MARVELS OF PREDESTINATION AND

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THE WAYS OF WILL

A Companion Volume for

Predestination and Freewill (1964)

For all three volumes,
now in 2004 five, forming a Predestination Quintet,

see Search

Rev. Dr. Robert E. Donaldson

Published by World Wide Web Witness Inc.

March 2003

ISBN

0-9750303-7-X

2^nd Edition

July 2004

ISBN

0 9752175 7 7

PREFACE -EXORDIUM

Since the writing of Predestination and Freewill, in 1964, many other presentations on this and allied topics have been forthcoming in various parts of the volumes making up "In Praise of Christ Jesus," and these the author now desires to arrange somewhat, taking from one chapter, another section of a chapter, arranging them in a sequence of topics, with what seems best in terms of some connective tissues of words for these various organs, while providing some slight revision, some amplification, some addition to present an easily accessible and select group of additional writings.

It is arranged in logical sequence in terms of its topic, with the sole validity of biblical predestinative perspective attested, its coherence, cohesion, non-reductionist treatment of all species of human data, and the conspectus of life; and its application in certain fields. Here its rightness sings in the silence of the dead philosphies which jangle futilely in the cultural palaces of this secular world.

	Just as biblical predestination solves without residue one of the most vexing world problems in philosophy, which is scarcely surprising since the Lord is the author of this world and those in it, and it is only in terms which justly show this and which adhere to His own specifications that one can expect such resolution and harmony, such non-reductionist certainties and felicities:
	so biblical doctrine and perspective from the word of God, the Bible, in its peace and profundity, solve other problems of this chronic character in their pestiferous pulsations, as shown summarily in SMR Ch. 5.

	Again, just as this predestinative doctrine of the word of God also provides one mainland terrain, if you will, where one justly escapes the insularities of swerving this way and that from biblical doctrine, as this philosophic posture or that seeks to ally itself with it and thus tends to allay its superb orientation by admixture and synthesis, in the end moving towards various syncretisms:
	so this is itself but one of the similar situations. These are traced in Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 2.

Whether, then, the secular or the religious adventurism be in view, there is one resolution, one source and one resolution for them all, taken one by one, or in principle with their precepts.

Let us now consider the latter case.

One biblical mainland covers the coasts of the islands with one integral integrity: no phrase of redundancy, this attests the need for fidelity to the text of God's word and the cohesion of doctrine and concepts which results on all sides when this is done. In this way, the far-flung extremes which have for long sought to inflict themselves, sometimes indeed resulting from considerable provocation in the first place, on the biblical teaching, are shown met not with intemperance and reaction, but the word written in the Bible. To this all must return.

When this is done, it is little short of amazing how often its teaching is found to come not in the middle of the extremes, for this is no mere arithmetic exercise: but without their distant departures, in their midst. They fled like hounds at the sight of rabbits. They must come back to the word of God. Some went this way, some that; some were aroused by the errors of others; but there is only one place for return: to the word of the master, and that, it is the biblical text. The surprise at finding such all but uniform trend to go one way, on the one hand, and something like the opposite, on the other, thus making conflict assured, is after all, merely one further attestation of the word of God. You come back not to nothing, not to something new, but to what was the origin, the source.

This as always in all reason must now be taken as the only authoritative written resource, as before: the Bible. It does not alter: man's vagaries, give it no mutation, and himself no alternative.

When people with religious bent and some biblical background flee or rush this or that way, they disperse, about a central point. Some go further this way than others that way; but all come back only to one place: what is written. This serves both to explain their declivities, sometimes justly aroused by other declivities, and to attest that reality which is the central and certain teaching that lasts, outlasts and works.

When they move in mere philosophic adventurism, mouthing nullities and bespeaking the factually denied, embracing nothings as if old friends and calling on the powers of nature which ignores such babble as if it were disdainful, but in fact merely does what it was constructed to do, and that, it does not include the role of architect of its own being: they return to the land in another sense, perhaps. As crashes from the skies of merely metaphysical ramblings, without ground, with even possibility of truth (cf. SMR Ch. 3), they reach the mainland in another way.

Neither the islands of vacation from the word of God nor the skies of surveyal without His vision provide escape, solution or help. One Lord with one declaration to mankind continues alone viable for life; and the other option is merely death delayed in various drab colours, sometimes fashioned in psychedlic extravaganzas, till the Night Club of Illusion breaks under the weight of its own provocations.

