9431 | Forums / Theology Forum / Freedom Of The Will Jonathan Edwards | on: March 11, 2006, 04:20:54 PM |
Quote
God can not not be absolute in His knowlege or He would not be God.
Is our enslavement to it absolute or is it due to ignorance?This is the big problem with much of what passes for theology. If God is not X then he is not God. (!) It leads people to bad theology. It's fine and in some cases useful to say that God has absolute knowledge but that really doesn't say much. Knowledge is bound and conditioned. Even "Absolute" knowledge. Knowledge and the very concept of Absolute is our limitation and designation. Not God's. If you trace every step back to when you were born and you lined them up in a long line when did you ever choose something that you did not desire This is very similar to the 2nd Noble Truth in Buddhism which the Buddha preached around 400 BC. And it's on the money actually. But to leave it at that is incomplete. The word desire is actually a limitation. What motivations and impulses does the word desire include and leave out? And what is it we desire for? This has probably been speled out in your Edwards material but as you know I have not read it. Is our enslavement to it absolute or is it due to ignorance? Scripture does appear to suggest, and Calvinism states outright, that we are utterly incapable of altruism, goodness, selflessness and virtue. The main basis for this being the authority of scripture and its message that Gods Holiness is so infinite that even our best moments are turds. I would suggest that while it serves a purpose to take this at face value up to a point, that we also see teachings like this as a way of waking us up to our condition rather than a hard lined philosophical proposition. On one hand its true but on another it invites more problems than it solves and ends up, through a suspicious combination of scripture and logical deduction to paint a limited, limiting and by therefore by definition wrong view of God. There is another post you made which is great but I do not have time to respond to it now. I will soon though. Love MArk What God has revealed is absolute, and what He has not revealed is absolute. So yes the problem is with our understanding. But what He has revealed comes with a spiritual understanding that we do not have naturally in sin. |
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment