In a recent thread here its been argued by a certain blogger and ACNA aspirant that the sovereignty/free will issue has suddenly been solved by him (finally, after 2,000 years!) via something he has discerned in Gal.3:8;14. His argument: Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed” … so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:8 and 14 ESV) These verses solve the sovereignty/free will dilemma. The last reference to faith above is not mere faith but is modified in the original Greek by the definite article. It should read, “so that we might receive the promised Spirit through the Faith.” The Faith of Jesus Christ was foreseen. All election and pre-destination passages in Paul, including security verses, refer to the broad strokes of salvation history (Peter first and then Paul preaching to Gentiles) in which God changed his religion from Judaism to Christianity, replacing the old covenant with a new one in Jesus’ blood. Verses that seem to teach special election or double pre-destination do not refer to individuals. Each of us must choose to become and live as a Christian of our own free will and out of rational, healthy self-interest. Of course, this is consistent neither with texts establishing that God does elect individuals to salvation, such as Romans 9-11, or with Article XVII which is founded upon such biblical data: XVII. Of Predestination and Election. Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to Gods purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through Grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by Gods mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity. As the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God. . . . Our blogger seizes upon the Galatians text and breathlessly declares that he has found proof of what exactly God foresaw (pre-destined and pre-ordained) for our salvation (and it aint individuals), whereupon a exchange has ensued between him and a commenter about whether or not God knows the future. As our blogger/ACNA aspirant is an open theist in addition to a Pelagian, he denies that God can know future acts of humans. His interlocutor, upholding the orthodox view, argues that God can know them. From the standpoint of biblical teaching and classical Christian theology, she is correct and he is in grave error. Whats more, predestination and foreknowledge are simply two sides of the same decretal coin, and what God has predestined is much more than just our ultimate Christlikeness, as this exegetical study shows. (The author also takes up the argument of our aspirant/blogger that God cannot know future events.): biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/ref-rev/12-2/12-2_lescelius.pdf
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 05:29:15 +0000
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