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CHAPTER EIGHT

THE LIMITED ATONEMENT

The limited atonement is the next topic in the 'tulip' acronym which we have planned to cover in a counselling session in the Church,  on many things surrounding freewill, sovereignty, wrongful imputations to God and to man.

Here it may be a helpful approach to visit this, though of course in the course of our 7 volumes on the Web, on the overall topic of human freedom and responsibility, divine intention and approach to man and to creation, predestination and and its anterior,  foreknowledge as in Romans 8, and so on, the issues have already been covered to repletion!

Let us however for the moment, consider what may be a useful image.

 SPACE

If you want motion, you must have space. Now this is true both metaphorically and physically.

Suppose you have a particle (about as significant as a brick or brickbat - depending on whether it is broken or not) - and you want it to move. It cannot do this, as that particle, unless it has space. You can take the cloud chamber case of such fame, but still it is the same; in what format the particle may move is an entirely separate question here, whether as a poly-potentiated, multi-formatted inhabitant of multiple spheres of influence, or not. In the end, it either WAS in a certain place and now is in ANOTHER PLACE, or this is not so. If it is not so, there is no motion of it. If it is so, there is motion concerning it. However if the second placement has no space because the space was limited to the particle in the first place, then it cannot go there. You do not go where there is no place to go, whether you are particle or person.

You need space for race, and for motion, whether in direct line cases, or turbulence.

You need space for a thought to go, likewise. If your mind is either so limited that you can not see any space for a new idea, concept or formulation, either because of internal psychic self-harassment (which may take the form of obstinacy or tradition or man-made religion or culture, or ideational fixity or other), or whether you are in a simple situation for which you do not find any axis of thought itself in that realm, a far more unlikely situation but possible: if there  is no space, place, region, domain for a variation of the thought you have in mind, it has no site for reception, for motion.

The same point applies to your spirit, and since this generation is continually being taught the plague of materialism - as if the thought that sanctioned it were not logically prior to its operation, for matter cannot decide what is right, or evaluate it from what is wrong, or provide truth for that matter, such as the concept that all this virtual apotheosis of matter is true, or anything else for that matter - let us note that whether you care to note it or not, you have a spirit^*1. It is NOT the same as your mind, for your mind can faithfully report an estimate of a question, and your will, informed by your spirit of longing or desire or obstructiveness or superficiality or revenge or whatever else, may decide more or less consciously to twist the truth, or ignore it, or present it more palatably than meets the actual case or with an ignited passion that despises fact.

True, your mind may happen to be wrong on a topic; but it may be misused as just noted by your imagination, strategy or what you envisage and long for. This shows the place of will with its own motions and commotions and desires, and that being not identical with mind, but showing the power to use it in chosen ways, is not a null function. Instead, it is one needing name, and that name is traditionally spirit. It does not go away because the prejudices of a current culture would like to ignore the very working of the spirit by which it TRIES to ignore it! That, it is hilarious to be sure; but it also shows the incompetence which relates to misdirected, mischievous or missing spiritual power: for a person can  lie down amid follies of a given culture,  as a brick-bat, broken and finished, lies in any other ruin. Like a cunning or frightened fish, he might not even break the water to the world above...

There must be SPACE in which your spirit can move. Obviously, in using such an image as this, we need to see it consistently. Thus clearly for an idea, you need  a MENTAL kind of space and for spiritual ramblings you need SPIRITUAL space, and the same applies to morals.
 

SPACE FOR PLACE WITH GOD

When it comes to persons before God, the image is once again applicable for clarity of understanding. The question at the ultimate point is simple: since the God of the Bible (authentic as shown in SMR, TMR, as uniquely distinct^*2 from all aspirants, themselves untestable or unverified or invalid gods) declares a great thing. He affirms He has love for the whole world, to the uttermost point, that He has a profound willingness to give even His only begotten Son to save it, though death is involved. Thus   Christ's coming was STATEDLY NOT for the purpose of judging the world, but so that He might save it; and since God would have all things reconciled to Himself, whether in heaven or on earth, and says so (Col. 1:19ff.), there is no question,  except by slander, intentional or mere misreading, of His NOT doing so. That would be to make another god. This One speaks differently. What then is this simple question ? It is this.

