Being is in God. God is divine being, eternal and without beginning, incorporeal and illimitable, and the cause of what exists. Being is that which wholly subsists. Nature is the truth of things, or the inner reality of them.
Clement, Fragments. S. Maximus, Vol. II. 114.
The Church Fathers. The Complete Works of the Church Fathers: A total of 64 authors, and over 2,500 works of the Early Christian Church . Amazon.com. Kindle Edition.
An early reference to Jewish ideas of future omniscience.
The following extract from the Midrash Rabbah I am writing in order that you may know how to refute the arguments of certain heretics: A gentile once asked Rabbi Joshua, the son of Korcha, saying to him, “Do you not admit that the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what is to happen in the future?” He replied, “Yes.” The gentile retorted, “But is it not written ‘and He was grieved in His heart’?” He answered: “Have you ever had a son born to you?” The reply was “Yes.” He asked (the gentile): “And what did you do?” He replied: “I rejoiced and I made others rejoice also.” The Rabbi asked him: “But did you not know that he must die?” The heathen replied: “At the time of joy, let there be joy, at the time of mourning let there be mourning”. The Rabbi then said: “Such, too, is the way of the Holy One, blessed be He: although it was clear to Him that in the end men would sin and would be destroyed, He did not refrain from creating them for the sake of the righteous men who were to issue from them” (Genesis Rabbah 27:4).
And as what things were foretold should happen to Ahab by the two prophets came to pass, we ought thence to have high notions of God, and every where to honor and worship him, and never to suppose that what is pleasant and agreeable is worthy of belief before what is true, and to esteem nothing more advantageous than the gift of prophecy 44 and that foreknowledge of future events which is derived from it, since God shows men thereby what we ought to avoid. We may also guess, from what happened to this king, and have reason to consider the power of fate; that there is no way of avoiding it, even when we know it. It creeps upon human souls, and flatters them with pleasing hopes, till it leads them about to the place where it will be too hard for them.
Josephus, Flavius. The Antiquities of the Jews (Annotated) . Unknown. Kindle Edition.
2. While the affairs of the Hebrews were in this condition, there was this occasion offered itself to the Egyptians, which made them more solicitous for the extinction of our nation. One of those sacred scribes, 18 who are very sagacious in foretelling future events truly, told the king, that about this time there would a child be born to the Israelites, who, if he were reared, would bring the Egyptian dominion low, and would raise the Israelites;
…
But no one can be too hard for the purpose of God, though he contrive ten thousand subtle devices for that end; for this child, whom the sacred scribe foretold, was brought up and concealed from the observers appointed by the king; and he that foretold him did not mistake in the consequences of his preservation, which were brought to pass after the manner following:— 3. A man whose
Josephus, Flavius. The Antiquities of the Jews (Annotated) . Unknown. Kindle Edition.
The question had been started a little before, whether God is a corporeal existence, and has the form of man; or whether he is incorporeal, and without human or, generally speaking, any other bodily shape? From this question arose strifes and contentions among a very great number of persons, some favoring one opinion on the subject, and others patronizing the opposite. Very many of the more simple ascetics asserted that God is corporeal, and has a human figure: but most others condemn their judgment, and contended that God is incorporeal, and free of all form whatever. With these latter Theophilus bishop of Alexandria agreed so thoroughly that in the church before all the people he inveighed against those who attributed to God a human form, expressly teaching that the Divine Being is wholly incorporeal. When the Egyptian ascetics were apprised of this, they left their monasteries and came to Alexandria; where they excited a tumult against the bishop, accusing him of impiety, and threatening to put him to death. Theophilus becoming aware of his danger, after some consideration had recourse to this expedient to extricate himself from the threatened death. Going to the monks, he in a conciliatory tone thus addressed them: ‘In seeing you, I behold the face of God.’ The utterance of this saying moderated the fury of these men and they replied: ‘If you really admit that God’s countenance is such as ours, anathematize Origen’s book; for some drawing arguments from them oppose themselves to our opinion. If you will not do this, expect to be treated by us as an impious person, and the enemy of God.’ ‘But as far as I am concerned,’ said Theophilus, ‘I will readily do what you require: and be not angry with me, for I myself also disapprove of Origen’s works, and consider those who countenance them deserving of censure.’ Thus he succeeded in appeasing and sending away the monks at that time; and probably the whole dispute respecting this subject would have been set at rest, had it not been for another circumstance which happened immediately after.
Whatever occurs by chance occurs accidentally; whatever occurs accidentally does not occur by providence. If, then, some things occur by chance in the world, the universe is not governed by providence. But if the universe is not governed by providence, there is some nature and substance that is unrelated to the workings of providence. But everything that exists is good to the extent that it exists. Now in the highest place is that good by participation in which everything else is good. And every thing that is changeable is good to the extent that it exists not of itself but on account of its participation in the unchangeable good. Furthermore, that good by participation in which other things are good, whatever they may be, is good by reason not of something else but of itself, and this we call divine providence. Therefore nothing occurs by chance in the world.
Augustine, Responses to Miscellaneous Questions, XXIV. Whether both committing sin and acting rightly fall under the will’s free choice
XVII. On God’s knowledge”
Whatever is past no longer exists, and whatever is future does not yet exist.
Both the past and the future, therefore, are entirely absent. To God, however,
nothing is absent, and hence nothing is either past or future, but everything is
present to God.
Augustine, Responses to Miscellaneous Questions XVII. On God’s knowledge
God is not in a place, for that which is in a place is contained in that
place. That which is contained in a place is a body, but God is not a body.
Therefore he is not in a place. And yet, since he is and he is not in a place,
all things are in him rather than he himself being in some place, although
they are not in him as if he himself were a place. For a place is in space
because it is defined by the length, breadth and width characteristic of a
body. God is not like this. Everything, therefore, is in him, and he is not a
place.
Yet in a loose sense God’ s temple is called God’ s place—not because he is
contained in it but because he is present to it. This, however, is understood to
be nothing better than the pure soul.
Augustine, Responses to Miscellaneous Questions, XX. On God’s Place
From The Heavenly Counsellor in Isaiah xl 13-14: A Study of the Sources of the Theology of Deutero-Isaiah (Society for Old Testament Study Monographs):
We therefore suggest that the content of the supposed knowledge taught to Yahweh in these verses is the practical knowledge required to create the world; and we translate them as follows:
Who has understood the mind of Yahweh,
or who was his counsellor, who instructed him?
Whom did he consult for his guidance,
and who taught him the way to achieve order,
And showed him how to exercise creative skill?
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 18:21:2:
AND IF NOT, I WILL KNOW. Eda’ah means I will have pity upon them. They similarly interpret va-yeda Elohim (and God took cognizance of them)42That va-yeda Elohim means God pitied them. (Ex. 2:25). However, I believe that this verse is to be explained as follows: I will go down and see if all of them (kalah) have done this evil.43According to I.E. kalah (altogether) is to be rendered as all, as in Ex. 11:1 (Krinsky). Have done this evil is a paraphrase of according to the cry of it, which is come unto me. For in truth,44The reason that Scripture relates that God went down to see if they all did according to the cry that came before him. God who is All knows the individual in a general rather than in a detailed manner.45Ibn Ezra seems to be saying that “Ordinarily…God does not know the particular individual as such. He knows him only as implied in the whole” (Husik, p. 193). Thus it was necessary for God to go down and see. Nachmanides criticized Ibn Ezra on this point for introducing alien philosophical concepts into Judaism. Cf. Nachmanides’ commentary on the Pentateuch, on this verse. Other commentaries could not accept the literal implication of Ibn Ezra’s words and harmonized his comments to conform to traditional thinking. See Krinsky. Some argue that this comment did not come from I.E.’s hand but was inserted in the text by a misguided student. Proof that this interpretation is correct, although it is a great mystery, is Abraham’s plea, Wilt thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked (v. 23).46Abraham asked God not to judge Sodom by his general knowledge but to look upon each of the city’s inhabitants as an individual. The heh of ha’af (wilt) is vocalized with a pattach 47An interrogative heh is vocalized with a chataf pattach. even though it is an interrogative heh, because it is followed by an alef, which is a guttural, and it is the rule in Hebrew to elongate the vowel before gutturals.48
Instead I pondered and sought in myself what I might repay to the Lord in compensation for this knowledge of the truth which the Lord manifested to me. I understood, of course, that the eternal nature and ruler of all things stands in need of nothing. Consequently I found one thing only which was fitting for me to offer God, namely, that I should believe that it is never possible for him to receive anything from a man, but only to give.
