The omniscience and omnipotence of God

Wednesday, June 14

The omniscience and omnipotence of God

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Calvinism is demonism.

Double Predestination and Limited Atonement make Calvin's god a malevolent, capricious, deceitful monster.

The Scriptures state that God predestines to eternal life. Nowhere do they state that He predestines people to hell.

Since Calvinism's god does predestine souls to hell, it violates God's commands by going beyond that which He has revealed, preaching not only a different gospel, but also a different Christ.

As for Limited Atonement, God tells us that His death on the Cross was for the salvation of all humanity ("God so loved the world..."); to assert that Christ died only for some makes Him out to be a liar.
aLutheran wrote: "We also believe that God saves everyone that he sets out to..."
Lamenting over Jerusalem, Jesus said that He longed to gather all to Himself, but many were not willing. God set (and sets) out to save ALL humanity, demonstrating this once for all on the Cross.
No. God doesn't stand on the outside and call them to come out. He puts out the fire in a section to create clear exit to Him, and then calls.
All human analogies of the Divine eventually break down, but here's my variation anyway:

God actually goes into the building, pulls everyone out, and heals any and all wounds, but some (many?) throw themselves back in.

That's orthodox, catholic, Lutheran, Biblical, theology!
Criminey. David's act of throwing the stone was not prideful. It was not evil. It was an act of faith. So is accepting salvation. It's not saving yourself. Its performing a required act of faith.
If it is a "required act of faith," then salvation is not a gift, but an obligation.

Acts of faith are not done out of obligation, but arise (super-) naturally because of the Holy Spirit's work in us who believe.
St. Augustine handles this one. He does not disavow free will, but notes that it is the Grace of God which impels men to act. Yet we can still refuse God's Gift. In this way, we are responsible if we choose damnation, but our acceptance of heaven is largely dependent on God.
This is what the Scriptures teach--we are dead in our trespasses and deserving of death--but God in His mercy gives us faith so that, by His grace, we have eternal life. It is the gift of God, not of works.
This discussion will continue to go no where as it is all based on personal opinion as based on life experience.
It is best to listen to the One Whose opinion is the only one that really counts.
...God...allowed Man to become sinful, foolish creatures.
He allowed our first parents to choose freely. They chose (and we choose) sinfully and foolishly.
He created eternal damnation wherein millions of men, women, and children will suffer for eternity.
Hell was created for the devil and his minions. That those human beings who end up there do so at their own choosing is not the fault of God; in fact, He has done everything (super-) humanly possible to save us.
Moreover, this God was then "forced" to send His Son (or Himself) to earth to be brutally beaten, mocked, and murdered by Man.
No, God chose to do this freely to demonstrate His love for us. He could have chosen any other means for our salvation (or none at all--we deserve destruction), but He chose to show us His love in the most visceral, tangible, concrete way possible.
As a result, sinful, foolish, mortal man faced with logic, science, contrary life experience in the natural world...
Actually, it is the result of man's illogic, unscientific thinking, and false interpretations of life experiences that anyone believes Faith in Christ and Reason are mutually-exclusive.

True Science (that which can be observed, tested, and verified through repetition) never contradicts Scripture. Logic would dictate that an abundance of historical, archaeological, and literary evidence for the person and work of YHWH/Christ should result in faith in Him, not an abandonment or forsaking of it.
...must believe all they read in a roughly 2000 year old anthology in order avoid burning in hell for eternity.
No. Our sin condemns us to hell. In His great mercy, God has provided for us a payment for our sin--Christ's blood shed for us.
Is it not simpler to believe Man is vile for all the same reasons a wolf is vile?
Simpler? Perhaps. Truthful? Christ is Truth. Listen to Him.

Cumquat,
...Years ago...I reached the...conclusion that the only way in which I could mesh the message of the Bible (OT and NT) and my personal life experiences, was to conclude that the Judaic God is not omnipotent, and perhaps not omniscient nor omnipresent.
God does allow us to suffer so that we might learn to value what is true, good, and right. A father disciplines the son he loves.
For example, the mere fact that Lucifer rebelled, Man fell, and God the Father was "forced" to sacrifice His Son in order to save Mankind only makes sense to me if the God in question is deemed supremely powerful, rather than omnipotent....

Having studied the Bible in a sincere effort to seek God, I've come away with the belief that the only way the actions of the Judaic God, and the resulting plight of Man, can be logically explained is if this God were less than omnipotent.
Having all knowledge and all power does not mean that God causes or requires evil, nor does it indicate some impotence or impurity that He allows people to do evil (if God were to destroy all evil from the earth, there'd be no one left).