Is there SPACE,  spiritual space for this love of God to find a lodging place in a given human heart, being, personality, person, verbalise it as you will, with the same intent: is there ? God has no limits to His love, but what of man! God has paid to the uttermost, but what will each human person pay ? Is there space in the place where life lies ?

No psychiatrist could answer that. The human heart indeed has such capacity for deviousness and wickedness and even self-deception and the same in layers, that neither the imagination nor the understanding, the purity of comprehension nor the sheer penetration of luminous human power would be sufficient in such a case. The heart of man, says God through Jeremiah in Ch. 17:9, is deceitful above all things. WHO, He asks, can KNOW it! However, there is one exception. It is God who knows, He being both infinite in understanding and the Creator of that image-bearer, man,  one so readily ruinable.

He can and He does understand it. It is like an engine someone made. In this case, the knowledge is even greater than that, since God made the matter which becomes constituent of materials which are then treated in various ways, physical, chemical, magnetic or other, till it conforms to the creative divine desire, to the idea activating the mind of the Creator; and then it is there to regard, with everything built through it. The mind also, and the spirit of a man, God comprehends with totality; for there is nothing hidden from Him, its total designer, creator and assessor (Hebrews 4:13). Thus God does more than regard it; as Jeremiah points out: He KNOWS it, and this in a way beyond the best man can provide (except when willing to be instructed, and God like master to apprentice, instructs him, in some relevant case  - cf. Acts 13:10). In that case, physical illness followed the pronouncement of Paul, showing in verifiable form, the work of God. This illustration of divine righteousness showed the generic purpose applied to this case: a sorcerer would not be permitted to confuse the issue when Paul preached to the governor in question. Seeing, that official believed.

There was a question with him as with others. In believing, he for his part, showed the answer

What then ? If there is in the end,  as in the beginning,  NO  SPACE, NO PLACE for the love which seeks to operate in the diseased human heart, then that love does not move into that place. How does anything move where there is no place! Ephesians 1:4 shows all this wrought out before the world was created, each chosen before sin ruled in the hearts of the sin-willing or thrilling, or complexities disturbed the clarity of the waters.

Similarly, the MEANS for the demonstration, or if you prefer, the manifestation and operation, of that divinely singular love for lost man, does not move into the place that is not there. You need space for movement. A cheque may be sent,  with the word, If not found at this address, return to sender. 

What then if there  IS no such address ? It returns. The willingness has been expressed, but there is no fund transfer. Since God knows from the first, there is no redemption given, though it was offered. Those for whom individually and en bloc for whom He has actually been delivered up are all recipients of heaven (Romans 8:32); as with the sin offering in Leviticus, it is offered to all, but NOT relevant to those not receiving it (shown in Deuteronomy 29:19ff.). No, if someone is following the dictates of his own heart, we there learn, there is precisely nothing for him, no gift, no lift, no covenant provision, except that relating to its NEGATION! The love of God is offered, shown in its profundity, but it is not crushing out all resistance, like the arms of an octopus, intent on getting results by force, or subterfuge.

Let us move a little further into the space for this conception. The cheque is not written out in the first place for those with no relevant address for its reception.

In other words, in theological terms, the ones in mind at the first here, are sole recipients of cheques made out in  their names: there is a limited atonement.