Commentary on Romans, books 1-5
Barnabas 1:5
if it shall be my care to communicate to you some portion of that
which I received, it shall turn to my reward for having ministered to
such spirits, I was eager to send you a trifle, that along with your
faith ye might have your knowledge also perfect.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/barnabas-lightfoot.html
From DEFINITIONS OF GNOSTICISM AND THEORIES OF GNOSTIC ORIGINS:
The following list is a summary of eleven features of Gnosticism delineated by Birger Pearson.
1. Gnosis. The “adherents of Gnosticism regard gnosis (rather than faith, observance of law, etc.) as requisite to salvation. The saving ‘knowledge’ involves a revelation as to the true nature both of the self and of God; indeed, for the Gnostic, self-knowledge is knowledge of God.”
2. Theology. “Gnosticism also has . . . a characteristic theology, according to which there is a transcendent supreme God beyond the god or powers responsible for the world in which we live.”
3. Cosmology. “A negative, radically dualist stance vis-à-vis the cosmos involves a cosmology, according to which the cosmos itself, having been created by an inferior and ignorant power, is a dark prison in which human souls are held captive.”
4. Anthropology. “Interwoven with its theology and its cosmology is . . . an anthropology, according to which the essential human being is constituted by his/her inner self, a divine spark that originated in the transcendent divine world and, by means of gnosis, can be released from the cosmic prison and can return to its heavenly origin. The human body, on the other hand, is part of the cosmic prison from which the essential ‘man’ must be redeemed.”
5. Eschatology. “The notion of release from the cosmic prison entails . . . an eschatology, which applies not only to the salvation of the individual but to the salvation of all the elect, and according to which the material cosmos itself will come to its fated end.”
6. Social. “Gnosticism, at first glance, seems to be a highly individualistic religion, and so it is. But, in fact, Gnostics did gather in communities of like-minded persons.”
7. Ritual. “Closely tied to this is . . . a ritual dimension as well, for the Gnostics had religious ceremonies of various kinds.”
8. Ethical. “There is, also, . . . an ethical dimension, though in this area there was considerable variation from group to group. Most characteristic, reflecting the acosmic nature of Gnosticism, is the propensity toward withdrawal from engagement with the cosmos, which in its most extreme forms involved abstinence from sex and procreation.”
9. Experimental. “That all of the aforementioned features of Gnosticism involved . . . an experimental dimension almost goes without saying. Religious experience, for the Gnostics, involved joy in the salvation won by gnosis, as well as an extreme alienation from, and revolt against, the cosmic order and those beings attached to it.”
10. Myth. “[W]hat holds everything together for the Gnostic is myth. One of the most characteristic features of Gnosticism is its mythopoesis, its impulse to create an elaborate mythical system giving expression to all that gnosis entails. An interesting feature of Gnostic mythopoesis is that there was a great variation in the telling of the myth; each Gnostic teacher would create new elements to be added to his or her received myth, and, with such elaborations, Gnostic myths could become more and more complicated as they developed.”
11. Parasitical. “But what makes Gnosticism so hard to define is, finally, its parasitical character, a feature that constitutes an eleventh dimension of Gnosticism. This brings up the problem of the relationship between Gnosticism and other religions, chiefly Judaism and Christianity.”
This list is highly instructive and useful in gnostic research, particularly when the following cautions are kept in mind: (1) no gnostic text or system of the second century C.E. will exhibit all of these characteristics equally and uniformly—a demonstration of the tremendous variety among the gnostics; (2) most elements, when taken independently, can be identified with other religious and philosophical systems present in the ancient world—a testament to the syncretistic nature of Gnosticism; and (3) certain features stand out as unique to Gnosticism—an indication of the innovation that Gnosticism brought to the ancient religious and philosophical landscape.
From Lost Christianities:
Gnostic Christians varied widely among themselves in basic and fundamental issues. But many appear to have believed that the material world we live in is awful at best and evil at worst, that it came about as part of a cosmic catastrophe, and that the spiritual beings who inhabit it (i.e., human spirits) are in fact entrapped or imprisoned here. Most of the people imprisoned in the material world of the body, however, do not realize the true state of things; they are like a drunk person who needs to become sober or like someone sound asleep who needs to be awakened. In fact, the human spirit does not come from this world; it comes from the world above, from the divine realm. It is only when it realizes its true nature and origin that it can escape this world and return to the blessed existence of its eternal home. Salvation, in other words, comes through saving knowledge. The Greek term for knowledge is gnosis. And so these people are called Gnostics, “the ones who know.” But how do they acquire the knowledge they need for salvation? In Christian Gnostic texts, it is Jesus himself who comes down from the heavenly realm to reveal the necessary knowledge for salvation to those who have the spark of the divine spirit within.
From The Gnostic Bible:
Scholars of ancient and late antique religions have attempted to sort through the issues of definition and taxonomy in order to reach some clarity regarding gnosis and gnosticism. In 1966 many of the leading scholars of gnosis gathered at an international conference in Messina, Italy, and produced a set of statements that are meant to define gnosis and gnosticism. Gnosis, they maintain, is “knowledge of the divine mysteries reserved for an elite,” and this is a term of very broad application. On the other hand, gnosticism is “a coherent series of haracteristics that can be summarized in the idea of a divine spark in man, deriving from the divine realm, fallen into this world of fate, birth and death, and needing to be awakened by the divine counterpart of the self in order to be finally reintegrated.”2 Gnosticism is thus a religious movement represented by religious groups that emerged in the second century CE and after, especially within the context of Christianity, groups such as the followers of Basilides and Valentinos, two particularly significant early Christian teachers of gnostic religion.
On October 27, 1553, the Spaniard, Miguel Servetus, was burned in Geneva on account of his religious convictions, the instigator of the burning being Calvin, pastor of the cathedral in that city. This execution has roused many protests, especially in Italy and France. In answer to these protests, Calvin has just issued a book, which seems to be most adroitly tinted. The author’s aim is to justify himself, to attack Servetus, and to prove that Servetus was rightly punished by death. I propose to subject this book to a critical examination. In accordance with his usual controversial manner, Calvin will probably describe me as one of Servetus’s disciples, but I hope that no one will thereby be misled. I am not defending the theses of Servetus, but am attacking the false theses of Calvin. I leave absolutely unconsidered discussions about baptism, the Trinity, and such matters. I do not even possess a copy of Servetus’s books since Calvin has burned all the copies he could lay hands on; and I, therefore, do not know what ideas Servetus put forward. I shall do no more than pillory the errors of Calvin as to points which have no bearing upon differences of principle, and I hope to make clear to everyone what sort of man this is whom the lust for blood has driven crazy. I shall not deal with him as he dealt with Servetus, whom he committed to the flames, together with the books whose writing was deemed a crime-Servetus whom, even now when he is dead, Calvin continues to revile. Calvin, having burned the man and his books, has the audacity to refer us to these books, quoting detached passages. It is as if an incendiary, having reduced a house to ashes, were then to invite us to inspect the furniture in the various rooms. For my own part, I should never burn either an author or his books. The book I am attacking is open to everyone, obtainable by everyone, in either of two editions, one Latin and the other French. To avoid the possibility of objection, I shall, in the case of every citation, put the number of the paragraph from which it is taken, while my answer to each passage will bear the same number as the original.
Sebastian Castellio
Nowhere does the biblical story of God, the biblical narrative that identifies God for us, and upon which classical Christian theology claims to be based, say or even hint that God is “outside of time” or “timeless” or that all times are “simultaneously before the eyes of God.” This view of God’s eternity entered into Christian theology from Greek philosophy which regarded time as imperfection.
