W
W W W
World
Wide Web Witness
Inc. Home Page What is New
PREDESTINATION REVIEW
Volume 7 of what is now
or PREDESTINARIUM
Published October 2010
extended to 2020
ISBN 978-0-9808498-4-4
This now has 34 Chapters, some taken from various Volumes such as
Possess Your Possessions
The Lie has a Limited Shelf-Life, Truth Endures Forever
and
The Lord of Longsuffering, Prince of Peace,
Christ of Command
This is the latest volume on
the Biblical Basis
for Predestination and Freewill.
In turn this is one phase of
the mission to show that in all major phases of philosophy and theology the
Bible's coverage of the case has no internal breaches,
nor are their external gaps, and that there is nothing like this anywhere else.
One major collection on this broader basis is to be found in
LIGHT DWELLS WITH THE LORD'S CHRIST
WHO ANSWERS RIDDLES
AND WHERE HE IS, DARKNESS DEPARTS
Bible or Blight,
Christ or Confusion:
The Comprehensive Resolution of Man's Intractable Problems
is Found Only in the Bible, the Word of God
A
Pair of Volumes: Opus 128 and 129, of some 2.3 million words.
In method, reason has been used to show the Bible as the word of God,
and the Bible to find its own detailed declarations and indications,
which then being individually verified where applicable,
verify the method of finding as valid.
Reason itself is exhibited in its irrefragable place, and it shows the word of
God
so given that we may recognise it even in this way, as well of course as in
others.
In this method, there are no presuppositions,
and thus freedom and predestination constitutes just one of the areas
where the Bible is found to solve and resolve what without it,
merely leaves the same muddle as you would expect when omitting the truth.
On method, see What is the Chaff to the Wheat
Chs. 3 and
4,
for example, and also Index on Apologetics.
July 2010
POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. 5, Ch. 6
This
is a
wide-ranging
chapter
on
soteriology,
grace,
gates
and
doors,
foreknowledge
and
love,
the
things
that
are
sure
as
opposed
to
the
extremism
which
goes
like
a
happy
dog,
rushing
after
a
stick,
with more
force
than
precision,
more
intent
than
prevalence.
It is necessary in all things, through the sheer grandeur of the grace of God, to find the glorious harmony of the Bible with itself, and through this provision of the word of God, competence to cover and resolve in truth all the problems of ramifying philosophy, amidst this beatific provision for man: only there is the constraint to be ACCURATE with it. He gives; He enables.
It is not for man to impose on it, this, the written word of God, but to expose what it gives. THEN great are its rewards. It works, it prevails, it provides, it exposes and interprets reality as by a brilliant light, with no glare. From God it comes, for God it works, it makes clear His work, and taking off the spectacles of confusion, it brings back to what actually is.
In His light we see light; and in what it is given in objective biblical revelation, there is such rigour as well as grace, such a coverage as well as faithfulness, that there is nothing at which one may baulk in all the realms of human thought (cf. II Corinthians 5:10, Daniel 2:28, 5:12, Romans 1:17ff., Psalm 119, I Peter 3:15). It liberates, it enlightens, it prevails, unassailable. In it, His Spirit has prevailed and does prevail. Thus in His light, we see light, and in His provisions what casts down all contest, alone effective in knowledge, with no competition or comparison. It solves, it resolves, it prevails.
The divine word exposes the errors of wandering or wavering human thought, imposes the discipline of truth, reveals the truth, enables resolution of enigmas, puzzles and riddles; for He is the exposer of errors and the grant basis for all truth. Given infallibly, His written word as given, the Bible, prevails inexorably, accurate and effective to the uttermost, and so leaves one free of the rudiments of philosophy with the operative dynamic of a just revelation, spiritually provided, friend of logic, cutting off all confusion, prevailing in all disputation.
Thus
He
exposes,
as
in
Romans
1:17ff.,
the
actual,
rank
weakness
of
roving
human
thought,
sick
at
sea,
when
the
stability
and
soundness
of
land
is
immediately
available,
incapable
of
overthrow,
a
mockery
to
muddle
and
a
joy
to
follow.
That
His
word
is
truth
is
sound
doctrine
and
demonstrable
in
its
sufficiency,
efficiency
and
applications.
Accordingly,
what
adds
man's
thought
to
the
thought
of
God,
loses
its
wonder,
is
bane
to
its
blessing,
just
as
any
poison
can
destroy
the
working
of
good
medicine.
With God, there is light; without Him, there is none, nothing at all.
August 2010 addition
POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. 5, Ch. 10
In the form of a dialogue, this presentation enables, at no great length, a simple and reciprocal realisation of some of the basic features in this realm.
August 2010 addition
POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. 6, Ch. 2
SOVEREIGN LOVE LACKS ALL SHOVE
ARITHMETIC PROGRESSION
AND THE NEED TO FOLLOW ON
Genesis 3:15, John 3:16, Revelation 3:17
An excerpt provides a concept of some of the thrust of this overview from Genesis to Revelation. It appears below.