Praise the Lord for His word, that anodyne to the futilities of arrant philosophy (as Paul shows it to be in its own wisdom in I Corinthians 1 and Colossians 8), as to the action-reaction complexes of misled ecclesiastical practice as it so often develops to become. Here is the resource of reason, which meets that created light in man with the uncreated light of God who has given us His own word, the Bible, for our instruction in truth and peace of heart; and here is the answer to this world's perplexities.

In the Reformation, man had to come back to it, and the follies which were wrongly wrought even in Christ's name as well as without it, were immense, the suffering most grievous, and the Inquisition was but one of these follies, the subduing passion of Islam another, just as the various secular imaginations of power and deceit in Statecraft, constitute a third (cf. News 122).

When man returns to the word of God, however, it is not however to pet theories about the Bible, that one must come, but to what it actually says.

Was it not Christ Jesus Himself who declared this:

	"For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men..." and again,
	"Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have delivered..."

That tradition of flesh, whether pseudo-ecclesiastical as in the direct target of Christ's censure, or secular with its own broken idols in its fallen midst, is man's Babel, as well as his babble. Some is pretentious, some directly delusive. And when it is done, man suffers, as in recent years, not least with the ludicrous passion of the Darwinists, that became so obviously racial in application as some thought they would have the pre-eminence, in this absurd pretension of a naturalism never with evidence, contrary to all evidence and all the major scientific laws!

Some fashioned themselves on survival with panache, as with Hitler, filled with fittest mythology; some on embracement with cohesion of the race, ex-class conflict while creating the greatest class abuse of all time in Communism. The two were opposing extremes with a central heart in secular naturalism, delused, delusive to many, and now dethroned in their intimate intimacies a Nature which neither claps its hands when one 'class' replaces another, in rebellious mouthings of the modern highwayman, nor when one race seeks to show its pre-eminence, which is far from this, when it reposes itself upon itself, and forgets the birthplace of all races and races.

What then, let the Slav or the Aryan show its pre-eminence and get on with the serious business of evolving... or the masses become a dictator to whom dictation is given on a scale almost unique in history... But what is the result ? Superb super-men ? Scarcely, but devil-deluded humanistic devices debasing man and persecuting him to the grave in writhing millions.

What comes ? War and pain and depravity and deprivation and the subordination of man to man; and to whom is he subordinated ? It is to what is less than bestial, what, in accord the spiritual pith of man, rather resembles the devilish. Man abandoning normal restraints even of the dimmest kind with his own kind, breathing fire and inflamed with futilities, has dismembered man, but found nothing super-mannish in the process. He merely submerged into his own proud midst, and dies in the dust; and where he is not yet so immolated, he is mortified with the follies (usually of others), while some new variant thing of some old theme pursues its new arrant passion, whether this be internationalism, humanism or some other broken idol of pretence (cf. Aviary of Idolatry); for man is no better is the aggregate when the foundation is not built; and founded on himself, he is merely living a lie.

It is not man who made man, nor yet nature, which writes no books, but is written (TMR Ch.1). Even large churches have gone astray, sucked into the moral and logical vacuum of such vacuousness, tediously trying to manipulate their heritage into the new look.

Like gliders soaring on hot air currents, man in his philosophic craft has been wandering, now with religious colour patches on the wings, now with mere straight aluminium, and aloft it gets cold so that in the frigidities and rigours of his ascension, a mere mockery without foundation, he surveys the scene imagining that technology gives wisdom, or that philosophic currents provide truth, that existence within the system donates royal rule over it, that being an inventive and cogitative being, he has neither source nor recourse, that all is his, and that the non-sovereignty of his often devilish past in its clouds and shrouds, is a prelude to the wonders of his future.

Even when the fultility is evident, as in Milton's Paradise Lost, he seems to chant like some mantra, Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven!

But alas for the elevated thoughts of his gliding ascent, there is no rule in hell, for it is mere judgment where the follies of the past making companions out of those of the present, present their fatal emptiness in the absence of light (cf. Ezekiel 32:16ff.). Not their preference, it simply becomes their environment, as for cockroaches which scuttle from events. Man's outreaches do not after all control what they see, and they return to earth, after the excursions, if anything, colder than when they left (cf. News 152). Nature does not agree with its subordination to this flesh (cf. TMR Chs. 1, 8, A Spiritual Potpourri Chs. 1-9, Wake Up World! Your Creator is Coming ... Ch. 5, Spiritual Refreshings Ch. 13); and it is non-co-operative with regal illusion on the part of parts of our race (cf. SMR pp.140ff., TMR Ch. 8), which seeking to control its thought, bring many to that delusion which destroys with them.