Roger Olson
From Reign of heretics – Arianism and political power in the Vandal and Ostrogothic kingdoms by Christopher J. (Christopher James) Nofziger:
Although a few schools of thought followed lines similar to the teachings of Arius, the label “Arian” acquired negative connotations after Nicaea. The practice of attaching recognizably “deviant” titles to groups considered theologically or socially unacceptable makes it difficult to identify the actual beliefs held by these groups. Often, clergy would incorporate many distinct factions together under a single name, creating a convenient opposition against which the Church could define itself. The widespread use of “Manichaean” or “Pelagian” enjoyed similar usage, acting as a convenient “known” heretical label to which people could attach negative connotations. Even the Eunomian Philostorgius classified members of the Homoousion (Nicene) movement as “Arians.” The diverse applications of such terms, when held alongside their negatively charged associations and rhetorical use, cannot be necessarily held as indicators of an internal identity within these groups.
“BY THE TIME the Fathers of the Church began to offer negation as a solution of the problem of divine attributes, the theory of negative attributes had already been dealt with by Philo, Albinus, and Plotinus.”
HA Wolfson
NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES IN THE CHURCH FATHERS AND THE GNOSTIC BASILIDES
My days are getting better
Since I read your letter…
Everyday
Things are so much clearer
Since I let you You nearer…
Every Day
I just
Can’t wait to breathe this air
Inside me
Inside me…
I just can’t wait to see You there…
Beside me
Beside me
I got a Super Good Feeling
About Today
I got a clue that it’s You
And You’re never gonna go away
My world is spinning towards You
I fall down before you…
Every Day
I close my eyes together
Jesus, You forever…
Every Day
I just can’t wait to see You there
Beside me
Beside me
I got a Super Good Feeling
About today
I got a clue that it’s You
And You’re never gonna go away
I got a Super Good Feeling
About Today
I got a clue that it’s You
And You’re never gonna go away
You are Holy
You are great
You are super in every way
You are Holy
You are great
You are super…
I got a Super Good Feeling
About Today
I got a clue that it’s You
And You’re never gonna go away
I got a Super Good Feeling
About Today
I got a clue that it’s You
And You’re never gonna go away
I got a Super Good Feeling
I got a Super Good Feeling
Super Good…
“Plato made me know the true God. Jesus Christ showed me the way to Him” ~ Augustine
Quoted in Christianity and Greek Philosophy by B.F. Cocker
But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble, we thus demonstrate.
Fathers, Church. The Complete Works of the Church Fathers: A total of 64 authors, and over 2,500 works of the Early Christian Church (Kindle Locations 465344-465349). Amazon.com. Kindle Edition.
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The Hexaemeron BASIL OF CAESAREA (329 – 379)
The Miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ – Commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew St. John CHRYSOSTOM (c. 349 – c. 407)
Morning and Evening: Daily Readings Charles H. SPURGEON (1834 – 1892)
On Christian Doctrine Saint AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354 – 430)
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354 – 430)
From Why Can’t the Impassible God Suffer? Analytic Reflections on Divine Blessedness:
A Cambridge change is a change that an object undergoes in relation to something
else. The object does not undergo an intrinsic change, but merely undergoes an extrinsic
change. For example, as I am currently typing this paper, I am north of the Cambridge
Divinity Faculty. The Divinity Faculty building has the relational property “being south
of Ryan.” Say that tomorrow I take a train down to Cambridge, and stand to the south
of the Divinity Faculty. The Divinity Faculty building has changed relationally with
regards to me, but nothing intrinsic to the building has changed. The building has
merely gone from “being south of Ryan” to “being north of Ryan.” When contemporary
theologians say that the classical God can undergo these sorts of changes, they are
misrepresenting the tradition. Boethius actually gives a similar account of relational, or
Cambridge changes, in The Trinity V. So classical Christian thinkers are aware of the
concept of a Cambridge change, though they do not refer to them under this moniker.
Boethius, like most classical theists, makes it clear that God does not undergo relational
changes. Why? Because, according to Boethius, the category of relation does not apply
to God at all.17 An immutable God, as classically conceived, cannot undergo relational,
or Cambridge changes. In fact, from Augustine to Aquinas and beyond, classical theism
denies that God is really related to creation in order to avoid saying that God undergoes
relational, accidental changes.18 The claim that God is not really related to creation is a
complicated matter. Since I have discussed it at length elsewhere, I shall say no more
about it here.19 What matters for the purposes of this essay is that on classical theism,
God is immutable in that God cannot undergo any kind of change, be it intrinsic or
extrinsic.
And if I told you there’s somebody who loves you
Would you say, hey, show me that face
And if I told you that true freedom was actual
Would you say, hey, take me to that place
And if I said there is a family
A body that moves as one
Oh do you feel the LOVE that invites us,
The LIBERTY that excites us
The DISCO has just begun
It’s just begun
Give me love, give me liberty, disco
The place everybody in the family’s found
On that day, we will all be happy people
When love, liberty, disco’s in town
And as we step into in the light of the lover
We’re all the same, there’s no rich or poor
And, you know it’s never been good for a man to be alone
So come on in your name’s on the door
What are we waiting for?
All our fears are turning ’round
Fall down and meet your maker
Where our true selves we’ll be found
Callin’ out to every lonely soul
1Sa 12:22 For the LORD will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people.
In 1 Samuel 12:22, Samuel gives his farewell speech. He recounts how God has listened to Israel’s prayers in the past and has responded. He reminds the people of all God has done for them. He then reminds them that they have been chosen. The purpose in God’s choosing was God’s desires to have His own people. God’s vows to Israel will remain firm. Samuel states that God’s own character is at stake in Israel’s prosperity. God will not “foresake” for “His name’s sake”.
Not only does this show God’s commitments (not a metaphysical bond, but God’s desire to accomplish His goals), but God’s dedication to a divine image (public perspective of God). God acts for reasons. Those reasons are often rooted in relationship and character. God is passable, as He is pleased by His goals, He is pleased by people’s worship.
They attest that Yahweh is not a consistent God of command and sanction or, alternatively, of deed and consequence. Conversely, they attest that Yahweh is not a God who consistently forgives. There is slippage about sanctions on occasion, but the slippage always seems to work toward the advantage of David and against Saul. Indeed, we may imagine that “the evil spirit” that came upon Saul (1 Sam 18: 10) is not unlike the deceiving agent dispatched by the government of Yahweh against King Ahab in 1 Kings 22. What is clear to us, and to the narrative before us, is that the lived experience of Israel has to come to terms with this inexplicable, inscrutable “tilt” that does not act morally or reasonably or honorably or consistently, and that things work out oddly, even though Israel credits the oddity to Yahweh. It is possible to speak of the hidden intentionality of Yahweh, or even of Yahweh’s providential care— in this case, of David. What puzzles us about such a conclusion is that even while the text is pro-David in its outcomes, the witness of Israel presents for us the illicit nature of Yahweh’s activity as pertains to Saul. In fact, Saul is treated unfairly by Yahweh, and he is assigned a role in the memory of Israel that shows him to be in a position where he can only lose. Saul will lose partly because David is bold, lucky, attractive, and “destined.” Saul will lose because “forces” conspire against him. Israel, moreover, does not hesitate to assign those conspiring forces exactly to Yahweh. Thus:
• Yahweh will deceive in order to advance David (1 Sam 16: 1);
• Yahweh will counsel Samuel to listen to the people (8: 7, 9, 22), and crush Saul for the same action (1 Sam 15: 24);
• Yahweh will eliminate Saul for taking Amalekite spoil (15: 18– 21), but will disregard David’s like action (30: 19– 20);
• Yahweh will forgive David (2 Sam 12: 13), but refuse Saul’s confession (1 Sam 15: 24).
Yahweh will be arbitrary in David’s favor and need justify it to none, certainly not to Saul or to Saul’s readers. 17 What then are we to make of 2 Samuel 24, the
Brueggemann, Walter. Theology of the Old Testament (p. 371). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.
From the power of God we are naturally led to consider his eternity since that from which all other things derive their origin must necessarily be selfexistent and eternal. Moreover, if it be asked what cause induced him to create all things at first, and now inclines him to preserve them, we shall find that there could be no other cause than his own goodness.
Calvin, John. The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works . Waxkeep Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I’ve been a million places
I’ve seen a million things
But there is nothing that compares to
Being a child of the King
There’s been highs, there’s been lows
Through it all, this I know
I am a child of the King
Hallelujah (hey!)