That in foreknowledge with the predestination which RESULTS from that, a confirmation of the realities of the outreach effective of God's divine love, there is to be none lost whom God in His love has found, beyond time, is a most reassuring fact, based on the omni-competence of God. It is found in a knowledge that is quintessential and of truth, moving from the first to the completing of the work of wonder, of God. NO ONE is going to be kept out who in any sense of integrity might have come. Though men mislead men, none misleads God. From foreknowledge before time, before any fall, to glorification, God has His way (Romans 8:29ff. gives the circuit of events). It is not as a sergeant-major, but as One who loves, seeking and finding those who are His. IF, said Jesus the Christ, you had not heard these words which no other man ever spoke, and seen these works, which no other man ever did, you would not have had sin (the topic is death outside Christ or life within Him by faith). The rich young ruler was loved by Christ, but not arraigned! (Mark 10:17ff.). Love has its integrity and its restraint. The man went sorrowing, his grief a measure of his voluntary loss, known by God, seen in history, as in Luke 9:26).
Once again, it could not be clearer.
Informed rejection or its equivalent as known and foreknown in the mind and heart of God, is the criterion of this mission not reaching any in this world. Since then, even this is foreknown by God, there is no confusion. The immensity and intensity of His love, and the sublimity of His power see to that! How He, in this love, mourns for those whose preference is eternally known to be away from Him, as in Luke 19:42ff., Matthew 23:37ff., Isaiah 48:16ff., Jeremiah 9, 48:36. Even in the case of Babylon, He reviews His willingness to save (Jeremiah 51:9), just as for Israel (Hosea 7:1). Indeed this is a grief which is the correlative of the love, for the world, not its evil systems, but its inhabitants (Ezekiel 33:11, I Timothy 4:10, I John 2:1ff.).
SEE ALSO Bulletins 135 and 136 on this topic in terms of John 3:16 (April, 2019):
136 Avoiding the short-circuit of divine love that is part of the magnificence of the Gospel
135 The fearsome aspect of divine law and the marvellous forethought of God
October 2010 addition
POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. 7, Ch. 3
THE TRUTH OF DIVINE LOVE
AND THE LOVE OF DIVINE TRUTH
THE LOVE OF GOD
MUST NOT BE TRUNCATED,
MINIMALISED
BY HUMAN ENTERPRISE
BUT REALISED AS IT IS RELEASED
This Chapter has a relationship to conceptual assailants such as Hawkings and Dawkins, but its main thrust moves onto Old Testament realities in the love of God, biblical uniformities in the nature of God, the depth of its penetration, the scope of its salvation, the character of His sovereignty and the necessity of accuracy in biblical exegesis, to preserve due perspective.
In conspectus, this requires adequate attention to every part of each revelation, and not a sort of sovereign dismissal of some elements, or a twitching effort to conserve a philosophy contrary, despite the text.
When
this
is
done,
not
only
does
this
field,
as
with
every
other,
gives
light
and
understanding
so
that
every
philosophic
problem
concerning
man
is
then
ready
for
resolution
(cf.
LIGHT DWELLS WITH THE LORD'S CHRIST, WHO ANSWERS RIDDLES AND WHERE HE IS, DARKNESS DEPARTS),
but
the
love
of
God
is
seen
in
its
most
delightful
aspect.
In Ch. 4, then, there is a survey of various assaults, intended or otherwise, on biblical perspective and pronouncement in this area, showing that only by precision with the text, not omitting or adding, is its beauty and wonder to be found, so that the failure of all else to satisfy the domain of truth, consistency, coverage at the empirical level, resolution of philosophical perplexities, is then made apparent. More, then the wonder of the biblical light which sheds no shadows becomes manifest.
This Chapter is very large, some 100 pages, but there is in its resolution a substantial biblical input, which is taken with some care.
October 2010 addition
POSSESS YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. 8, Ch. 3
THE HEARTLAND OF THE HOLY ONE
JEREMIAH 5, 31, I
Timothy 2, Colossians 1, Ezekiel 33,
Jeremiah 48, II Peter 3:9, Matthew 23:37, Luke 19:42ff..
The simplicity of profundity, found for example in E=MC2 at the mathematical/physical level, involving much but capable of such elegance of expression once you understand something of the realm of which you are speaking, is one of the major features of overview. It can become available because God is the God of ALL understanding, and whether it be in the realm of physics, mathematics, theology or geology, there are principles which apply, procedures which are taken, modes of application or implication, so that once one is in the zone of the issues, there is an overall reality which can be intuited, realised, understood, brought to the level of comprehension.
Brought ? When it is the heart of God it is GOD ONLY
who can show its love and mercy, its pardoning passion and its holy thrust, and
He has chosen to do so with a wonder of relief to the seeker, redemption to the
one who knocks, restoration to the fallen and this in a perspective which is
entirely His own. Once grasp this, and you begin to understand God as He
requests you to do (Jeremiah 9:24, Proverbs 1), and indeed lovely is His
solicitude:
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches:
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD,
exercising lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth,for in these I delight, says the LORD."
Such a knowing of God is sheer delight, and
it is well to show His splendour of grace and self-control, giving and goodness.
Here is the One who has no self-interest, for He has need of nothing, and loves
to give, so that liberty is in His domain, and the result of freedom is to be
found when His gifts are received, the gift of eternal life an anointing of
blessed oil, underlain by a gift of spiritual structure, with a godly genetics
(I John 3), which makes alliance with redeemed man, the God of all glory the
sovereign whom it is a wonder to serve, and of whom a joy to attest.
October 2010 addition
POSSESS
YOUR POSSESSIONS Vol. 8, Ch.
