such as some students love to have in class situations in schools,
which one chooses entirely because of the exigencies of one's own will, and may be
FINALE
As exhibited in various of the 7 major sub-sets in this theological set, everything stands to reason. Nothing falls with it. Everything falls with rationalism, for the simple reason there is God at the end of reason (SMR, TMR), as Creator of it for human minds, through whose provisions there is access to His reason, Word, expressive power, by means of it, plus imagination and personality as provided. There are no insoluble problems for philosophic research, at the essential level, when you follow reason, find God's own testimony to Himself, or simply discover it, since God made the universe, ourselves and provided His own reason for the flow of both.
There are insoluble problems without God, since reason-made man without God is defective in source dynamic, oversight and understanding, so making a mess, as visible now, running amok, as often seen, both in national, international, family, cultural, ideational and international wars. So great is the gift of potential fellowship with God, to these beings, mankind, who are equipped with power to make certain parameters, provisions, perspectives and responses, and to investigate by reason with imagination, that the failure to respond to the God, the Creator who made them, leads to a failure to correspond to the provisions given, so inducing anger, trauma, inadequacy, see-saw superiorities and inferiorities, major maladies of mind and spirit and exacerbating age related problems of mind and body.
When God is blamed for these, you have what is the equivalent of a secondary infection. It is crucial and may be fatal.
When it is seen that no man knows God automatically, that there is a path however for this, and that the first repentance is not having known Him before, and the more when the opportunity came and went unattended, then the greatest opportunity on earth comes, naturally vigorously opposed by the greatest scam on earth, organic evolution and other exponents of war as if this were part of the works of God, or the way for man.
This is partly
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the result of the
desire for company in rebellion, such as some students love to have in class situations in schools, |
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from the sheer
enjoyment of power in rebelling against the uttermost, may be |
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due to desire to
possess God's creation, parts or all of it, without warrant but with much
apparent gain, or |
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derivative from
the desire to be first in one's own life, or to have someone or something
else first by proxy, which one chooses entirely because of the exigencies of one's own will, and may be |
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the result of
innate fear of passing beyond oneself, or |
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propelled by pride in one's own life; or many other oddities of a life without faith, or failing to find its object. |
However God is able to bring the captivated and even the captured life to Himself, and anyone who wants this with all his or her heart is in a wonderful position, for the Almighty in the Bible is on record for this, that He would like all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2, Colossians 1:19ff.). With such a desire at work, therefore, you are NOT, and to this extent, in rebellion, and may well look for deliverance (Jeremiah 29:13, John 6:37). To be sure, you cannot expect to manipulate God, but if you come to Him as He is, there is none equal.
As to the Bible, God has not left a race in this rebellious folly, with lies and injustice, violence and vileness a specialty with many, as in many leading authoritarian figures, to go free-wheel to hell, contrary to Himself the Creator, to His deliverance, the Gospel, and to life, which they all have (cf. Matthew 23:37, Isaiah 48:16ff.). He has left to one side the option of destruction, no surprisingly since He knows all things infinitely, having no limits, and the future is one of these. He has instead acted to bring a remedy, and this is outlined in the only book with adequate chronological, logical and report functions adequate for the case, as well as possessing verifiability uniquely, because testable in much, and in many features, even where the test is at the level of the specific powers of God (cf. SMR Chs. 3, 9-10, Mark 2).
He has not expected man in default, to have power to correct himself, since the fault being toward Him and hence spiritual, it is endemic like cancer (cf. Jeremiah 13:23). He Himself provides the remedy. Man is precious. The cost of remedy was astounding, but in view of the fellowship provisions, not surprising. God sent His own Word, Son by incarnation, only begotten, once and for all, to deliver by substitutionary sacrifice at the bar of justice, meeting all costs by His own blood. It must be received, and indeed this Son must be received, since reasonably, death could not hold God (Acts 2:24), being in itself a penalty for sin, while Christ died as a payment for justice and rose as an innocent Being in His own right.
The power to life is then provided by God also; in the form of the Holy Spirit, who is not an independent agent, for men to lay claim to imparting all sorts of new gospels (John 16:13-15), but applies the power and brings the presence of the One. only begotten Son of God, who once paid. It is very clear, sure and simple. Since we are all far short of the glory of God as in Christ Jesus, and sinners, hence it is given by absolute authority, uniquely testable in the whole field of religion, by vast opportunities for verification, alone validated at the level of its pronouncements (cf. SMR, TMR Ch. 7).
God is not available for remaking, as if some spurious sanctity and false gospel might be manufactured from the admittedly profoundly imaginative mind of man, one, however, created for fellowship with God. Hence the Bible is as expected, absolutely intolerant of other 'medicines' invented by the sick in their sickness, to cure it, or added on, secreted within it, or in any other way made comparable (Matthew 5:17-20, Proverbs 30:6, Galatians 1, II Corinthians 11). It is not only an extraordinary cheek to do this sort of thing, but one which brings special divine outrage (as a doctor might feel if someone idly substituted arsenic for aspro in some prescription) as noted in Galatians 1, Revelation 22, II Corinthians 4. The things of God are His, and need no invention. They depend upon Him and there is no alternative authority (Matthew 23:8-10), and none can in His name proceed contrary to or other than in terms of His own word.
The beautiful part is this, that having paid in love, not a mere serene sense of duty, for those who are then His redeemed, who receive Him as He is and His word as it is in the Bible, His creation, such become a part of His kingdom, ready for resurrection of the body, for eternal life which starts when Christ is seen in reality (I John 1, 5), as Himself, as Saviour and Lord, and raised in His very body (the contest, cf. Luke 24), from the dead. As I Corinthians emphasises, this is all a matter of learning, receiving, believing and acting with such perspective; to which the Holy Spirit gives joy unspeakable and full of glory (I Peter 1:1-5), for God being magnificent, joy is to be found in knowing Him; and this for ever.
It is all very reasonable, as well as demonstrable and demonstrated (cf. SMR, TMR, Deity and Design ..., for example).
God IS most reasonable, and in what reason is He more so than in this:
"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Hence He says, "Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean ..." - always a refreshing business.
Moreover, He says,
"for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed
and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works ..."But when the kindness and the love of God our Savour toward man appears,
not by works of righteousness that we have done,
but according to His mercy He saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord,
that having been justified by His grace,
we shall become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."