Hallelujah
I’m safe in my Father’s arms
Safe in my Father’s arms
Oh-oh-ohh
Hallelujah (hey!)
Hallelujah
I’m safe in my Father’s arms
Safe in my Father’s arms
Oh-oh-ohh
If you’re lost and hurting
Feeling all alone
There’s a hope that is calling
So come and find your home
We’ve had highs, we’ve seen lows
Through it all, this we know
We are loved by the King
So we sing
Hallelujah (hey!)
Hallelujah
I’m safe in my Father’s arms
Safe in my Father’s arms
Oh-oh-ohh
Hallelujah (hey!)
Hallelujah
I’m safe in my Father’s arms
Safe in my Father’s arms
Oh-oh-ohh
All the broken, all the lonely
Can find hope in the Savior’s love
All the wounded, all the weary
Can find strength in the Savior’s love
So come running to your Father
He is waiting with open arms
So we sing! So we sing!
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah (hey!)
Hallelujah
We’re safe in our Father’s arms
Safe in my Father’s arms
Oh-oh-ohh
Hallelujah (hey!)
Hallelujah
We’re safe in our Father’s arms
Safe in my Father’s arms
Oh-oh-ohh
Hallelujah (hey!)
Hallelujah
We’re safe in our Father’s arms
Safe in my Father’s arms
Oh-oh-ohh
Hallelujah (hey!)
Hallelujah
We’re safe in our Father’s arms
Safe in my Father’s arms
Oh-oh-ohh
How lavishly in this respect have the whole body of philosophers betrayed their stupidity and want of sense? To say nothing of the others whose absurdities are of a still grosser description, how completely does Plato, the soberest and most religious of them all, lose himself in his round globe?
Calvin, John. The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works . Waxkeep Publishing. Kindle Edition.
‘In other books he states his belief that there is a kind of reason which pervades the whole of nature and is endowed with divine power. This same power he assigns also to the stars, and to the years and months and changing complexion of the years. In interpreting Hesiod’s Theogony* (which means ‘The Birth of the Gods’), he dispenses totally with customary notions of the gods. He does not regard Jupiter, Juno, Vesta, or deities similarly named as among the company of the gods, but teaches that these names by a sort of symbolism have been pinned on things without life and speech.
Cicero. The Nature of the Gods (Oxford World’s Classics) (p. 16). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
The author of the Scriptures cannot vary, and change his likeness. Such as he there appeared at first, such he will perpetually remain. There is nothing contumelious to him in this, unless we are to think it would be honourable for him to degenerate, and revolt against himself.
Calvin, John. The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works . Waxkeep Publishing. Kindle Edition.
How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke Your name into the night
Then through the darkness, Your loving-kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Who could imagine so great a mercy?
What heart could fathom such boundless grace?
The God of ages stepped down from glory
To wear my sin and bear my shame
The cross has spoken, I am forgiven
The King of kings calls me His own
Beautiful Savior, I’m Yours forever
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Then came the morning that sealed the promise
Your buried body began to breathe
Out of the silence, the Roaring Lion
Declared the grave has no claim on me
Jesus, Yours is the victory, whoa!
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free
Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me
You have broken every chain
There’s salvation in Your name
Jesus Christ, my living hope…
Jesus Christ, my living hope
Oh God, You are my living hope
From PineCreek:
I was born to be royal
I was made to be free
But I was torn from the garden
When that devil lied to me
I was formed from the soil
I got dirt inside of me
But I was born to be royal
I was made for glory
Take me back to the garden
Take me back and walk with me
For Your presence I am longing
Take me back
God, take me back!
Take me down to the river
Down to Eden’s crystal streams
Where every sin can be forgiven
Holy Ghost come set me free
Take me back to the garden
Take me back and walk with me
For Your presence I am longing
Take me back!
God, take me back!
Back to Your Kingdom, come
Take me back!
Back to Your Kingdom, come!
I was born to be royal
I was made to be free
Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful power in the blood
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb
Would you be free from your passion and pride
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood
Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide
There’s wonderful power in the blood
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood (in the blood) of the Lamb (of the Lamb)
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb
Dr. Catherine Beals from When God’s Plan Falls Apart
Through reading The Uncontrolling Love of God and hearing Dr. Oord speak, I have come to understand that “God’s plan” for my life is a much larger concept than I previously understood. I now believe that “God’s Plan” is simply to live a life of love. It isn’t a specific script or planned path for my life. I can follow “God’s Plan” in a variety of ways. It is not bound by denominational, cultural, organizational or geographical boundaries.. Oord says, “God relentlessly expresses love in the quest to promote overall well-being.” (p. 161) I realized that God loved me as His unique creation. The Spirit’s plan for me was not to stay in an environment that was not healthy for me. God’s Plan for me was to follow love. Oord says, “God providentially calls all creation toward love and beauty.” (p. 94)
From Acts 4:28 commentary: What was predestined to take place?
It sure smells like this passage means to say the terrible things that happened to Jesus were predestined. If a person wants to quote this passage to show that The Passion was predestined, there are several problems with the argument.
(1) It is risky exegesis to draw critical doctrine out of something the Bible quotes someone as saying if the person is not speaking by divine inspiration. The exegetical method is more common than we might think. Consider John 9:31. A man was born blind and Jesus healed his sight. Jesus did not introduce himself; but the man was able to conclude that Jesus was a righteous man. He said that God does not listen to sinners. It is terrible exegesis to conclude that God does not hear the prayers of sinners based upon what this man said. He was not speaking from divine inspiration (Acts 10:31. See also 1 Kings 8:41-45). On a similar note, Peter’s personal judgment in Acts 1:21-22 is frequently quoted as proof of the qualifications of an apostle. Peter was not speaking from divine inspiration. He decided on his own to set a precedent that there should be twelve apostles. He offered his short list of qualifications was a suggested rubric for selecting replacement apostles. Bad exegesis, although Paul seems to agree with qualification #2, that an apostle must have seen the risen Lord (1 Corinthians 9:1).
(2) It is not clear how this passage should be punctuated. Greek scholar Adam Clark believes verse 28 should be read as parenthetical (see below).…
Clark suggests that verse 28 ought to be read parenthetically; but watch what happens when we remove the verse numbers and two commas.
For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.*
From Meet a Reformed Arminian:
What does “Reformed Arminian” mean?
A growing number of Arminians are embracing a non-Wesleyan variety of Arminianism that’s coming to be known as “Reformed Arminianism.” The mainstream of this movement in the United States is found in the Free Will Baptist denomination, the origins of which date back to the English General Baptist movement of the 17th century. Early proponents of this approach include 17th-century English figures such as Thomas Helwys and Thomas Grantham. Twentieth-century proponents include Free Will Baptist scholars Leroy Forlines and Robert Picirilli, who see themselves as representing a type of Arminianism more like the theology of Arminius than most modern Arminianism. Forlines and Picirilli have also found much in common with scholars from outside the General/Free Will Baptist tradition like Thomas Oden.
A growing number of evangelicals fit a unique profile in the Calvinist-Arminian conversation: They see Scripture as not supporting a traditional Calvinistic view of predestination, grace, and human freedom. Yet they disagree with most Arminians’ rejection of the Reformed doctrines of total depravity, penal substitutionary atonement, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness of Christ in justification, and progressive (as opposed to entire) sanctification. For these individuals, and for the entire Calvinist-Arminian conversation, this Reformed Arminian stream of thought offers fruitful possibilities.
Some glad morning when this life is o’er
I’ll fly away
To that home on God’s celestial shore
I’ll fly away
I’ll fly away, oh glory, I’ll fly away
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by
I’ll fly away
Just a few more weary days and then
I’ll fly away
To that land where joy will never end
I’ll fly away
I’ll fly away, oh glory, I’ll fly away
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by
I’ll fly away
Oh I’ll fly away, oh glory, I’ll fly away in the morning
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by
I’ll fly away
From Papers on Practical Religion:
There is a sense, doubtless, in which trial reveals us to God; makes manifest to Him, what is in our heart. Perhaps someone may object, and say, no, no; we need nothing to make manifest to God what we are, He understands us perfectly. He knows what is in man, and needs not anything to tell Him. True! and yet He says of Abraham, “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.” And to the Israelites. “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep My commandments or no.” Now God knew that Abraham feared Him, and He also knew how far Israel would keep His commandments, but He did not know as a matter of actual fact, until the fact transpired. He must have the latent principle developed in action, before he could know it as action.