Willing to bear the sins of all, shedding blood in the death of vicarious sacrifice fit to cover the sins of all mankind (cf. Titus 2), God does not cover what has no address, no space, no PLACE for the reception of this sacrifice. The funds, sufficient for all, adapted to  all,  sincerely offered to all from the heart of God, having no transfer site within the limits of what the love of God is, do not move! In one way, the alternate term, limited attainment,  expresses this aspect. God is simply not interested in dictating to the ungodly, changing in them the image of God and its relative independence, even in the case of man, as if man were to become an item for manipulation or strong-arm grabbing, as if individuality did not exist, and the image of God, already corrupted, were overthrown. God does not overthrow His own work.

On the contrary, in salvation, He redeems it; and  man is restored to place as at the first, before the fall, and better yet. In salvation, it is restoration, not obliteration of the image of God in man, who THEN "is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,"  and it all being of grace, there is no room for works, as in a partnership: the whole  thing, salvation by grace through faith, expressly in Ephesians 2:8 being attributed to God only. Since His work is done, those who find Him and rely on Him, may have many vicissitudes, but they cannot fail, since His cover  is eternal, and what you do is not relevant to status, but to sanctification. Works are wrung out like water from a washed garment; and the washing was in blood, not water, His only (Revelation 7:14, Romans 3:23ff.).

ROBOTS ARE EASY; REDEMPTION IS HARD: LIBERTY IS GLORIOUS

Almost anyone can create robots, fixtures featuring conformity to what is required. Only God can create what is in His own image, and redeeming it, renew it to what it was, not stifling its reality, but as with a plastic surgeon - yet a spiritual one - utterly transforming the lost image to what it was, so that its function is both renewed and brought to the point of adoption as a child of God (Ephesians 1:4-14), freely both as to reality and meaning (II Corinthians 3:17, Isaiah 55), and lack of cost for entrance as well (I Peter 1:18-19).

God is the God of truth, so that if there is no place in the mind and will of a sinner, in the preference he has, to use term in John 3:19, concerning the darkness without Christ to the light with Him,  then that is that. God knows it from before sin and creation, predestination applies that knowledge. Truth contains it. Reality exhibits it. It is that, John shows, from the word of God Himself, which is the ground of condemnation: it is not crucially and finally that they sinned, but that they did not receive the light, did not prefer it, and hence aborted the offer of mercy into a communion with the dust under their feet. That is their feature, inclination, ultimate alignment. The divine mercy being foreign, by their own preference, then as in John 3:36, the wrath of God (rather  perhaps like clouds on a cloudy day) abides on them.

Why is this ? It is because while sin would destroy heaven, and does not, since it has no place there, and is rupture from reality whether in mind or spirit or morals or desire or culture or any other created thing, and it ruins relationship with God unless covered and its dynamic of deformities received by the Great Physician, Jesus Christ so sent from heaven eternal realm for such a purpose as this: there is a divine remedy. Why is this ?  This is because of love, mercy, lovingkindness; and the heart of God who made man in His image, with the potential for significant personal relationship with Himself (since God IS a SPIRIT, as in John 4), and His is a loving heart. His mind is compassionate, because He is reasonable (Isaiah 1:18), even with the treasonable who yet repent. He is more: He is sacrificial where this is the way for truth to be satisfied, justice done and  mercy to  prevail.

That is just what He did, engaged at unlimited cost in personal sacrifice to achieve the design of mercy and the fruit of kindness. It is the greatest act in the universe (Galatians 6:14), and its obverse is the ruin of death, since this being the cost of sin, and He having offered the bearing of sin to all, as above, death can no more force on all its deadly relevance. There is a way of escape, and death being the ultimate in morbidity, this is ultimate in felicity. Indeed, for the one in Christ Jesus, death ends up no longer applicable (I Cor. 15), and this in principle, to followed in its time, by application of Christ, the Saviour's triumph. That is why in I John 1, we can read that God is faithful and JUST to cover sin confessed by faith to Him. Since He has for the Christian, already covered this phase, it is just not to ignore this, as if He had not done so.