4
THE HEARTLAND OF THE HOLY ONE
CONFRONTING THE WORLD
John 10
Travesties and transformations of religion are like the ancient practice of making new gods, in which Israel alas excelled as you see in the divine stricture and admonition of Deuteronomy 32, from parts of which the following is taken. It is a figure in which lovers and jealousies are invoked, so that just as Israel may be regarded as an adulteress by the Lord, in being unfaithful to Him, as if a husband, so He is in image conceived as 'jealous' in a romantic figure, because they turned from God to not-God and gave this ludicrous mental construction of theirs, the worship due to the living and actual God. This being clear, we listen:
"As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young,
spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings:
so the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him."He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and you drank the pure blood of the grape.
"But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked:
you have become fat, you art grown thick, you are covered with fatness."Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They excited His jealousy through strange gods, they provoked Him by abominations. They sacrificed to devils, which were not-God,
to gods whom they did not know,
to new gods that came newly up,
whom your fathers did not fear."The Rock who begat you, you have forsaken, and have forgotten God who formed you."
Some current cultural ideas and presentations are considered as we move on to what the Bible actually says, and digest some of the marvels of the divine speech of Jesus Christ, recorded in John 10, with special reference to John 10:30.
ANOTHER SHEPHERD HAS OTHER SHEEP
Hawke, Downer and The Kingdom of Christ
A Survey with many Excerpts on Sensitive Subjects
Concerning the Love of God, His power and His purpose
This from 2009, is as one born
out of due time, and a good prelude to Ch. 8 below.
It is large and comes from
Waiting for
Wonder Appendix.
November 2010 addition
THE BIBLICAL TRUTH AND
THE SPIRITUAL EVASION:
The Loveliness of Love
and the Unspirituality of Shove
Answering extravagant assertions made in the name of the Bible, but in fact quite contrary to it, is not mere pure research: it has eminently significant outcomes in the defence of the faith and the glory of God. In defending the faith, it is quite essential to know what it is, and also, to apply that. When this is done there is nothing like it in logic, in law, in grace and in consistency upon the surface of this globe, for the needs, systems, rationality and significance of man. The glory of God in the Gospel is not restricted; and it is by no means because of His love, but despite it, that restriction there is. It is HE who applies it, but the principles which He asserts in His unchangeable nature, are as unrestricted in outreach, as they are immovable in their nature. Heaven is not just what comes; it has principles which ENABLE it to be what it is. God, He is like that.
December 2010 addition
This is taken from Volume 10 of Possess Your Possessions,
INVENTION OF ENORMITIES
John 1, 3, 8, 15, Colossians 1, I Corinthians 2-4
From remedies that misfire
to the irresistible fire of the word of God (Jeremiah 20:9):
A Review Stimulated by a Particular Case
A STRANGE ATTACK -
John 1, 3, 8, 15, Colossians 1, I Corinthians 2-4
December 2010 addition
This is taken from Volume 10 of Possess Your Possessions,
REJOICING IN THE ETERNAL TRUTH
AND GREAT MERCY OF GOD
Psalm 117
A DELIGHTFUL GIFT
The grandeur of the gifts of God is further considered amid ineffective human narrowings.
The decretum horribile of Calvin, on the other hand, is given further attention.
December 2010 addition
This is taken from Volume 10 of Possess Your Possessions,
Conscience and Man in his Calamity
Christ and Man in his Opportunity
Luke 19:42ff.
Being Empirical and Scriptural
The
nature of conscience in man, in terms of the image of God, its defilement, human
liberty and the realities of foreknowledge, and human experience.
Pith of Spirituality ... 2010
(and
progressive)
A
probing showing the magnificence of the biblical coverage of the deep and
penetrating area
of predestination and freewill.
This is taken from Volume 11 of Possess Your Possessions,
REJOICING IN THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE INIMITABLE GOD
March 2011 Addition
This is received from The Lie has a Limited Shelf-Life ... Ch. 4. The fact that this Chapter has a wide coverage in its basic theme, of several topics, makes the placement of predestination in its midst the more appropriate, since it keeps from this study, any sense of the remote, and it enables a sense of broad review to come into the presentation for the special purposes of predestination, foreknowledge and human volition. The reference given above, takes straight to the section concerned, but it is well to see it in its overall context as well.
March 2011 Addition
This is received from
The Lie has a
Limited Shelf-Life, Truth Lasts Forever
Ch. 8.
THE HEADY BYPASS OF TRUTH
Following Man has Multiple Defects,
whether as Grahamist, Calvinist, Wesleyan
Following the Word of God has Multiple Marvels
Resolving Every Problem for Man
This is occasioned not least by the changes in the reported Billy Graham position on salvation by Christ only, and shows the biblical solution to the erroneous new teaching, which contradicts it. In the process, it shows something of the grandeur of the goodness, faithfulness and love of God, even and indeed, especially here!!
May 2011 Addition
The Lie has a
Limited Shelf-Life, Truth Lasts Forever
Ch. 5.
While this Chapter deals with 34 singularities in the Christian faith, biblically determined, in this very process it provides an eminently satisfactory basis for placing predestination, freewill and human responsibility in its setting, and treatment is provided of these things within it, which in short and summary form is useful for understanding.
June 2011 Addition
This is received from
The Lord of Longsuffering, Prince of Peace,
Christ of Command Ch. 6.