From Discourse to the Greeks:
CHAPTER V.–CLOSING APPEAL.
Henceforth, ye Greeks, come and partake of incomparable wisdom, and be instructed by the Divine Word, and acquaint yourselves with the King immortal; and do not recognise those men as heroes who slaughter whole nations. For our own Ruler, the Divine Word, who even now constantly aids us, does not desire strength of body and beauty of feature, nor yet the high spirit of earth’s nobility, but a pure soul, fortified by holiness, and the watchwords of our King, holy actions, for through the Word power passes into the soul. O trumpet of peace to the soul that is at war! O weapon that puttest to flight terrible passions! O instruction that quenches the innate fire of the soul! The Word exercises an influence which does not make poets: it does not equip philosophers nor skilled orators, but by its instruction it makes mortals immortal, mortals gods; and from the earth transports them to the realms above Olympus. Come, be taught; become as I am, for I, too, was as ye are. These have conquered me–the divinity of the instruction, and the power of the Word: for as a skilled serpent-charmer lures the terrible reptile from his den and causes it to flee, so the Word drives the fearful passions of our sensual nature from the very recesses of the soul; first driving forth lust, through which every ill is begotten–hatreds, strife, envy, emulations, anger, and such like. Lust being once banished, the soul becomes calm and serene. And being set free from the ills in which it was sunk up to the neck, it returns to Him who made it. For it is fit that it be restored to that state whence it departed, whence every soul was or is.
[emphasis mine]
By Brian Wagner:
Calvinism has two main problems defending the premise that all things were predetermined by God before creation. First, they must admit words like determine, plan, and chose when used for God in Scripture must be anthropomorphic since they do not believe God does any sequential thinking required in the meaning of those words. But second, they must admit that God was not honest when in Scripture He says that He still makes choices, plans, and determinations after creation.
Exodus 33:5 (NKJV) 5“… I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.” [To fit determinism God should have said – “… because I already know what to do to you.”]
Deut. 12:5 (NKJV) 5“But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.” [To fit determinism it should read “God chose”] [This word “chooses” is in the imperfect tense in Hebrew. It is translated “shall choose” in the KJV, and found in 21 more times for future divine choosing in Deuteronomy – See 12:11, 14, 18, 21, 26; 14:23, 24, 25; 15:20; 16:2, 6, 7, 11, 15, 16; 17:8, 10, 15; 18:6; 26:2; 31:11. Twice it is used for man’s future (23:16, 30:19). Either “chose” or “has chosen” was used 8 times in Deuteronomy (4:37, 7:6, 7:7, 10:15, 14:2, 16:11, 18:5, 21:5) for God’s previous choice of Israel or the tribe of Levi, but there is no indication in any of those passages of a choice made before they existed or before creation. (The KJV mistranslates the imperfect in 12:21).
2 Chr. 6:5-6 (NKJV) 5‘Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a ruler over My people Israel. 6Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’ [To fit determinism it should read “I had already chosen”]
2 Chr. 7:16 (NKJV) 16For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. [To fit determinism it should read “before creation I chose”]
Psa. 25:12 (NKJV) 12Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. [To fit determinism it should read “He has chosen”]
Psa. 65:4 (NKJV) 4 Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple. [To fit determinism it should read “You have chosen”]
Psa. 75:2 (NKJV) 2 “When I choose the proper time, I will judge uprightly.[To fit determinism it should read “Because I have chosen”]”
Jer 18:11 (NKJV) 11 “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” ’ ” [To fit determinism it should read “I devised a plan”]
Mic 2:3 (NKJV) 3Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, From which you cannot remove your necks; Nor shall you walk haughtily, For this [is] an evil time. [To fit determinism it should read “I devised a plan”]
Luke 22:42 (NKJV) 42…saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” [To fit determinism it should read “Even though it is not Your will”]
1Cor 12:11 (NKJV) 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. [To fit determinism it should read “as He willed”]
Heb 4:7 [NKJV] 7…again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” [To fit determinism it should read “He designated”]
Sing it from the shackles
Sing it from the chains
Sing it from the trenches
Sing it through the pain
There’s a song rising up
Can you hear the freedom sound
Sing it from the shackles
We’re gonna sing it loud
You’re my deliverer
You tear down the prison walls
When my heart needs a miracle
You will come through
You’re my deliverer
My anthem throughout it all
When my strength and my fight is gone
I know You will come through
You’re breaking off rejection
You’re breaking off the shame
You’re breaking off addictions
In the power of Your Name
There’s a song rising up
Can you hear that freedom sound
Sing it from the shackles
We’re gonna sing it loud
Let the darkness
Hear our praises
From these ashes
We’ll see victory
Chains are worthless
They can’t hold us
From these shackles
Show Your glory
You’re the only answer to the darkness
You’re the only right among the wrong
You’re the only hope among the chaos
You are the voice that calls me on
Louder than every lie
Our sword in every fight
The truth will chase away the night
Your name is power over darkness
Freedom for the captives
Mercy for the broken and the hopeless
Your name is faithful in the battle
Glory in the struggle
Mighty it won’t let us down or fail us
Your name is power
Your name is power
I know it is written, hope is certain
I know that the word will never fail
I know that in every situation
You speak the power to prevail
Louder than every lie
Our sword in every fight
The truth will chase away the night
Your name is power over darkness
Freedom for the captives
Mercy for the broken and the hopeless
Your name is faithful in the battle
Glory in the struggle
Mighty it won’t let us down or fail us
Your name is power
Your name is power
When you speak you scatter darkness
Light arrives and heaven opens
Holy spirit
Let us hear it
When you speak the church awakens
We believe the change is coming
Holy spirit
Let us see it
When you speak you scatter darkness
Light arrives and heaven opens
Holy spirit
Let us hear it
When you speak the church awakens
We believe the change is coming
Holy spirit
Let us see it
Your name is power over darkness
Freedom for the captives
Mercy for the broken and the hopeless
Your name is faithful in the battle
Glory in the struggle
Mighty it won’t let us down or fail us
Your name is power over darkness
Your name is power in the chaos
Your name is power
A new website is being launched on Calvinism, Cutting Through the Fog of Calvinism. An excerpt:
Once upon a time, an automobile manufacture designed a luxury car with expectations of record-breaking sales. But the care was not without controversy. At highway speeds, the hood assembly would flip up and smash into the windshield. Newspapers ran stories, jokingly calling it the “flying hood car”.
Auto dealers found customers asking: “is this the flying hood car?” Salespersons were instructed to say “You must be thinking of a different car, because this unit doesn’t have a hood. What it has is an upper engine cover.”
One day a potential customer instantly recognized the car. The salesman corrected him saying: “You must be thinking of a different car because this unit doesn’t have a hood, what it has is an upper engine cover.” But the customer insisted he saw the car in the newspapers. The salesman now frustrated insisted: “I’m sorry sir you must be mistaken”. But still the customer would not relent. At that point the unhappy salesman accused him of misrepresenting the car and politely asked him to leave.
We’ve prayed the prayer with no reply
Words float off into the night
Couldn’t cut our doubt with the sharpest knife
Oh, oh God forgive us
Silence isn’t comfortable
We want drive through peace and instant hope
Our shallow faith it has left us broke
Oh, oh God forgive us
Oh, oh God forgive us
A slave to our uncertainty
Help us with our unbelief
Oh, oh God forgive us
Young and old, black and white
Rich and poor, there’s no divide
Hear the mighty, hear the powerless, singing
Oh God forgive us
Oh God forgive us
A slave to our uncertainty
Help us with our unbelief
Oh, oh God forgive us
With our white flag sailing in the night
Eyes pointed to the sky
Hands up and open wide, open wide
With our white flag sailing in the night
Eyes pointed to the sky
Hands up and open wide, open wide
With our white flag sailing in the night
Eyes pointed to the sky
Hands up and open wide, open wide
With our white flag sailing in the night
Eyes pointed to the sky
Hands up and open wide, open wide
Oh, oh God forgive us
A slave to our uncertainty
Help us with our unbelief
Oh, oh God forgive us
Run wild. To risk everything. To hold nothing back.