Ours is the sin; His is the salvation; just is the settlement by transfer both of sin to Him and of His righteousness as gift to us (II Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:17ff.). The resurrection of His body is the attestation (Romans 1:4), and the resurrection of those of believers in its phase, is its application (Isaiah 26:19, I Corinthians 15:1-4,42-58). The difference is an infinite Being, one of the Trinity, so sent (cf. Isaiah 48:15ff., John 3:15ff., Philippians 2:1-10), who takes it root and stock, severing and sentenced, upon Himself for the payees, who become children of God by this sovereign act of God. splendid in conception, merciful in reception, foreign to deception, providing not only life, but eternal life from the snarling insatiability of sin.

Sin is like that, and is exorbitantly costly when it comes to redemption: and thus we read in Galatians 6:14, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Christ, that is the entire divine schema of which this is the point of redeeming application. By this, anyone actually believing in Him is crucified to the world, as is the world to to that person. So  it is written of Paul, and applied in principle to all born again, regenerate through Christ's redemption, once and for all accomplished (Hebrews 9:12-28). IF now, THIS MERCY, this potent and overflowing payment is not to one's taste, is not convenient to receive, has no  appeal, and sin remains more potent in occupying the relevant place in one's heart, mind and spirit, then the  redeeming payment is N/A. It is not applicable.

The REASON for that, as stated in the relevant context in John 3:15-19, lies not in divine preference (that being passionately covered in John 3:15-18), but the human one! The divine one is for all (Col. 1:19ff., John 3:15ff., I Timothy 2). The human one is as may be, and is foreknown and applied in a truth conserving predestination, next step down the logical track (Romans 8:30). Thus man is entirely responsible, a fact that is so forcibly confirmed in John 15:22-24; God has done entirely enough; there is not even a fleck of darkness in His light, of unwillingness in His love; but there is UTTER irrelevance in conferring the way of a love which is not received, thus obliterating for that person, not only its transforming nature and its transformative dynamic, but also its cost-covering provision.

For those so placed, and with no available place in their hearts as known to God before this world so much as existed, but instead with place for its sin and man's fall, those not in short whom God foreknew selectively, and so those NOT known as His, what is left ? It is not hard to discern. There is only one cover (Acts 4:11-12). Delete that ? one minus one is zero. Thus there is then no cover. Make sure that the sin which led to the agonising and long prepared sacrificial death of Christ for atonement, was no slight thing, but horrid to morbidity, to the moribund, to deletion, to anguish. Inheriting it finally by removing the salvation from any opening, simply restores the horror, except for this, that as far as divine mercy is concerned,  it reinforces guilt with a wantonry of dismissal of this costly salvation.

Let us take another image. If it were insurance, it would state that  this did not cover the provision of love, vested in the Gospel, since this option had not been followed in the contract. It seems demeaning to talk of contract, perhaps, but covenant IS a solemn treaty, arrangement between God and man, whether or not man has alternative options. It is what is standing in the place of disposition; and where it is received, it is applicable in its provisions; where not, then of course, not.

Willing to cover all, having done all sufficient to cover all, God does not discover some and bring them home to Himself through manipulation, trickery, treachery, deceiving, force or any other distortion of love. God IS love (I John 4:7ff.): that therefore would not be other than total contradiction; and He does not contradict Himself, or deny Himself (I Timothy 2:14). Truth is not like that: it KNOWS.

What then do we find  ? It is this. Before sin and fault ever was, the elemental reality, known to God, is such that cover willingly outlaid as sufficient for all, does not find in the null address, a site for payment, so that the cheque is not sent. The atonement is limited.

In short, if you do not believe that I am He (the Messiah, the Saviour), Christ indicated, then you will DIE IN YOUR SINS (John 8:24). If you are so fond of what is sin, distressed to wave it goodbye as a sovereign in your life, then it is as if buried with you, by your own indication if not solicitation, in your tomb (John 8:24).