LOVE AS MOTIVATION
LAW AS INCITATION
TRUTH AS INCRIMINATION and
ACTION AS IMPLICATION
Evangelising versus Quiescence
and Missions verses Moping
with Excursion on the Area of Defect in the Teaching of Calvin *1
July 2011 Addition
This is received from
Ch. 1 of The Word and Wisdom of God and the Ways of Man
This seeks what its title suggests, and digs deeper into foreknowledge and freewill in strictly biblical terms, showing the place of grace and law, love and will, passion and principle, logical cohesion and irrational surreality from the Bible, and in its own inherent truth, as there indicated and found in the creation. The title of Ch. 1 is:
The Nature of the Cosmos and of the Character of Man
Ch. 2 in the same volume as above.
This deals with practical results from the nature of the divine, biblical foreknowledge and predestination, in the application of salvation in history.
September - November 2011 additions.
Ch. 1 of The Great Divide
This is an extensive step by step, 15 section display of the brilliant beauty of the biblical foreknowledge, predestination and eventuation program, intensively personal, fascinatingly propositional, gloriously competent to answer the problems into which unbiblical models crash.
Epilogue of The Great Divide
Here is a look at nations and individuals, chomping and champing, seeking and indolence, responsibility and the attitude of God, differentiating results from causes, consequences from desires and the nature of divine design from mere inflexibility, showing the result of truth and not expunging it, so that His designs encompass and do not dictate; and though in the end, the results are sure, this is not because of a lack of the preludes and preliminaries of His grace and unlimited primary love, but a certainty resulting from its exercise, in truth, before all time. Thus His desire is pure, His breadth of love is total, as to outward thrust; but when the foreknowledge of the unchanging God is seen as done, then the results are more certain than the sun. Love seeks; but knowledge then assures itself, and predestination is the record of the just and loving God, whose seeking is for all, whose outthrust is for all, despite the limits of the minds of man, often set as intruders into the beautiful harmonies and wonders of scripture, forlorn gazebos that have long left His word.
Finale of The Great Divide
Here is careful review and searching out of concepts in some depth, to enable the mind in such features as the above, to find the satisfaction which the perspective of the word of God, the Bible, so amply provides. In this, it is like the ocean, always refreshing, ever-new, just the same in principle, delicious in each aspect.
October, November 2011 addition.
Chapter 9 of
CHRIST NOT CULTURE, THE LORD NOT
MAN,
TRUTH NOT MERE INTRACTABILITY
The Way to Glory, Majesty and Goodness
This is entitled: THE CREATION OF LIBERTY BY THE LORD
AND CHAINS OF CONSTRAINT LIFTED BY CHRIST,
HIMSELF WITHOUT CHAINS
With this, goes the Appendix on Contortions.
This reviews contraries in
conception occasioned by philosophy, such as that of Whitehead,
explaining and substituting the clear harmonies in this entire field
of predestination, creation, salvation, redemption, differentiation,
foreknowledge and history. Where are these uniquely found, and operative
in non-reductionist totality ? Why in the Bible, here is there peerless lair.
Finding it, use it, and using it, find glory in Him whose word it is,
that so speaks.
In view of these things, this is
quite a good introduction to the whole
predestination-grace-liberty-love area, proceeding basically onward.
This incorporates
1) Chapter 2 of THE SPLENDOUR OF THE BIBLICAL COVERAGE OF THE MATRIX OF MAN
Here the ultimacy of grace is seen in place, in the very nature of man as created and subject to restoration, not dumped into determinism but delivered, even as made and fallen, not secured as a substitute, but found as lost.
2) Chapter 10 of the above. This is entitled
HAVE A LITTLE SHUT-EYE ?
BUT DON'T BLAME THE LIGHT
FOR THE DARKNESS YOU SEE!
It stresses that
talking about
gods and goads:
is not the same as finding or serving the God of creations,
and sketches the infernal vis-á-vis
the supernal
and considers the causes of the gap between human alignments,
the twin destinies and their essential natures.
3) Chapter 3 of TEDIOUS TORTURERS, TEPID TRIFLERS OR THE TRIUMPH OF TRUTH
This chapter is entitled, The Triumph of Truth and in short form covers matters long dwelt on.
This includes:
THE TIME IS COMING AND THE OPPORTUNITY IS GOING
These both involve definition by dialogue, presentation by interchange, with a broad coverage on the one hand, and probing penetration on the other, examining things carefully in the field of salvation, predestination, foreknowledge, merit and liberty. The oral method can clarify readily.
Also included is NOT ONLY GREAT BUT GLORIOUS Ch.1, which considers at length, the entirety of creation, volition, salvation, consummation in terms of the love of God, the resistance of man and the entire question of responsibility. In particular, it covers the distinction between doing as you will and willing as you will.
This includes:
Ch. 1 of
PROSPECT, RETROSPECT AND REVIEW
This deals with the whole domain of GOD and man, and in particular the love of God, the nature of the Gospel, the effect of these things on missions, and missionary motivation, and the honour of God, which it is necessary to preserve from convenient but merely philosophical ramifications, based not on the word of God, but the thoughts of man.
Ch. 3, Epilogue, which explores systematic elements in simple summation of much, and uses Aspects of the Glory of God Ch. 6, which is enlarged, to extend its applications (enlarged a little again, in 2014). Special points of interest for this purpose, are there noted, with the principles in view given some items of survey here, at *4. The unique capacity of the Bible's presentation to resolve liberty in man, sovereignty in God and to specify the matter without antinomy or antithesis, is an extensive focus.