To lay it all on the line: your reputation, your success, your comfort.
It’s that moment when fear is overcome by faith. Live free.
It’s not the liberty to do whatever you want whenever and wherever you want,
But rather it’s living in accordance with the author of humanity
And finding freedom by connecting with the creator who conceived you.
Let the light flood into your eyes for the first time.
Feeling the blood course through your veins, finding the truest version of yourself
By knowing the one who knows you even better than you know yourself.
Love strong. Because you were first loved. Because without love we all perish.
Because the earth and the stars can and will pass away, but love, love will always remain
James White responded to my brief article, “James White’s Faulty Treatment of the Greek and Context of Acts 13:48” on his “Dividing Line” radio program of March 8, 2015. As a minister and biblical scholar, I welcome review and critique of my writings. This allows all of us to refine our thinking and scholarship as we move forward in our own spiritual and scriptural understanding. As the saying goes, “Theology is done in community,” and as a community we engage each other for correction and sharpening of our understanding of God’s word and discovery of aspects of the text of Scripture and its background that we might not have considered before. However, I have to confess that I found White’s response to be disappointing and weak, long on rhetoric and short on substance. One of White’s main tactics was to pepper his comments with ridicule and expressions of shocked incredulity.
I can see the clouds roll in
I can feel the winds, they try to shake me
I will not be moved
My feet are on the rock
I can feel the waters rise
I can hear the howling lies that haunt me
Fear won’t hold me now
My feet are on the rock
When I feel my hope about to break
I will cling to Your unchanging grace
Let the waters come and the earth give way
I’ll be dancing in the rain
My feet are on the rock
I can see the morning light
I can feel the joy on the horizon
Here my faith is found
I stand on solid ground
When I feel my hope about to break
I will cling to Your unchanging grace
Let the waters come and the earth give way
I’ll be dancing in the rain
My feet are on the rock
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
So stomp your feet and clap your hands
Our feet are on the rock
When I feel my hope about to break
I will cling to Your unchanging grace
Let the waters come and the earth give way
I’ll be dancing in the rain
My feet are on the rock
1. Heresy was never established as a crime in Geneva. The crime of Blasphemy (not to be confused with Heresy) had always been punished with exile in Geneva.
2. Calvin, when the Catholics had power, argued heresy was not a death penalty offense (Institutes). After killing Servetus, Calvin reversed his stance (Defense of the orthodox faith in the sacred Trinity), and edited out of new editions of the Institutes his earlier position.
3. Calvin’s companion, Castellio was horrified at Calvin’s bloodlust against Servetus. Castellio argued the above points, plus Castellio argued for a principle of free speech.
4. Servetus did not write or speak in Geneva and therefor broke no laws of Geneva. He was a visitor, punished for thought crimes.
5. Calvin bragged about executing Servetus in his Defense of the Orthodox Faith and in a letters to Marquis Paet.
6. Before Servetus was murdered, Calvin wrote to Farel and Viret his intentions to kill Servetus.
7. Calvin had god-like power in Geneva. In 1552, the Senate of Geneva decreed the Institutes were “God’s doctrine”.
8. Testifying to his power in Geneva, Calvin also personally had revised the Civil Code of Geneva and also the Geneva Confession of Faith (1536).
9. The court (laymen led town counsel) originally was only considering exiling Servetus, until Calvin appeared in court. Calvin convinced them to increase the penalty to death, more than the maximum that the blasphemy laws allowed.
10. Calvin personally argued to the layman court, that the Bible condoned putting Servetus to death.
11. Calvin also ensured Servetus would be denied legal counsel.
12. Calvin ensured Servetus’ request for appeal be denied, and thus denied Servetus’ case to be heard by lawyers.
I don’t know where you lay your head
Or where you call your home
I don’t know where you eat your meals
Or where you talk on the phone
I don’t know if you got a cook
A butler or a maid
I don’t know if you got a yard
With a hammock in the shade
I don’t know if you got some shelter
Say a place to hide
I don’t know if you live with friends
In whom you can confide
I don’t know if you got a family
Say a mom or dad
I don’t know if you feel love at all
But I bet you wish you had
Come and go with me
To my Father’s house
Come and go with me
To my Father’s house
It’s a big big house
With lots and lots a room
A big big table
With lots and lots of food
A big big yard
Where we can play football
A big big house
Its my Father’s house
Ibidibidee bop bop bow whew! yeah!
All I know is a big ole house
With rooms for everyone
All I know is lots a land
Where we can play and run
All I know is you need love
And I’ve got a family
All I know is your all alone
So why not come with me?
Come and go with me
To my Father’s house
Come and go with me
To my Father’s house
It’s a big big house
With lots and lots a room
A big big table
With lots and lots of food
A big big yard
Where we can play football
A big big house
Its my Father’s house
It’s a big big house
With lots and lots a room
A big big table
With lots and lots of food
A big big yard
Where we can play football
A big big house
Its my Father’s house
Come and go with me
To my Father’s house
Come and go with me
To my Father’s house
It’s a big big house
With lots and lots a room
A big big table
With lots and lots of food
A big big yard
Where we can play football
A big big house
Its my Father’s house
From Confessions:
Therefore You brought in my way by means of a certain man—an incredibly conceited man—some books of the Platonists translated from Greek into Latin. In them I found, though not in the very words, yet the thing itself and proved by all sorts of reasons: that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
…
(16) Being admonished by all this to return to myself, I entered into my own depths, with You as guide; and I was able to do it because You were my helper. I entered, and with the eye of my soul, such as it was, I saw Your unchangeable Light shining over that same eye of my soul, over my mind. It was not the light of everyday that the eye of flesh can see, nor some greater light of the same order, such as might be if the brightness of our daily light should be seen shining with a more intense brightness and filling all things with its greatness. Your light was not that, but other, altogether other, than all such lights.
…
(17) Then I thought upon those other things that are less than You, and I saw that they neither absolutely are nor yet totally are not: they are, in as much as they are from You: they are not, in as much as they are not what You are. For that truly is, which abides unchangeably. But it is good for me to adhere to my God, for if I abide not in Him, I cannot abide in myself. But He, in abiding in Himself, renews all things: and Thou art my God for Thou hast no need of my goods.
…
(18) And it became clear to me that corruptible things are good: if they were supremely good they could not be corrupted, but also if they were not good at all they could not be corrupted: if they were supremely good they would be incorruptible, if they were in no way good there would be nothing in them that might corrupt. For corruption damages; and unless it diminished goodness, it would not damage. Thus either corruption does no damage, which is impossible or—and this is the certain proof of it—all things that are corrupted are deprived of some goodness. But if they were deprived of all goodness, they would be totally without being. For if they might still be and yet could no longer be corrupted, they would be better than in their first state, because they would abide henceforth incorruptibly. What could be more monstrous than to say that things could be made better by losing all their goodness? If they were deprived of all goodness, they would be altogether nothing: therefore as long as they are, they are good. Thus whatsoever things are, are good; and that evil whose origin I sought is not a substance, because if it were a substance it would be good. For either it would be an incorruptible substance, that is to say, the highest goodness; or it would be a corruptible substance, which would not be corruptible unless it were good. Thus I saw and clearly realised that You have made all things good, and that there are no substances not made by You. And because all the things You have made are not equal, they have a goodness [over and above] as a totality: because they are good individually, and they are very good all together, for our God has made all things very good.
(19) To You, then evil utterly is not—and not only to You, but to Your whole creation likewise, evil is not: because there is nothing over and above Your creation that could break in or derange the order that You imposed upon it. But in certain of its parts there are some things which we call evil because they do not harmonise with other things; yet these same things do harmonise with still others and thus are good; and in themselves they are good. All these things which do not harmonise with one another, do suit well with that lower part of creation which we call the earth, which has its cloudy and windy sky in some way apt to it. God forbid that I should say: “I wish that these things were not”; because even if I saw only them, though I should want better things, yet even for them alone I should praise You: for that You are to be praised, things of earth show—dragons, and all deeps, fire, hail, snow, ice, and stormy winds, which fulfill Thy word; mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars; beasts and all cattle, serpents and feathered fowl; kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth; young men and maidens, old men and young, praise Thy name. And since from the heavens, O our God, all Thy angels praise Thee in the high places, and all Thy hosts, sun and moon, all the stars and lights, the heavens of heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens, praise Thy name—I no longer desired better, because I had thought upon them all and with clearer judgment I realised that while certain higher things are better than lower things, yet all things together are better than the higher alone.