After a generation, yes 3 generations illustrating the supreme and superb truth of the word of prophecy, in the falling away of many former bastions of church power (as in II Thessalonians 2, foretold), together with the multitudinous arousing and arising of various sects* wresting the word of God with manifest error to their own downfall, it is beautiful to see the still, small voice that is divine, these millenia teaching us its biblical truth, in that sole authorised, written declaration of God to mankind, requiring attention. The shouting of various extremes does not drown it, for it persists in the quiet of the night, and is constant in the writhings and sores of mankind, as it deludes itself in the folly of idolatries both secular and religious, and moves in its hopes to some amalgam, with the dangerous mercury content so difficult for dentists facing the errors of the past in this day.

No amalgam of the word of God works, even when errors occur in too rapid reaction to other errors, as is so common. That is one of its multiplied and constantly attested marvels: mistreat it and you suffer for it. It is just the same if you misuse your wrist, and sprain or strain it. It must be used justly!

The church of Jesus Christ, meanwhile, continues as at the first, persecuted, despised, but contributing massively to the peace and beauty that remains in this world, alone showing that way which is not a submergence of church in the state, or the philosophy of the times (as in some of the failing churches shown in Revelation 2-3 - though emphatically NOT ALL were such!), but in the word of God, dynamised by the Spirit of God, receptive of divine love and impelled to disperse it to man, where he will receive it, operating alone in the name of Jesus Christ, who has given His Church His own mandate, until He comes.

Hate does not help where life still abides; and its proper application for man is in the detestation not only of biological and medical woes as they form the predicted plagues, now AIDS, now SARS (cf. Matthew 24:7 in its environmental setting - SMR Ch. 8), but of those that being spiritual, have far worse application, and need far greater avoidance.

That word of God, the Bible, continues its ineffaceable testimony, its ineradicable truth and its summary execution of folly on the block of reality, efficacy and empirical actuality, reinforced with absolute solution of all problems and the declaration of the vacuous pretension of the alternative which imagines but never provides (cf. Spiritual Refreshings ... Ch. 16, Repent or Perish Ch. 7, SMR Chs. 1, 3, 5, and 10). It not only solves the chronic torments of philosophy in all fields, but exposes with judicious splendour, the errors of man, tracing the prognosis which now transpires with delicious ease (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5), and verifiable accuracy not years, not decades, not centuries, but millenia beforehand.

Meanwhile, let us return to our current vital subject, in terms of the marvels of PREDESTINATION and the WAYS of WILL. The hyperlinks on our Home Web Page at http://webwitness.org.au/indexes.html will continue to provide the INDEXES which enable a broad access not only to nearly all that is included here, but more also. This new volume, however, is selected and arranged, to enable readier thought access and greater cohesion and comprehension, with some extension in the midst of the wonders of this engaging and inspiring field. .

There is a first chapter also, which will usefully introduce some of the emphases for the reader.

· Other References available in 2003

· on this Site to Predestination and Freewill, Responsibility, Foreknowledge and allied subjects.

These are to be found, esp. as indexed or indicated

a) under various headings both in the SMR index, and the Index for the 56 volumes of
'The Rest' (in 2004 now 85). Relevant Index items include:

Freedom, Predestination, Foreknowledge, Determinism,

b) in The Shadow of a Mighty Rock

i) at the start of Ch. 8,
ii) on pp. 424-431, 421-424, and
iii) Ch.2, pp. S1-S34, and in
iv) Appendix B in that work ;

but also in conjunction with

c) That Magnificent Rock, Ch.7.