This includes:
Ch. 4 of
WHAT IS THE CHAFF TO THE WHEAT.
This has been revised in 2012, and has a significant section, in the arena of methodology, covering predestination, foreknowledge, human will, history and eternity, when showing the distinctives of the approach.
Ch. 2 of THE ORIGINAL AND EVENTUAL MAGNIFICENCE
Translation of Words, Thoughts and Travesties,
which concentrates through translation
of Jeremiah 13:27 on
particularities better remembered when following the mind of Christ.
Ch. 5 of THE ORIGINAL AND EVENTUAL MAGNIFICENCE
A SOVEREIGN ?
NAY THE SOVEREIGN,
SOVEREIGNLY AFFIRMING
THE NATURE OF HIS WILL
Keeping the Crown
for the King,
and WHAT a King He is!
Here the
distinctives of the ineluctable love of God are biblically defined,
and tags are seen in their special and limited relationship to the word of God.
When the realities come first, tags are but a partial reminder of the
wonder of the truth.
This includes the Epilogue to The Original and Eventual Magnificence.
An overall, large perspective approach from creation to consummation, this has elements of impact in will, predestination and foreknowledge which like salt on meat, may help some.
Also included is Ch. 4 of Afterburner, Afterglow and Afterwards. This ponders the freedom model from the Bible, and orients to it, so that the erroneous, the erratic and the synthetic being distinguished, the perfect resolution in this area of fixity and liberty, freedom and duty, control and individuality, love and authority is maintained without compromise, as it appears in the biblical text. This biblical resolving power of t his deep area of thought is one of its chief and most manifest qualities, leaving the Bible as alone in splendour, as the sun in the heavens, but more so, for that at least suffers a moon, while here there is nothing else even worthy of thought, no contestant, just advertisements. Its chief proponent, Jesus Christ, is the world's greatest prodigy, for whom mere power, though awesomely present, was a tool, not the point.
With this comes Ch. 7 of the above work, which further defines and discriminates amid the results of the biblical model of predestination in contrast to the Calvinist depredation of aspects of the divine love. It includes relevant lists of other Chapters to the point, and in its background. *3 is of particular interest in these themes.
So far, this exploratory Chapter looks at the distinctive attributes of the only coherent and resolving presentation in the field of religion or thought, to cover the case of man and his world, that of the Bible; and considers the requisites provided in contrast, for example, to Islam, which multiply fails to meet the empirical case, or the logical requisites. The contribution here is from Pilgrims and Strangers, but not to God Ch. 8 (PSNG). This has an added advantage in this, that it provides an answer to questions in the area of sects and heresies, salvation and predestination.
The second component in this Chapter 25, comes from the Epilogue to the above volume, which in complementarity to the above, gives an exceedingly short overview of much in the field of predestination and freewill, with due counsel, drawn from the Bible.
The first part of this Chapter 26 is found in a dialogue in Ch. 4 of Things Idly Lost, Divinely Found, Rescued from the Contraband.
Like the second part, Ch. 5 of Now the Highway, Then the Heights, it focusses on the rationale to be found in predestination with its prelude foreknowledge, its intense reasonableness and deliciously comprehensive coverage of the tedious tensions which failure to come to terms with ALL scriptures on these topics, entails, has entailed, and this quite needlessly. It is rather like failing to prize the diamond in a ring, when receiving it, and commenting how strange the thing is! But there is even more positive coverage of this most excellent provision.
The first part of this Chapter, is Ch. 7 of Now the Highway ... entitled The Glorious Liberty within the Astonishing Sovereignty, turning to the elixir in the knowledge of such a God as the Lord is. Within this Chapter, we find reference to one wonderful aspect of inter-communion with God, of which it is said: This is where mystery is marvellous, and lends depth to delight.
The second part is found in The King's Counsel, Ch. 4.
Starting with a parable of Jesus Christ, this pursues matters of the squalid alternative to the Bible to be found in movements to the left or right from what it presents on love and liberty, and their juxtaposition; and this, coming after Ch. 3 on Hell, gives a profound accord with the doom to be found there. Instead of making this more malodorous, it confirms the reality that were there another way, another place, a better thing, it would end only worse, for then there would be nothing else but hell. God, mercifully, does not abdicate (Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ, Ch. 8), possesses eternity, and cannot lie (Titus 1, Isaiah 47:15, Psalm 90:2,The King's Counsel, Ch. 3, Barbs ...6 -7), for whom time is an invention of His own (Romans 8:38), and in whose eternal power, the gift of eternity, onward only for any of His creation, exists (I John 1:2, 3:16). Everything goes to its place, according to the preference which is not hidden from God, and whose sovereign power secures what man cannot make, liberty and its emplacements.
In particular, it reviews the feature of personal determination to do something, determinism and the concept of determining the truth (its determination), that is, ascertaining it, and the place of logic in this as in predestination; for it is the LOGOS who came to earth, and this is not only speech or word, but cause and with this, reason. Its basis is divine; its use is for man, a privilege. It should not be forsaken for leisure or pleasure or costly and unbased or even unformed preference.
The third, relatively small, indeed what is found in a substantial endnote, is placed in The King's Counsel, Ch. 10, *1. This has a large scope covered in a small compass, and is good for review.
From April 2013, comes this Ch. 7 in The Way of Truth and the Way of Error.
This Chapter is entitled:
Is it Love,
is it Hate: it is not Fate!
but the love of God when declined, leaves His hatred of sin unmitigated!