You do not receive rescue, when the only way is to grapple you and force. Is this then  your ultimately known heart ? If you refuse, then it is so attested. Then you will not be FORCED out of the water, if you want to follow a third piece of imagery in this case, drawn from life-saving. You can drown in peace, in so far as the distress of the removal of that very thing is concerned. Known in its ultimate place, it can now occur in its final place, and these are the same. If this be your case, then that will at last be your own selection! Truth then has found its outcome. The same is true of the income, when the input WAS desired, received, the pardon and the peace accepted, by faith, and the cover delighted in, as sufficient, efficient and proficient, this with gratitude of heart, as of a new child into the family of God.

The gift of life in the first place is a sovereign act of the Creator, God,  the ruin of its quality was a voluntary gift of man to the situation, one wrought in ambition and deceit, ingratitude and folly, vanity and acrid aspiration (Genesis 3, Romans 5). It was misuse of the marvel of limit by one actually made in the image of God, and so having extraordinary powers of self-disposition, either for or against God, in trust or in intemperate vagabondage, which became simple bondage to sin. The provision of hope, and all that hang on it, was a further sovereign act of God (as attested in Genesis 3:15), and through a work of God, it would be through a member of the human race, later indicated with increasing detail, as to His deity and deeds to be (cf. Joyful Jottings 22-25). The assignment of this salvation, not only made free, but equipped with appeal and loving exhortation, as  distinct from its offer to all with the unbounded love of God (John 3:15ff., Titus 2) is a further sovereign act of God; as is the gift of eternal life and the provision of bodily resurrection, with all the individuality which bearing the image of God portended in the first place.

That was then, but now it was confirmed. In the sinful situation of man only this can suffice (John 6:65), but just as the ground for it is the ransom wrought by Christ (Matthew 20:28), so the reason for the selection is the preference of man, and this by the equally sovereign word of God (John 3:19) which sums up so many of His vastly moving appeals (Jeremiah 48:36, Ezekiel 33:11, Jeremiah 13:15ff.,27). God is no empty sovereign, like a physical law, but a sovereign over all that would call itself sovereign, and in this capacity, He has done all, including the preservation of the liberty of man, so that sin is not sovereign, nor its effects, but by divine choice, His love rules and finds its own in mercy, which is His divine delight towards all in the first place (Micah 7:18-19, Colossians 1:19ff.); for He IS merciful.

One of the greatest wonders of God with His love, is His liberty; and the work of God has been to create in His own image what does not lack it in its own realm, domain and desire; and this liberty, given to man,   is in John 3 cited as the fitting ground of rejection of man, despite God's own unremitting love; and as born into liberty, so in liberty man is restored to his domain, not as a prisoner, but freely, not in chains but with the surging fulfilment in the very sovereign work of God, of his own preference. Freedom is not crucified; the image of God in man is redeemed; man is not deleted in rescue; he is restored, "renewed to a true knowledge, according to the image of the One who created him", Col. 3:10 (NASB, which puts for renewed,  'literally, renovated'). That image is not distortion or contortion, but reality. Reality is restored, not aborted. Creation is the criterion in view, in terms of that image, not obliteration. It is what was lost that is found. Such is the testimony of the word of God, sovereignly sent, freely received, not set aside, in desired and undesired parcels, but all of it together in the divine donations of His counsel, so that no word is disregarded.

God is truth, not appearance only. All His works, like His words, are in truth. When preference is cited, and foreknowledge precedes ruin, then liberty it is for man, just as God in His own liberty provided it. You cannot use God, but God can use you; you cannot demean the status of God, but He may demean yours. Yet in salvation He restores the lost, not deleting them in the process, but only the sovereignty of their sin, and its harrowing paths.

What then ? Man is not manacled to mercy, but given it when in the sovereign wisdom of God, it is found to have place, and in the image of God status of man, it is fitly bestowed, not for merit, but despite demerit, not blindly, but by the divine will, where the ultimate willingness if found in the pre-temporal phase, given voice in the specification of the cause of ultimate condemnation found in John 3:19. It is best in dealing with God, to be dealt with BY God; and this includes the area of doctrine, including this one. EVERY word of God is pure and is profitable, and a preferred selection of some is likewise and equally dismissal of some.