For further, see
d) Tender Times for Timely Truths (May 2000),

i) Ch. 2, esp. the Excursion *1 (touches on Calvin), and as marked

ii) Ch. 11,

e) Cascade of Truth, Torrent of Mercy Ch. 9 (includes reference to Calvin), 2, 7

f) The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 4#
g) Spiritual Refreshings for the Digital Millenium Chs. 9, 10, 12,
h) Repent or Perish 1 esp. *1 , 2, 5
i) News, Facts and Forecasts Ch. 4, and
j) The Power of Christ's Resurrection ... Chs. 1, 7
k) Great Execrations ... Ch. 9
l) Repent or Perish Chs. 1, 2 , 5
m) Licence for Liberty Ch. 7
n) Red Alert Ch. 1, Ancient Words, Modern Deeds Ch. 1, 10 -11
o) Light of Dawn Ch. 1
p) Sparkling Life in Christ Ch. 7

* For this phenomenon, see Index, but also Things Old and New Chs. 9, 10, Epilogue and Appendix. For more on apostasy, see index as above (this time at unity), World Council of Churches, together with such items as News 121, 122, and the many references therein.

THIS PRESENT VOLUME

By presenting this selection, sometimes a whole chapter with interpretation and application, sometimes a part or on occasion, a small part, sometimes with a substantial review or addition, it is hoped that the reader may find the stimulus of continuity, instead of a spread series of works, the convenience of proximity and the additional application of some of these topics, precisely to the area and arena of predestination and the wonders of will.

Further, application will be made or provided more fully. Thus, this will complement as well as compile.

In addition, the examples of work on these topics listed above with the relevant hyperlinks are to enable easier access to yet more material, while the contents for both SMR and The Rest, give yet broader references.

Simply for convenience, the original volume’s index is also added below, after the contents list for the present volume, which now follows.

CONTENTS

Marvels of Predestination, and the Ways of Will

PART I

· 1 Initial Review

· 2 The Necessity of Biblical Truth on Predestination and Freewill

· 3. The Conspectus

· 4. Love and Predestination

· 5. Liberty and Predestination

· 6. Languishing Horrors of Excess
(to which is now added Thy Word is Wonderful Ch. 3)

· 7. The Love of God in its Integrity

§ 8. Applications of Predestination:

Clones and Capering about with Chance

Moans and Capering with Works

In terms of the abbreviations commonly used in references as codified on our Web page (for example as shown in the listings below), use this hyperlink.

This work includes the FOLLOWING REFERENCES,

sometimes slightly amended, together with various additions:

PART I

¨    Ch. 2 above includes references to TTT 11, ESCC 6, SS 7, SMR 5;

¨    Ch. 3 to AAA 8, PREFS 7;

¨    Ch. 4 to SMR Appendix B, KH 4, GREGRACE 7;

¨    Ch. 5 to LITTLE 5;

¨    Ch. 6 to PREFS 1, *2, , PFS 2, briefly from CASCADE 9, TTT 2,

¨    Ch. 7 to REF 9

¨    Ch. 8 to AWME 1, AWME 13;

¨    Ch. 9 to AMWE 10 and

¨    Ch. 10 to CASCADE 9, GREG 9.

PART II

The First is from CASCADE 2

The Second is based on News 112 (NFF 4)

The Third is from SMR Ch. 4

The Fourth is from KH Ch. 4

The Fifth is from SMST Ch. 2 and ROP 1

The Sixth is from ANZAS Ch. 6 and INOVER Ch. 9

Sometimes new work may form a substantial component in these references.

This concludes the Index
for this second member of the

SERIES

MARVELS OF PREDESTINATION

AND THE WAYS OF WILL

Namely the

QUINTET ON
PREDESTINATION,
FREEDOM, WILL and RESPONSIBILITY

For the third member of that QUINTET, see

The Heavens are Telling ... The Beautiful Face of Biblical Predestination, and click here.

For the fourth member, use the hyperlink below -

The Glow of Predestinative Power

AND THE SHOW OF

AUTONOMOUS ANTICS
PHILOSOPHIC PRANCING
AND RENEGADE ROMANCING

For the fifth member, follow this link

The Love of Grace and the Grace of Love

Index for the First Work in this Predestination and will trilogy, of 1964:
see in detail, the section immediately below.

PREDESTINATION AND FREEWILL

CONTENTS

SCHEMA

There are three Sections, dealing respectively with the Fundamentals, the Development and the Resolution, together with an Appendix on Immanuel Kant, his salient errors and his inadvertent stimulus in this field. Procedurally, the stress in the analysis moves from freedom to predestination.

SECTION I .. .. THE PROBLEM IN VIEW 1-38

A. THE FREEDOM OF MAN - PROSPECT 1-9

B. THE FREEDOM OF GOD 9-13

C. THE FREEDOM OF MAN - IN RETROSPECT 14-38

Part 1 Its Origin. 14-19

Part 11 Its Condition. 19-24

Part 111 Its Quality in Conversion and

Correlation with Predestination. 24-34

Endnotes for Section I 34-38

SECTION II.. .THE PROBLEM IN HISTORY 39-113

A. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 39-42

1. The Basis of Enquiry 39-40

2. Procedure in Perspective 41-42

B. A CONCEPTUAL JOURNEY 42-113

Part I.

AN AFRICAN PANORAMA OF PREDESTINATION AND ITS PROVINCES: AUGUSTINE THE SAGE 42-69

I. THE CENTRAL SCENE: PREDESTINATION, FREEDOM AND GRACE 42-64

1. Initial Survey. 42-46

2. The Hope of Harmony. 46

3. The Exigencies of Extremes. 46-52

4. The Diversity of Tendencies. 52-57

5. A Textual Consideration. 57-60

6. Dynamic Equilibrium in the Confessions. 60-62

7. Analysis of Development. 62-64

II. SOME SURROUNDING SLOPES IN THE REGIONS 65-69
OF RELEVANT THOUGHT IN AUGUSTINE

1. Perspective Perceptible in the Distribution of Evil in the Universe. 65-66

2. Foreknowledge. 66-68

3. Time. 68-69

Part II. ELECT VISTAS IN ENGLAND AND EUROPE 69-105

1. Boethius The Man of Sensibility. 70-74

2. Spurgeon The Moderate. 74-78

3. Luther The Zestfully Decisive. 79-80

a. A Place for Free Will? 80-83

b. The Nature of Free Will. 83-84

c. General Criticism in the Area of Our Purpose. 84-87

d. Evil and Necessity. 87-88

e. Necessity and Predestination: Truth and Revelation. 88-91

4. Calvin The Systematiser. 92-93

a. De Mysterio. 93-94

b. The Sovereign of Sovereignty. 94-95

c. The Son of the Sovereign. 96-100

5. A Word from Wesley. 100-104

Conclusion of Section II 104-105

Endnotes for Section II: 105-113

SECTION III .. SOLUTION 114-206

A. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

1 Terminology. 114-115

11 Ultimate Recourse. 115

111 The Propositions. 115-121

B. SUBSTANCE 121-206

Part I. PREDESTINATION ITSELF 121-140

1. Father and Son. 121-129

i) In Se. 121-124

ii) The Measure of Man. 124-125

iii) An Ontological Point. 125-129

2. Sovereignty without Tyranny. 129-135

3. Sovereignty without Frustration. 135-138

4. A Creative Analogy. 138-140

Part II. FOREKNOWLEDGE 141-153

1. Introductory Considerations. 141-142

2. In Se. 142-144

3. The Necessity and Prescient Relevance of 145-148

Revelation.

i) Necessity. 145-147

ii) Relevance. 147-148

The Sincerity and Selectivity of Sovereign Foreknowledge. 148-153

Part III. THE-WILL-IN-SIN. 153-182

1. General Perspective. 154-160

2. CrossElection. 160-169

3. History and Hypostasis. 169-171

4. Review. 171-173

5. Freedom. 173-179

6. The Special Problem of Ignorance. 179-182

Part IV. SYSTEM AND THE WORLD AS IT IS 182-189

Part V. ULTIMATE JUSTIFICATION 189-191

Endnotes for Section III 191-206

APPENDIX ON KANT 207-249

Immanuel Kant - A Benignant Obstacle 207-209

1. Etiological Considerations in the Conception of Kant's Kingdom

The First Inconsistency .. The Moral 209-219

2. Informal Irruptions

The Second Inconsistency .. The Experimental 219-222

3.The Unity of Causality Conceived and (Directly) Created 222-225

The Third Inconsistency .. The Ultra-Systematic

The Fourth Inconsistency .. The Rational

4. The Extradition of Noumena

The Fifth Inconsistency .. The ExtraSystematic. 225-226

5. Nonentity of Noumena Objectively

The Sixth Inconsistency .. The A-Systematic 226-228

6. The Inadequate Antinomy 228-237

7. Service by Indirection 237-238

8. The Grace of Perspective 238-243

Endnotes for Kant Appendix 243-249

BIBLIOGRAPHY 250-254