…Turning from that error it had made for itself a god occupying the infinite measures of all space, and had thought this god to be You, and had placed it in its heart,91 and thus had once again become the temple of its own idol, a temple abominable to You. But You caressed my head, though I knew it not, and closed my eyes that they should not see vanity; and I ceased from myself a little and found sleep from my madness. And from that sleep I awakened in You, and I saw You infinite in a different way; but that sight was not with the eyes of flesh.
…
(21) And I looked upon other things, and I saw that they owed their being to You, and that all finite things are in You: but in a different manner, being in You not as in a place, but because You are and hold all things in the hand of Your truth, and all things are true inasmuch as they are: nor is falsehood anything save that something is thought to be which is not. And I observed that all things harmonised not only with their places but also with their times; and that You, who alone are eternal, did not begin to work after innumerable spaces of time had gone by: since all the spaces of time, spaces past, spaces to come, could neither go nor come if You did not operate and abide.
…So that when I now asked what is iniquity, I realised that it was not a substance but a swerving of the will which is turned towards lower things and away from You, O God, who are the supreme substance: so that it casts away what is most inward to it and swells greedily for outward things.
…Inquiring then what was the source of my judgment, when I did so judge I had discovered the immutable and true eternity of truth above my changing mind. Thus by stages I passed from bodies to the soul which uses the body for its perceiving, and from this to the soul’s inner power, to which the body’s senses present external things, as indeed the beasts are able; and from there I passed on to the reasoning power, to which is referred for judgment what is received from the body’s senses. This too realised that it was mutable in me, and rose to its own understanding. It withdrew my thought from its habitual way, abstracting from the confused crowds of phantasms that it might find what light suffused it, when with utter certainty it cried aloud that the immutable was to be preferred to the mutable, and how it had come to know the immutable itself: for if it had not come to some knowledge of the immutable, it could not have known it as certainly preferable to the mutable. Thus in the thrust of a trembling glance my mind arrived at That Which Is. Then indeed I saw clearly Your invisible things which are understood by the things that are made;101 but I lacked the strength to hold my gaze fixed, and my weakness was beaten back again so that I returned to my old habits, bearing nothing with me but a memory of delight and a desire as for something of which I had caught the fragrance but which I had not yet the strength to eat.
…
(26) Now that I had read the books of the Platonists and had been set by them towards the search for a truth that is incorporeal, I came to see Your invisible things which are understood by the things that are made. I was at a standstill, yet I felt what through the darkness of my mind I was not able actually to see; I was certain that You are and that You are infinite, but not as being diffused through space whether finite or infinite: that You truly are and are ever the same,115 not in any part or by any motion different or otherwise; and I knew that all other things are from You from the simple fact that they are at all. Of these things I was utterly certain, yet I had not the strength to enjoy You. I talked away as if I knew a great deal; but if I had not sought the way to You in Christ our Saviour, I would have come not to instruction but to destruction. For I had begun to wish to appear wise, and this indeed was the fullness of my punishment; and I did not weep for my state, but was badly puffed up with my knowledge. Where was that charity which builds us up upon the foundation of humility, which is Christ Jesus?119 Or when would those books have taught me that? Yet I think it was Your will that I should come upon these books before I had made study of the Scriptures, that it might be impressed on my memory how they had affected me: so that, when later I should have become responsive to You through Your Books with my wounds healed by the care of Your fingers, I might be able to discern the difference that there is between presumption and confession, between those who see what the goal is but do not see the way, and [those who see] the Way which leads to that country of blessedness, which we are meant not only to know but to dwell in. If I had been first formed by Your Holy Scriptures so that You had grown sweet to me through their familiar use, and had come later upon these books of the Platonists, they might have swept me away from the solid ground of piety; and even if I had remained firm in that disposition which for my health Scripture had taught me, I might perhaps have thought that the same disposition could have been acquired from those books if a man studied them alone.
From the introduction to Sheed’s translation of Augustine’s Confessions:
We follow Augustine as he thought himself out of this dilemma, in Rome and Milan, like a man gasping for air. At last, in the summer of 386, he broke free. A few nameless books, written by nameless “Platonists translated from Greek into Latin,” were lent to him by a nameless intellectual—“a certain man—an incredibly conceited man” (VII.9.13). (Books that really changed Augustine’s mind, like the friends whose departures had really cut into his heart, remain nameless: a source of much fruitful frustration to the modern scholar, but characteristic of the whole tone of Augustine’s narrative of this crucial time.) Within a month or so, the system which we now know as the Catholic Platonism of Augustine slipped into place.
The world plan is so conceived by God that it can radiantly exhibit his glory and perfections in a manner and measure suited to each creature. It is a mirror in which God displays his image. It is the creaturely reflection of his adorable being: a finite, limited, nonexhaustive, yet true and faithful reproduction of his self-knowledge.
Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics : Volume 2 (p. 347). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
From The History of Philosophy, from the Beginning to Plato:
If this is so, then we need to steer a middle course: neither should we assume that Plato takes literally all the many ideas that he develops through his characters in the dialogues (which would be dangerous on any account), nor should we attempt to eliminate altogether what may seem to us the more fantastic and apparently poetic elements among them. (Indeed, for some Neoplatonist and Renaissance interpreters the latter probably take us closer to the core of Platonism.) We must remain aware that Plato’s philosophical writing is a complex matter, and that his motives as a writer may sometimes directly affect the content of that writing, as indeed may his chosen literary form. Thus, for instance, particular dialogues will often follow out a particular line of thought to the exclusion of others, which it is difficult to bring in within the fiction of a particular conversation (the treatment of immortality in the Symposium is one clear example; see above).
Cicero:
‘It would take too long to recount the self-contradictions in Plato.* In the Timaeus, he states that the father of the universe cannot be named; and in the books of the Laws, that we should not investigate the nature of god at all. As for his claim that god is wholly incorporeal (as the Greeks say, asomaton), what such a nature could possibly be is inconceivable, for it would inevitably lack sensation as well as practical wisdom and pleasure, all of which we associate with our conception of gods. Plato further states both in the Timaeus and in the Laws that the universe is god, and that so are the sky, the stars, the earth, our souls, and the deities we inherit from ancestral tradition. Such views are clearly false in themselves, and wildly self-contradictory. 30
Cicero. The Nature of the Gods (Oxford World’s Classics) (p. 14). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
Footnote:
Plato: for the citation from the Timaeus, see § 19 n.; the quotation from the Laws (7. 821) totally misrepresents Plato’s own view, for in that passage he is presenting the common notion of Athenians which he proceeds to contradict, here and elsewhere (Laws 9. 966) arguing that astronomy should be studied as a work of piety. There is justification for the claim that Plato’s god is incorporeal; as for his lacking pleasure, Plato attacks the notion that gods enjoy pleasure (Philebus 33b), which for Epicureans is the highest good. It is true that in his Timaeus Plato makes the stars gods, owing their immortality to the will of the Demiourgos; and in the Laws, Ouranos (heaven) is the supreme deity, and the stars are the adornments of the gods. It is possible to make these views consistent by identifying Ouranos with Demiourgos as labels for the creative Mind; but Plato’s pronouncements are poetic and speculative, not to be subjected to the literal interpretation employed by Velleius.
Cicero. The Nature of the Gods (Oxford World’s Classics) (p. 154). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
Cicero, two times, refers to Plato as “god”. Likely stealth mocking Plato’s revered status during Cicero’s lifetime (@ 50BC):
‘Here we must lend an ear to Plato, the god so to say among philosophers.*
Cicero. The Nature of the Gods (Oxford World’s Classics) (p. 58). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
And
In those books which you commend you complain of the absence of Scaevola among the speakers. Well, I did not withdraw him without a set purpose, but I did exactly what that god of our idolatry, Plato, did in his Republic.
