7371	Forums / Theology Forum / The Snake Pit	on: June 03, 2007, 08:31:53 AM
The old add age that you can't change the past since those things that exist cannot not exist. And when we are talking about divine foreknowledge we are saying that those things that exist are necessary and not contingent. In other words there is no way that they could not exist since they already happened. And because we cannot change past actions, we see that we don't have the liberty of making them contingent. As i am writing the things that i do are in the past. So that the reality of what i do is necessary. Otherwise i could change it. And the things that i do are connected in a series of events in whose connection is necessary. If they were not necessary they would not exist. If i was looking back and  saying that there were things in my life that were contingent then there would be no necessary connection to the present and the future and i would really be denying the existence of that past choice. As i am writing the connection to my past writing is necessary to achieve the rest of the post so that all the things that i do are from a cause outside of myself being known by God who is the cause or the reason for my doing what i am doing. Otherwise there would be no reason since my past actions would be without necessity subject to change, which is a denial of Gods necessary infallible foreknowledge since i cant change what is past. 7373  Forums / Theology Forum / The Snake Pit on: June 02, 2007, 05:10:13 PM Quote If God does not decree all acts of men or passively decree all sin in man  then either we are immutable or He is immutable. God is not subject to frustration, or change, or being knowledgeable about any thing. Either God is frustrated or we are frustrated, either God changes or we change, either God is omniscient or we know more about our own plans. If God is subject to change according to mans choices then He repents of His actions. If man can dictate then God can be frustrated. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscience, so that He causes all things to work , so that all events are decreed , even the sin and evil that He decrees passively. We naturally have an independent disposition from birth. We do not seek God , we do not understand who God is so that we are corrupted in all the areas of our being. We are darkened in our minds so that we worship dead idols. These idols cannot speak, they have no mouths, they cannot hear, they have no ears, they cannot see, they have no eyes, and they cannot touch , they have no hands. We make dead idols our gods and then we become just like them. Every idol we set up in our minds comes in a package with a set of rules. Because the idol is not alive we get we must open the rule book in order to work that thing we purchase by the sweat of our brows so that we learn to love our things by how we run them by the rules. We naturally enjoy using our idols in that prescribed manner. It gives us a sense of control over our lives. So we spend all our time , thinking in the i -it dimension. The more things we possess the more we pride ourselves in that kind of idol worship with the rules. We are blinded by our own sin and pride. We actually replace a Sovereign ruler of the universe who has made us to worship Him alone with dead idols. God has designed us to worship Him alone and to cast down imaginations that set themselves up against knowing Him. The i - Thou dimension. We are made to communicate directly with Him. For He is present everywhere so that in Him we live and move and have our being. We are present because God was always present. Our very lives are under His sovereign decrees so that we are receiving life from His life. He holds all things together. When we recognize that He is all powerful, then we will realize that we are not able to do anything good unless He teaches us. And His teaching us is determined by how much we know Him in His word. We are not only to look into the word to begin to be taught , but  we are dependent upon Him moment by moment in the communication of Himself through His word, by His hand being directly involved in all that we experience. When we are regenerated, we receive the Spirit who is the Spirit of supplication. Our new longings are evidence that we have new life, the very life of the Spirit dwelling in us. Now we communicate with our Father, because we now understand by a spiritual sense that He has ears to hear us, eyes that see us, and that His ear is always ready to act by our supplicating. Our natural response to being in Christ is to go to the Father. The more we know of His power, unfailing love, sovereign will, and compassionate disposition the more we will know Him. The more our hearts are drawn out of our selves by prayer and meditation the more     we will gain an understanding of His essence as God and the more we will depend on Him even for our very breath. We are most pleased when God is most exalted so that we are most aware of who we are when we recognize that His pleasure is being worked out in His working in us to will and to do. All of Gods glorious workings in us are from His  design to work in us the good so that He is pleased with His goodness in us. When we bow down to Him and acknowledge His rite to rule in us and through us then we will learn to rejoice in Him in a supernatural way. Our heavenly mindedness will keep us from thinking that we are good enough to be good on our own. Why would we substitute a thing for this reciprocal communication of His glorious attributes. We must learn how to rejoice in Him.