A question is put:
CAN you say to anyone you meet among the children of men, GOD LOVES YOU!
The conclusion after consideration of all the elements in foreknowledge-predestination-eventuation is summed up as follows.
Yes, you can say to a person, GOD LOVES YOU (for God SO loved the world, and came not that it be condemned but saved, and one is in the world). This is the generic. Love hopes all things, and this is the basic and underlying background.
But whether this love is the end of the matter, or the love is short-circuited becomes a personal question. When the person in view proceeds long enough and far enough into consolidated individual disbelief, what might be called "disfaith", then in the faith-free end, love may be successfully diverted, and the one involved enters the ranks of discard, all hope of love and reconstruction voided by rejection. Since the divine mercy is passionately seeking (Luke 15), then the rearguard action to divert it, leaves merely this:
"They have no excuse for their sin."
From May 2013, Ch. 7, of Logos Uncreated, Incorruptible, Inestimable
This Chapter is entitled:
THE RELIGION OF RESPECT,
THE COVENANT OF GLORY,
THE WORSHIP OF GOD,
THE MASTERY IN ANY MATTER OF THE MESSIAH, JESUS CHRIST:
INFORMATION,
GRADATION, INTERVENTION, OBLITERATION AND JUDGMENT
It specialises on the topics noted in the title, especially on the divine provision for the spread of the Gospel, and the indications in the Bible of the expansibility of His love, in the midst of real freedom, that He as Creator, in His foreknowledge ensures. He does not dismiss liberty; for love (and God is love, I John 4:7-10, so that nothing contrary in ultimate kind has being within Him), does not dismiss an essence of His creation in rescuing it; but rather He keeps the essence of liberty for man by His own wisdom, in its integrity. As wounded as man is, God is wiser than man's wound is deep, and has provided from the start for the reality of the recovery offered.
This Chapter deals at some length with I Peter 3 and Greek terms which become relevant. God's word is shown to be applicable and extensive, but not subject to laceration: His word will stand. His sacrificial anguish was optional, a work of love, and triumphant, both in spirit and in body: but as in the resurrection, so in the text, His words stands in perfect harmony with itself, disharmony with sin and outstanding provision for it. God has left nothing out.
From May 2013, Ch. 3, of Progress, Regress, Emphasis and Perfection.
Here Ezekiel 17 and 28 are used to illustrate the divine detestation of pride, uplift, glory-seeking, whether as there, in nations of that day, or in application in those of our own, or other groupings, whose terminal velocity is increasingly apparent. Nor are individuals excluded as a category as Nebuchadnezzar learnt!
The concept of a cause, in things personal or impersonal, is highlighted, differences noted and what is common in both, considered. The rigour of causality is not lost in spiritual things - thus, the curse causeless does not come as Proverbs declares. Nor is the blessing. The jivine sensitivity and love, mercy and consistent oversight is focussed as revealed, and applied as needed so that there be no confusion of biblical doctrines, ever clear in themselves, but often kidnapped and without being changed in themselves, yet subjected to unhappy clangour. We need to return as always, precisely to what is stated whether on this or that point, and keep to it. It is then that the inherent splendour declares itself from the written word of God, the Bible.
Here is an emphasis on, and overview of the fact that there is no resolution of the tensions between freewill and sovereignty, freedom and determinism, responsibility, duty and fulfilment, except that found in the Bible. It is on its basis only, that all he ingredients of truth function together. The verificatory aspect of the find which puts an end to the twirlings of needless philosophic confusion in the simple clarity of the Bible, is also focussed.
The first contribution to this Chapter is found in Progress, Regress, Emphasis and Perfection Ch. 4.
The second contribution is found in Messiah, Jesus Christ Ch. 10, which gives a short and pithy overview of limits, law, love, liberty and lostness in this thematic setting.
The third and fourth contributions
are found in Not only is God Great, but Glorious Chs.
1 and 6.
The first deals with such topics as the biblical relationship of the divine love
and missions; and the second with an overview of the love of God, foreknowledge,
ostensible options and the total adequacy, unique and beautiful in hallowed
profundity, of the truth as in the Bible alone, of all set forth in the name of
God as speaker. Indeed, the Bible alone deals on all points of the realities
before man, in harmony, exhaustiveness and invulnerability of thought, pattern
and procedure to informed critique! It covers all sides. While this point is
often made, it is here given a special attention.
Here is a distinct project to essentialise certain crucial elements in freedom, relating to love and foreknowledge and predestination, in a uniquely harmonious, chronic problem-solving capacity, relative to the thoughts of this world. It is found in the Bible, alone, and of necessity, this alone does and could solve the problems philosophy finds, as is pointed out.
Why Not Believe ? Appendix is the site concerned. September 2013.
Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs Volume 3, Chapter 4.
In this third volume of this current series, there is engagement to essentialise, to provide a brief word on predestination and its fellow, divine foreknowledge. in terms of this, Thus, short additions are made in Chapters 11 and 13, on pre-conditions of freedom and the thought-action relationship in foreknowledge and freewill, as in foreknowledge and history, answering the query, If it is all foreknown, why do it! Is history necessary ?