ALL the word of God rules, and in this He characterises His wishes, salvation means  and principles of action. To insist on His sovereignty is therefore to insist on His mercy which does not relent in indifference, on His love, which does not withdraw in weariness or flickering light, and on His reliability to do all that He sovereignly says about the grace unsparingly offered (I John 2:1-2), as was the lamb to Israel, the nation. The resultant selection is by these appointed means, His; and the responsibility remains that of man. He may indeed always resist the Holy Spirit, and is not stopped from doing so, where this is the application of the liberty known in foreknowledge and made  relevant in John 3:19. It was a liberty foreknown, for man was foreknown,  before sin differentiated in its degrees, innocence was lost, and corrupt connivance so much as occurred.

What then ? The atonement, the actual cover of the cost of sin, is therefore limited to those where there is place, as foreknown to God. To be sure, because of the taint of sin, there is constraint on such as to the discernment of sin in their natural distorted way as in I Corinthians 2:14, so that sin makes godliness seem foolish;  but this does not prevent God from doing either of two things. First, He foreknows His own, being aware of the preference of man; and secondly, in the conversion process (as in Hebrews 6), naturally HIS presence can transform things on the way, as it certainly does in the end, when the converted person has a new kind of life, or relationship to God (II Corinthians 5:17ff.).  As the conversion  proceeds, one may be more aware of the challenge to will (though God has the wisdom concerning that, beyond sin, and this already), or of the sovereignty in view, since God made man, the Gospel, the remedy, the mode of application and is the sole resolver of who is who, just as on what ground. Thus on the one hand, you have Elijah's profound challenge (I Kings 18:21), and its demand for choice, one way or the other; and on the other hand, the fact that unless the Father acts, as in  John 6:65, unless  His grant is given, no one can come to Christ.

Thus, in sum,  the love is total in scope, the payment is limited in issuance to addresses, the option is by God sovereignly administered to the sick in sin (as all men unconverted are, whether with pride, or inane abasement, or self-will, or selling of soul to culture or anything else). Yet all this is so done as to be in conformity with truth concerning each, exhibiting man's freedom as from the first (Colossians 3:10), rescuing it, in a miracle of transference, even beyond sin's bondage, to the very heart of the family of God (Colossians 1:13).  God thus achieves the uttermost in terms of Colossians 1:19ff., not beggaring the beauty of truth and mercy, reality's texture and the divine image accorded man, but consummating it with typical divinely wrought wisdom and lovingkindness.  Not the despotic or the robotic is involved in the personal God who made and redeems persons; but rather in the grandeur of His passion, and the felicity of His compassion, He achieves consummation of what man is, even of what he was first made to be. Such is the reality achieved by the divine will, action and desire. Redemption restores what was lost in sin; not something else. In its restoration is regeneration, so achieving the result past all lapse, and registering its eternity in this as from the first in foreknowledge.

Judgment involves consumption; salvation consummation.

Similarly, the Bible may state (and it does) the RESULTANT concerning a case, such as this "Esau have I hated," in Romans 9:13. His purposes (Romans 9:22) are clear, and if one wanders into the witless course of unwisdom, then that person in his pride may be used to illustrate it, as in a medical facility in a case of disease (Romans 9:17-18). The crooked may be hard also, and so lend itself to illustration, its own preference being sure already. Yet God provokes none to evil (James 1:13-14), but loving all, even laments their loss (Matthew 23:37ff.). Not only is there a place for the love of God, or not; but there is everything in its place, the chronically rebellious for their helpful lessons to the wanderers, the self-inventively clever with the word of God for their rebuke (Matthew 23, Mark 7:7ff.), the lost in their obstinacy as with Jerusalem, inducing profound lament, and the misleaders even in their manifest turning away from God, in their sickening and sick slithering (Luke 11:52ff.), now so common a feature of many of the cultures of this world, as forecast for its heyday in II Peter 2:1, Matthew 24:24, I Timothy 4, II Timothy 3 and 4, Jeremiah 23:16-20, when the time of Christ is near - Jeremiah 23:5-6^*3.

Thus God is not deprived of the fruits of His love and sacrifice by technical failure (Psalm 145:3, 147:5 - He made DNA!); but  does not take home ONLY that for which  there is no place, ultimately and truly in any one case, for His grace. There this grace does not erupt, does not find location. Again, there is thus no deception. Accordingly, man should realise well not to be blasé about grace. If you resist (Stephen told some that they did ALWAYS resist the Holy Spirit, and Christ told others that it was OFTEN He would have brought them back under His wings, like chickens restored to safety - Acts 7 and Matthew 23:37, while Hebrews 6 shows some of the processes that may be involved), then do not congratulate yourself. You are dealing with more than a new job: it is a new place in the grace of God, His glory seen in the face of Christ Jesus. Do not slight the fear of God, or mistake His love, in some somersault on the lawns of culture as if thus it must be. You have a gun in your hand; you do not need to pull the trigger when it is pointing in your own direction. Think well what you do. It is your life, the only one accorded (cf. Proverbs 1).

There is in the end, in the resultant, a resultant limit in those receiving Christ, and so a limited atonement; but its scope of address is not so limited, for it was said of God that having made peace through the BLOOD OF THE CROSS, He would have all to be reconciled to Himself - and one should have realistic fear of God, as of a flaming fire: though it is fraught with comfort in its fire-place, where it is given place, when there is here no place for it, it can rage z(cf. Hebrew 12:29. Do not trifle with truth, or act as if to meander in and out of mercy (Isaiah 57:15-16). Know whom you want to serve, and bear with or receive in welcome, the results!

In our next Chapter, we shall plan to look at the fact that for everything there is a season as in Ecclesiastes 3; and ponder the point that this is statedly the natural way. But what of the supernatural way, that is, the ways of God ? So much is lost because the dynamic presence of God is omitted in considering what otherwise may be natural laws. What may be said of seasons there, including that for finding Him and not doing so; and is there place for seasons of divine grace ?

NOTE

*1

On this see for example,

1) Christ Jesus: the Wisdom and the Power of God Ch. 7

2) Little Things Ch. 5

3) It Bubbles ... Ch. 9

4) Repent or Perish Ch. 7

5) SMR pp. 348ff.

6) Scaling the Heights ... Ch. 5

7) Deliverance from Disorientation Chs.   7 and    8

8) Swift Witness   6

9) Ancient Words and Modern Events Ch. 9

10) Spiritual Refreshings ... Ch. 13

11)  History, Review and Overview Ch. 5

12) Scientific Method, Satanic Method and the Model of Salvation.

*2

On validity in religion, and that unique to biblical Christianity, see for example:

TMR    5,   7 , It Bubbles ... Ch.    9, esp. *1A, The Bright Light ...  7,
 Repent or Perish, Ch.  7, pp. 152ff.; Ch.   2;
 Christ, the Wisdom ... Ch.   6; BAB 29,  19;
A Spiritual Potpourri Chs.  1-3;  SMR   3,   
Little Things Ch.  5,   Wake Up World! ... Ch.  5, End-Note 1A,
Tender Times ... Ch. 11;
Barbs ... 29,  19;  
TMR 9, Grand Biblical Perspectives Ch.   7,
What is the Chaff to the Wheat!  Chs. 3, 4, 10, 11,
Deity and Design, Designation and Destiny Chs.   3, *3,   8.
 

*3

See for example, SMR Chs. 8  -  9, Answers to Questions Ch. 5.