[link]
Moreover, those phantoms which Servetus substitutes for the hypostases he so transforms as to make new changes in God. But the most execrable heresy of all is his confounding both the Son and Spirit promiscuously with all the creatures. For he distinctly asserts, that there are parts and partitions in the essence of God, and that every such portion is God. This he does especially when he says, that the spirits of the faithful are co-eternal and consubstantial with God, although he elsewhere assigns a substantial divinity, not only to the soul of man, but to all created things.
Calvin, John. The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works . Waxkeep Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Spirit fall down
Start a Holy riot
Fill this place now
With the tongues of fire
Break the strongholds
Come and unleash heaven
Burn within us
Make us bold as lions
This is our revival anthem
Can you feel the darkness shaking
Oh, we are the dry bones rising
This will be our great awakening
This is our revival anthem
Fill our hearts, Lord
With a Holy danger
Lead us beyond
Our fear of failure
We’ll fight the good fight
In Your strength and power
We’ll take back the night
Victory is ours
We will praise You when our hearts are breaking
Praise You when our world is caving
We will not, we will not be moved
We will praise You till we see Your kingdom
Greater things are surely coming
You are God, and You are on the move
When I am losing
When I am broken
When I am sinking like a stone
And it feels like I am alone
I will worship You
When I am so scared
Life is unfair
When I am tired to lose my way
When I am feeling so ashamed
I will worship You
You are the anchor to my soul
Draw me to you and soon it go
Only love can make me whole
Jesus I worship you
Jesus I worship you
When I am dancing
When I am hopeful
When I am feeling mercy’s hand
And I’m living life again
I will worship you
When chains are broken
When heal it’s coming
When you will forgive me my heart
This is my brand new start
I will worship you, yeah
You are the anchor to my soul
Draw me to you and soon it go
Only love can make me whole
Jesus I worship you
Jesus I worship you
Halleluia
Halleluia
Halleluia
I got to run
You are the anchor to my soul
Draw me to you and soon it go
Only love can make me whole
Jesus I worship you
Jesus I worship you
Jesus I worship you
From God’s Will and the Coronavirus
Many who claim God causes or allows the Coronavirus will see some good that comes from our current crisis. They’ll point to stories of self-sacrifice or the good that comes from people cooperating to combat this pandemic.
Upon seeing the good that comes from the pandemic, some will use a “greater good” argument. “We’ve learned something valuable from the Coronavirus!” they might say. “This pandemic has taught us we don’t need all the stuff we thought we needed.” “It took a virus for us to learn to slow down and focus on what’s important.”
Good things will come from the evils we currently face. Count on it. But we shouldn’t say God causes or allows evil for this good. It isn’t part of some predetermined plan.
Working with a diseased creation, God works to wring whatever good can be wrung from the wrong God didn’t cause or allow.
Instead, we should think God squeezes some good from the bad God didn’t want in the first place.
God never gives up on anyone or any situation. Working with a broken and diseased creation, God works to wring whatever good can be wrung from the wrong God didn’t cause or allow.
For the essence of God being simple and undivided, and contained in himself entire, in full perfection, without partition or diminution, it is improper, nay, ridiculous, to call it his express image, (charakte). But because the Father, though distinguished by his own peculiar properties, has expressed himself wholly in the Son, he is said with perfect reason to have rendered his person (hypostasis) manifest in him. And this aptly accords with what is immediately added, viz.,that he is “the brightness of his glory.” The fair inference from the Apostle’s words is, that there is a proper subsistence (hypostasis) of the Father, which shines refulgent in the Son. From this, again it is easy to infer that there is a subsistence (hypostasis) of the Son which distinguishes him from the Father.
The same holds in the case of the Holy Spirit; for we will immediately prove both that he is God, and that he has a separate subsistence from the Father. This, moreover, is not a distinction of essence, which it were impious to multiply.
Calvin, John. The John Calvin Collection: 12 Classic Works . Waxkeep Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art
High King of Heaven, my victory won
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heav’n’s Sun
Heart of my own heart, whate’er befall
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all
From Ultimate Reality according to Augustine of Hippo by Roland Teske:
Toward the beginning of this century Prosper Alfaric touched off a storm of protest when he claimed that both morally and intellectually Augustine of Hippo was converted to Neoplatonism in 386 ratherthan to the Gospel (Alfaric, I 9 I 8, p. 399), even adding that, if he had died shortly thereafter, he would have been remembered as a committed Neoplatonist, slightly tinged with Christianity (Alfaric, 1918, p. 527).
From Antiquities Book 6:
8. But Jonathan heard these last words with indignation; and promised to do what he desired of him, and to inform him if his father’s answers implied any thing of a melancholy nature, and any enmity against him. And that he might the more firmly depend upon him, he took him out into the open field, into the pure air, and sware that he would neglect nothing that might tend to the preservation of David; and he said, “I appeal to that God, who, as thou seest, is diffused every where, and knoweth this intention of mine, before I explain it in words, as the witness of this my covenant with thee: that I will not leave off to make frequent trials of the purpose of my father, till I learn whether there be any lurking distemper in the secretest parts of his soul: and when I have learnt it, I will not conceal it from thee, but will discover it to thee; whether he be gently or peevishly disposed. For this God himself knows, that I pray he may always be with thee: for he is with thee now, and will not forsake thee; and will make thee superior to thine enemies; whether my father be one of them, or whether I my self be such. Do thou only remember what we now do: and if it fall out that I die, preserve my children alive; and requite what kindness thou hast now received, to them.”
I hear the Saviour say
Thy strength indeed is small
Child of weakness, watch and pray
Find in Me thine all in all
Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow
Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone
And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete
Jesus died my soul to save
My lips shall still repeat
O Praise the one who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
O Praise the one who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
Is it not clear that God foreknows what will be because He has decreed what shall be? God’s foreknowledge is not the cause of events,
rather are events the effects of His eternal purpose. when God has decreed a thing shall be He knows it will! be. In the nature of things
there cannot be anything known as what shall be unless it is certain to be, and there is nothing certain to be unless God has ordained
it shall be.
-AW Pink, The Sovereignty of God
“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of . . . leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.”
― Charles Spurgeon
“If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”
― R.C. Sproul, Chosen By God: Know God’s Perfect Plan for His Glory and His Children
In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.
Mat 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
Matthew 7:11 is the conclusion of a section labeled by the NKJV as “Ask, and It Will Be Given”. The immediate point is that all individuals have to do is ask, and God will provide. Ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find. God responds to the prayers of His people. This is reaffirmed in verse 11, in which the text affirms that God is not going to give people suffering in response to their prayer. God is much better than evil people who treat their children well. God is a good God who treats His children very well.
This entire section is a commentary on the mindset of Jesus. God is the God who responds to prayer. He is not the Calvinistic God who makes His people suffer, but responds with good gifts. The relationship aspect of prayer is in the forefront of Jesus’ mind.
In general, Ambrose shared the Apostle Paul’s low opinion of the ‘foolish philosophy’ of this world, but there was one exception: Platonism, with its unworldly emphasis. In a series of brilliant studies, the late Pierre Courcelle showed that phrases adapted and culled from the Platonist Plotinus are present in surviving texts of several of Ambrose’s sermons, those datable, probably, between 386 and 387.26 Whether or not Ambrose ever read Plotinus directly, these statements relate him to the Platonist milieu which is traceable among Augustine’s new ‘friends’.
Fox, Robin Lane. Augustine . Basic Books. Kindle Edition.
The ultimate goal of human life and of philosophy is to realize the mystical return of the soul to the Divine. Freeing itself from the sensuous world by purification, the human soul ascends by successive steps through the various degrees of the metaphysical order, until it unites itself in communion with the One.
Bindon, Peter. Neoplatonism: Rosicrucian Digest (Rosicrucian Order AMORC Kindle Editions) . Rosicrucian Order, AMORC. Kindle Edition.
Mat 8:10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
In Matthew 8:10, Jesus encounters a Centurion who believes Jesus could heal his servant remotely. Jesus “marvels”. This is a gentile who believes Jesus has more power than even the natives of Israel. The marveling suggests this is news to Jesus. Despite some depictions of Jesus as Omniscient, the text of Matthew portrays him learning and even being surprised.
God is Open 