In the fourth volume of the series, at Ch. 11,
there is the Chapter, Nutshell Predestination and Foreknowledge, in tune with the endeavour to have more digest size articles, and the pleasantness of a short overview. In this case, the immense work of sovereignty of the God who works all things after the counsel of His own will, of what He purposes within Himself (Ephesians 1), is presented with a list to emphasise its breadth, while the respect for the image of God He has made in the case of man, and the marvel of His love with practical application is shown in biblical balance. Nothing compromises anything else, God having found a way to cover all in the beauty of holiness and the sacrifices of love.
Not only is this so, but from the biblical perspective, including every revelation in it on the topic, we find cause for various superficial clashes of one person with another, as experience can vary in terms of different aspects of the plan of salvation, which may come into the mind of the unsaved soul, during the process of his or her conversion. It is not however experience, though this is accounted for in principle, but the word of God which alone amid all philosophy and thought, resolves every issue of thought and does so in complete harmony, each principle with the other, and all with the revelation of the very nature of God in the Bible.
March 2014
Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs ... Volume 5, Ch. 9 and Ch. 9 Appendix provide a review and extension in some aspects, dealing with the matter of religion and rationality, problem and resolution in areas including predestination and freewill, but by no means limited to it. It provides a relatively short, sharp coverage in a setting which should prove both stimulating to the mind and refreshing to the soul.
May 2014
Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs ... Volume 6, Ch. 10 pursues precisely the nature of human will in the light of the majesty and grandeur of God, the only One who by His nature could provide reality to freedom and basis of liberty, beyond the factitious and the merely nominal, to man; and the nature of its operation and relevance.
July 2014
Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs ... Volume 8, Ch. 7
This reviews the nature of the divine will in view of such texts as John 3, and the prevention of obfuscatory confusions in its allusions.
October 2014
Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs ... Volume 9, Ch. 1
Survey of the chasm between Isaiah 39 and 40, the sequence thereafter and similar sequences before; the testimony of careful biblical definition, phraseology and syntax concerning meaning; the double entry to the one Gospel, and the historical divine diversity in reaching the ultimate unity in the Messiah. The testimony of truth through Isaiah is indeed wonderful, deep, challenging, and yet, has light like the sheer splendour of the sun in its strength. One must follow the light rather than glare at it.
Then we move to comparison of commands for creation and to creation. We find that God even in His foreknowledge and self-control, had made provisions for history to come, without which He would not have engaged it at all!
Op. cit. Ch. 6.
In this work, the realities of creation as distinct from the obfuscatory confusions of naturalism are faced, and compared with the equally clear dynamic, divine deposition of doctrine in the Bible, so that creation and predestination are seen together, both the work and the Performer of them, precise in both cases, the one BY command and the other WITH it, to mankind.
October 2014
Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs ... Volume 9, Ch. 1
December 2014
Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs ... Volume 10, Ch. 7
This Chapter is exceedingly extensive in its cover of divine mercy in heart, history and holiness, as in its concentration on the love of God in its depth and action, and shines the light of the word of God into various features with particular foci of fascinating and stirring kind. It is indeed a REVIEW Chapter. The spectacular sovereignty of God and liberty granted to man are seen in their relationship, neither aborted, both uniquely defined in the Bible, itself the source of every comprehensive resolution of man's confused ramblings amid antithesis, antinomy and question begging, and theological harrumphing noisily blotting out the full scope of the word of God. As it is written, so it meets the case in full: rational, realistic, divinely divulged, effective. In its perspective as always is found the word that counts, the case that covers and the wisdom that endures.
April 16, 2015
Department of Bible and Spiritual Affairs Vol. 11, Ch. 8
July, 2015
Ramifications,
realisations, restorations and clarifications
Department of Bible and
Spiritual Affairs Vol. 11, Ch. 8
HYPOTHESIS, HYPOSTASIS AND FACT
The Fabric of
Foreknowledge, The Fathering of Freedom and
The Reality of Love.
November, 2015
Mercy Outdistances Judgment
Ch. 2, Love, Liberty and the Lord
Ch. 3, Realism, Reality and Regality
Ch. 4 also is relevant in a broader setting.
Ch. 12 Apologetic conspectus and freedom
Ch. 15 Thy Word is Truth!
July, 2016
Clarifications
This includes the following.
June 6, 2016
Secession from Supposition
To envisage may be good for a preliminary
purpose, but the word of God
stands distinct and distinctive past all supposition. It is not supposed to be
written,
but it is written, just as is bodily DNA; but this time the language used
involves direction not for the
all but incredibly complex body, with its characteristic knowledgeable
systematics,
in an engineering placement. Rather this book covers another human need.
It is one thing to show competence
to construct even in a form available for inspection, the body;
but it is another to show wisdom
for meeting the needs for human understanding, character and abundance in life,
and to bring to light the opposing directions available.
Indeed, the missionary motivation of men sent to preach is far from aborted by the security of the word of God in foreknowledge where He knows His own without deception or misconception but in truth, neither shanghaiing them nor forcing, but finding with drawing beyond all human limitation. It has more beauty in its basis, more wonder in its mode. That is the divine way with the Bible.
THIS book is written for direction to the mind
and heart and spirit of man.
We here consider what it says to man, at a crucial level, replete with energetic
and practical love, on the part of God, and call to being enthralled on
the part of man.