If one has a child, is it not certain that that little one will one day grow up to suffer evil and willingly sin?

We cannot know the specifics of what will occur in our son or daughter's life, but we do know that there will be pain, sorrow, and eventually death.

Does that mean we would wish our child dead? Does that mean we would rather that our child never lived?

Anyone who has had the joy of being a parent knows that even when that child does wrong, you love them will all your heart. Every (decent) parent would suffer any harm, face any evil, endure any pain, to protect that little one.

Again, I realize this is a limited human analogy, but it seems to fit what Scripture tells us of God's love for us in Christ.

Know that the omnipotent, omniscient One truly, deeply loves you.

On the fall of Constantinople

"[...] the great church of Hagia Sophia was filled to capacity. Thousands of people were moving towards the church. Inside, Orthodox and Catholic priests were holding liturgy, the last Christian service after almost 1,000 years. People were singing hymns, others were openly crying, others were asking each other for forgiveness [...].

"Bands of Ottoman soldiers began now looting. Doors were broken, private homes were looted, their tenants were massacred. Shops in the city markets were looted. Monasteries and Convents were broken in. Their tenants were killed, nuns were raped; many, to avoid dishonor, killed themselves. Killing, raping, looting, burning, enslaving, went on and on [...].

"The great doors of Hagia Sophia were forced open, and crowds of angry soldiers came in and fell upon the unfortunate worshippers. Pillaging and killing in the holy place went on for hours. Similar was the fate of worshippers in most churches in the city [...].

"Thousands of civilians were enslaved, soldiers fought over young boys and young women [...] the invaders broke the heads of those women who resisted on the floor of the churches and they raped them dead. The famous icon of Apostole Loukas was totally destroyed.

"The sultan asked for the young sons of Duke Loukas Notaras. Their father refused and Mehmed was ready to take their heads. Notaras asked him to kill him after his sons so that he was sure that they were dead and not disgraced from the pervert sultan.

"And this is what happened."

Black Tuesday, The Last Day of the World, the twenty-ninth of May, anno Domini MCDLIII

On American Liberty

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, 1776

"The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind."

Thomas Jefferson to Moses Robinson Washington, Mar. 23, 1801

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800

The truth about Mahomet

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

"A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property -- either as a child, a wife, or a concubine -- must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science -- the science against which it had vainly struggled -- the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."

Winston Churchill, Churchill, Winston S. (1899), The River War, First edition, Vol. II, pp. 248-250

A war of twelve hundred years

"And he [Jesus] declared, that the enjoyment of felicity in the world hereafter, would be reward of the practice of benevolence here. His whole law was resolvable into the precept of love; peace on earth – good will toward man, was the early object of his mission; and the authoritative demonstration of the immortality of man, was that, which constituted the more than earthly tribute of glory to God in the highest [...] The first conquest of the religion of Jesus, was over the unsocial passions of his disciples. It elevated the standard of the human character in the scale of existence. [...] On the Christian system of morals, man is an immortal spirit, confined for a short space of time, in an earthly tabernacle. Kindness to his fellow mortals embraces the whole compass of his duties upon earth, and the whole promise of happiness to his spirit hereafter. THE ESSENCE OF THIS DOCTRINE IS, TO EXALT THE SPIRITUAL OVER THE BRUTAL PART OF HIS NATURE.

[...]

“In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE

[...]

"Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant. [...] While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men.”

John Quincy Adams, Blunt, Joseph (1830),The American Annual Register for the Years 1827-8-9, pp. 268-269

Impossible Islamophobia

Nearly one and one-half millennia of slavery, rape, and slaughter in Allah's name ...

80% of American -- not Pakistani, not Saudi Arabian, not Iranian, but American -- mosques teach jihad/Islamic supremacism ...

Nearly twenty-seven thousand documented jihad attacks since 9/11 alone, and ...

Islam's "Ideal Man" Muhammad -- Allah's "beautiful pattern of conduct" for those who want to please it -- preached and practiced genocide, pedophilia, rape, slavery, torture, mutilation, anti-Semitism, theft, extortion, arson, wife-beating, polygyny, religious and gender apartheid, sedition, treason, deceit, and blasphemy and warned his devotees that "Allah made me do it, and you will too, or else!"

No, "Islamophobia" is impossible. Merely pointing out simple facts regarding a genocidal, malevolent, and totalitarian ideology is neither phobic nor intolerant. It is highly rational and moral.

We are in only the latest phase of an ancient and existential struggle, Allah's war against humanity.

Speaking the truth in love

Never surrender

"we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone [...].

"we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end [...] we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender [...]."

Winston Churchill to the House of Commons, June 4, 1940