (Romans 3.11-18).

It is human nature to live in such depravity.
Jeremiah taught, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17.9),

"and Jesus taught, “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies
(Matthew 15.19).


"Paul described the sinner’s condition as being “dead in trespasses and sins”
Isaiah 64.6 states even what men claim to be righteousness is actually comparable to “filthy rags.”

"When you consider all these texts is there anyone who could reasonably
think God needs to force men to sin?

"All that is required for men to transgress is for God to leave them to pursue their own natural course.

"So, Solomon concluded,

“God hath Made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions” (Ecclesiastes 7.29).

"When God Permits a man to fulfill his own desires he will commit iniquity,
and the more rope the Lord Gives him to follow his own path
the further into sin that man will go.


"The Lord Declared it was this way with Israel in the wilderness:
“So I gave them up unto there own hearts’ lust:
and they walked in their own counsels”
(Psalm 81.12).


"Stephen preached to the Jews about their forefathers saying:
“Then God Turned, and Gave them up to worship the host of heaven” (Acts 7.42)..."

"Even the saints are not fully kept from sinning for John wrote,
“If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the Truth is not in us”
(I John 1.8).


"So we see that God does not have to force the sinner to transgress.

"All God has to do is allow him to follow his own hearts’ desire
and to the extent God does allow a person to follow their own hearts’ desire, that person will sin to that degree.

"This is what I mean by Permissive Will.

"As the quarter fell from your hand due to its weight so men, when permitted to do so,
will fall by virtue of the weight of their own sinful nature.

"I have presented to the reader in its simplicity the Principle of God’s
Permissive Will as it relates to sin."

From: GOD’S EXECUTION OF HIS WILL
CONCERNING GOOD AND EVIL DEEDS BY DAVID MATTINGLY, 2008.
 

Silverhair

Well-Known Member
A lot of writing to try and escape the obvious contradiction that is in the WCF/LBCF Chap 3 par 1. As the WCF/LBCF say "God hath decreed in himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things, whatsoever comes to pass;" so logically nothing happens that He has not caused to happen and thus is the author of.

But he did get down to the point of human nature. what he misses is that according to both of the documents God has determined man's nature.

So you can try to dance around the problem that the C/R determinism causes but that will not make it go away.

By the way humans are not coins or balloons.
 
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