Walkington's Works

Gleanings In The Godhead

The Foreknowledge Of God

What scriptural ground is there for anyone to say God "foreknew" the acts of certain ones , i.e. , their "repenting and believing ," and that because of those acts He elected them unto salvation ? The answer is , None whatever . Scripture never speaks of repentance and faith as being foreseen or foreknown by God ... The word uniformly refers to God's foreknowing persons ; then let us "hold fast the form of sound words" ( 2 Timothy 1:130 .
[ The Scriptures plainly and implicitly teach ] that God's foreknowledge is not causative ; that instead , something else lies behind , precedes it -- something that is His own sovereign decree . Christ was "delivered by the [1] determinate counsel and [2] foreknowledge of God" ( Acts 2:23 ) . His counsel or decree was the ground of His foreknowledge . So again in Romans 8:29 . That verse opens with the word FOR , which tells us to look back to what immediately precedes . what , then , does the previous verse say ? This : " All things work together for good to them ... who are the called according to his purpose ." Thus God's foreknowledge is based upon his purpose , or decree ( see Psalm 2:7 ) .

 

Gleanings In The Godhead

The Foreknowledge Of God

Why He chose the ones He did , we do not know . We can only say , " Even so , Father : for so it seemed good in thy sight " ( Matthew 11:26) . The plain truth of Romans 8:29 is that God , before the foundation of the world , singled out certain sinners and appointed them unto salvation ( 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ) . This is clear from Romans 8:29 " For whom he did foreknow , he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." God did not predestinate those whom He were conformed . On the contrary , those whom He foreknew ( i.e. , loved and elected ) He predestinated "to be conformed ." Their conformity to Christ is not the cause , but the effect of God's foreknowledge and predestination .

God foreknows what will be because He has decreed it . It is therefore a reverse order of Scripture , putting the cart before the horse , to affirm that God elects because He foreknows people . The truth is , He foreknows because He has elected . This removes the cause of election from outside the creature and places it in God's own sovereign will . God purposed in Himself to elect a certain people , not because of anything good in them , either actual or foreseen , but solely out of His own [ good -- Rip ] pleasure .

 

Gleanings in The Godhead

The Foreknowledge Of God

It is highly important for us to have clear and scriptural views of the foreknowledge of God . Erroneous conceptions about it lead inevitably to thoughts most dishonoring to Him . The popular idea of divine foreknowledge is altogether inadequate . God not only knew the end from the beginning , but also He planned , fixed , and predestined everything from the beginning . And , as cause stands to effect , so God's purpose is the ground of His prescience . If , then , the reader is a true Christian , he is so because God chose him in Christ before the foundation of the world ( Ephesians 1:4 ) ; and chose you not because He foresaw you would believe , but simply because it pleased Him to choose ; chose you notwithstanding your natural unbelief . This being so , all glory and praise belongs alone to Him . You have no ground for taking any credit to yourself . You have 'believed through grace " ( Acts 18:27 ) , and that , because your very election was "of grace" ( romans 11:5 ) .

 

Imagine that ! Your final post was edited !

I agree with "that noble exegete" as long as he agrees with Scripture . In the words of Spurgeon regarding Calvin's works : " I agree with them in the main ."

Mr. Ps. , it would do you well to actually read Pink . Your little refutations don't stack up against his solid biblical approach . His writings are saturated with Scripture ( they are 'bibline" as Spurgeon said of Bunyan's writings . )

How , pray tell , does your following statement square with Scripture ? " The only thing i can do to save myself is to die eternally ." So going to Hell is going to "save" you ? That is very nonsensical .

 

Tell you what Mr. Ps. Why don't you start your own little thread about how wrong AWP was on these issues . Of course you have to actually quote him in the course of discrediting him .

But , as it is , you are disturbing a perfectly fine thread of AWP quotes on a variety of biblical doctrines .

 

Gleanings In The Godhead

The Supremacy Of God

In one of his letters to Erasasmus , Luther said , " Your thoughts of God are too human ." Probably that renowned scholar resented such a rebuke , the more so , since it proceeded from a miner's son . Nevertherless , it was throughly deserved . We , too , prefer the same charge against the vast majority of the preachers of our day and against those who , instead of searching the Scriptures for themselves , lazily accept their teachings . The most dishonoring conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere . To countless thousands , even professing Christians , the God of Scriptures is quite unknown .
Of old , God complained to an apostate Israel , " Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself " ( Psalm 50:21 ) . Such must now be His indictment against apostate Christendom . Men imagine the Most High is moved by sentiment , rather than by principle . They suppose His omnipotency is such an idle fiction that Satan can thwart His designs on every side . They think that if he has formed any plan or purpose at all , then it must be like theirs , constantly subject to change . They openly declare that whatever power He possesses must be restricted , lest he invade the citadel of man's free will and reduce him to a machine . They lower the all-efficacious atonement , which redeems everyone for whom it was made , to a mere remedy , which sin-sick souls may use if they feel so disposed . They lessen the strength of the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an offer of the Gospel which sinners may accept or reject as they please .


[ Doesn't AW tell it biblically like very few can ? -- Rip ]

 

Gleanings In The Godhead

The Supremacy Of God

The god of this century no more resembles the Sovereign of Holy Writ than does the dim flickering of a candle the glory of the midday sun . The god who is talked about in the average pulpit , spoken of in the ordinary Sunday school , mentioned in much of the religious literature of the day , and preached in most of the so-called Bible conferences , is a figment of human imagination , an invention of maudlin sentimentality . The heathen outside the pale of Christendom form gods of wood and stone , while millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture a god out of their carnal minds . In reality , they are but atheists , for there is no other possible alternative between an absolutely supreme God and no God at all . A god whose will is resisted , whose designs are frustrated , whose purpose is checkmated , possesses no title to diety and , far from being a fit object of worship , merits nothing but contempt .

 

Actually my selection of Pink's in post #75 was not from The Sovereignty Of God . It does mirror paragraphs 3 and 4 of the first chapter in SOG called " God's Sovereignty Defined" though .

 

My post #75 is taken from : The Attributes Of God , otherwise called Exellencies Which Pertain To The Godhead As God . That is part 1 with 25 chapters . The chapter I quoted from was in chapter 5 .

 

Gleanings In The Godhead

The Supremacy Of God

Here then is a sure resting place for the heart . Our lives are neither the product of blind fate nor the result of capricious chance . Every detail of them was ordained from all eternity and is now ordered by the living , reigning God . Not a hair of our heads can be touched without His permission . " A man's heart deviseth his way ; but the LORD directeth his steps " ( Proverbs 16:9 ) . What assurance , what strength , what comfort this should give the real Christian ! " My times are in thy hand " ( Psalm 31:15 ) . Then let me "rest in the LORD , and wait patiently for him" ( 37:7 ) .