Secession from Supposition
Grand is the mystery of godliness, but this is no mystery for bewilderment, rather one of the sheer grandeur of the love, grace and practicalities of God, His predestinative feat, His providential action and His creation of freedom for man in crucial respects. The reception of the cancellation of debt by man being no grand act, is rather at this level, the divine provision for it! Preference is not merely a simple negative, and a neat affirmative, like a switch, NOT for God, or else YES for Him, but ultimately it involves a surrender of human quasi-sovereignty on a scale that shuts out the appeals of what is not desired. Receiving the results of His cross and taking up your own, to follow Him is no mere ticket taking, but involves a transformation so utter and entire as marks out preference like writing in the skies, or attests it like the troubled movements of the deep.
Luke 14 and Jeremiah 31 are examined under this heading:
A TRIP TO JEREMIAH 31:17-20
with Luke 14:31-33Taking things as they come
and receiving the Lord as He comes,
in surrender (Luke 14).
The depth of the realities involved in the conversion to Himself, of man in God's image, contorted, defiled but not defunct, are surveyed with wonder in terms of these and other texts, to make lapses in understanding from the entirety of God's word on the topic seem what they are: truncations. God is very deep, and His word is most reliable. Reductionism to fit theologies is neither necessary nor pleasant nor accurate: repentance is both real and revealing in the human transition from spiritual tramp to saint triumphant, as comes at last, founded on better things than fiat, though not less.
This phase of study below, could be named:
Some Summaries from the Bible, concerning Truth and Misled Philosophy
in the Predestinative Field, Displaying the Divine Majesty and Wonder,
Persistence and Profundity. It contains over 30 largely mini-type presentations
in this category, much in the area of particular development or
refinement,largelly in the Bulletin format.
MARVELLOUS MATTER
OF PREDESTINATIVE PERSPECTIVES
Believe God and you will never be ashamed,
but do not parade contrary preference
which falls before the Word of God.
Be more than suspicious of the
suppositious
when it fails.
Flitting and Faith,
Love and Secondary Motives
God as Guileless and Loving Selector
Culture and Confusion, Cowering and Confronting,
Truth and Liberty,
Buying but not Selling Truth
"I will love them freely," Hosea 14 and its biblical impact.
The First Eleven
Short,
Significant Summary
of Major
Aspects of
Predestination and Freewill
Many
Phases and Features
in the Governance of God:
Freedom and Faith, Love and Mercy,
History and Destiny
Predestination, Selection and Volition
Election, Selection and the
Ways, Works and Will of God
This has some of the essence of the matter rather briefly.
Bulletin One Hundred and Eight
FOREKNOWLEDGE AND
PREDESTINATION
WHERE BREVITY COUNTS
Aspects of the Glory of the God of All Grace
This is an extensive and very wide-ranging chapter of many parts, and a convenient place to open or extend the knowledge of these things, and the solution the Bible presents to what human philosophy has failed to resolve. Praise God that it is His word which accomplishes this feat!
Bulletin One Hundred and Twelve
LOVE, PREDESTINATION AND THE LOST
The Look of Divine Love
Bulletin One Hundred and Fifteen
The Spectacular Tenderness of the Love
of the Sovereign God to Man (corollary from Bulletin 108)
Bulletin One Hundred and Sixteen
Comparison of biblical depiction in the
field of predestination and freewill
with the parallel of natural phenomena, and the embrace of the latter
by the former.
Bulletin One Hundred and Eighteen
THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION
A HURTFUL HERESY
GIVEN HOLLOW HEGEMONY
Bulletin One Hundred and
Twenty One
The God of all and His creation of all
A mini-treatment of a major matter
WHY WAS IT NECESSARY TO MAKE NOT ONLY PEOPLE
WHO WOULD CHOOSE TO FOLLOW GOD
BUT THOSE WHO THOSE WHO
WOULD NOT ?
WHY NOT MAKE ONLY THOSE WHO WOULD BE DISPOSED TOWARD HIM ?
Bulletin One Hundred and Twenty Three
REASON, REDEMPTION
AND
THE CONTINUATION OF THE HUMAN RACE TO THIS POINT
Bulletin One Hundred and Thirty Five
The
Fearsome Aspect of Divine Law
and the Marvellous Forethought of God
Bulletin One Hundred and Thirty Six
JOHN 3:16
Avoiding the
short-circuit of divine love
that is part of the magnificence of the Gospel
July 2019: Predestination and Freewill, The unique success of the biblical model.
August 1, 2019: The Catechetical Approach to the Sovereignty of God and the Freedom of Man
Bulletin One Hundred and Forty Six
Predestination and Freewill: the Unique Success of the Biblical Model
Bulletin One Hundred and Fifty Two
The
Reality of Reception - I Corinthians 4:7
Bulletin One Hundred and Fifty Six
Review of
Alfred Whitehead in field of God
and Will
It was hoped to include this in the M.A. but in size it was already several times
the
norm!
For ease of access, it is included here.
Bulletin One Hundred and Sixty One
IN
THE BIBLE, SOVEREIGNTY AND LIBERTY
ARE
MIXED WITHOUT COLLISION
Bulletin One Hundred and Sixty Four
NOT GOD
BUT MAN IS RESPONSIBLE NOT ONLY FOR SIN
BUT FOR THE FREQUENT REJECTION OF THE GOSPEL
(Isaiah 48:15ff., Matthew 23:37ff., Luke 1942ff.)
Biblical TRUTH OMITS NOTHING
More recently added are the Bulletins:
Repentance, Realisation and Reality
The Beauty and Reality of Divine Love
Predestination and Freewill in short order
THE
PURITY AND REALITY
OF THE LOVE OF THE TRIUNE GOD
Consequential
Freedoms