• Unquestionable in this pursuit of biblical understanding is the commitment to obey God’s will. Study is not simply for the purpose of appreciating doctrine in the abstract. The energetic searching for biblical truth, the daily meditation on the Word, and the striving for sound interpretation are useful only if compelled by a yearning to please the Lord, and submit to His wishes.

WHAT IS THE PRINCIPLE THAT WE SHOULD USE TO DETERMINE GOD’S WILL?
DOES GOD FOREORDAIN EVERYTHING?

Application not based on solid interpretation has led Christians into all kinds of Confusion.

Part 5b Note 5 from yestersday...

Peter Y. Woo disagrees with Sproul
RC Sproul is wrong. "God foreordain everything" does not include every movement of every electron in the minds of Satan and the demons. He does foreordain a certain degree of us making decision and choices, yet He can predict history. This apparent paradox is illustrated by physics, where light particles are intractable individually, yet overall obeys some statistical laws of diffraction, etc. RC Sproul, like Calvin, does not see the wisdom of God in allowing for human individual free choice. That makes the wooing of our hearts to trust Jesus and be saved, all the more praise worthy. We noncalvinists have greater appreciation of God's wisdom and power than that of a watch maker. God decrees things, but not necessarily microscopically. That is wisdom.

Peter; If you think about what you said, it is not logical.
If God knows something in the future, but yet does not know the movements of say, the electrical mind particles with any certainty, then He can not be said to be sure of the future for if there is to be true certainty, then all the intrincities that make that certainty certain must also be known for certain. And for that to happen One must be able to be sovereign over those intrincities by making them happen whether directly by fiat or indirectly by law. "Non calvinists" only see the wisdom of the supposed freedom of man choosing, but not the sovereignty of God in all things. For Man to be free in the sense you are saying leaves God not in total control but in actuality leaves Man or natural law in control.

This is why God does not woo our hearts, but draws our hearts as one would draw water. To woo our hearts makes it possible that no Man would allow himself to be wooed, thus making the blessed sacrifice of Christ accomplish nothing but to damn all men , which would be a waste since we were all damned to begin with.

If I claim to be certain beyond a shadow of a doubt, which of course is impossible, then I must know for certain, with no chance of change, that all the elements that would come to pass must come to pass.

Now does He do this as the game is played or was it foreordained? It has to be foreordained for God to be God. Yes, our choices play into this ordination in some way, and there may be free choices within the foreordination, but yet in the final analysis , it must be controlled by God. Posted by: Fred on Tuesday over at oldtruth.co

• I understand God is sovereign. In that sovereignty God allows or permits what ever happens. Does that mean that what He permits He approves?
  Does God allow us to make decisions that are not His Will, but allows us to do those things He does not approve of?
  In making a decision for a church elder, do we seek to discover God's will or do we wait and see how God is going to work it out? And how do you think God is going to work this out?
  Posted by: Charles E. Whisnant on Friday, October 13, 2006

Charles:
I don't think the bible says anywhere that God forfeits his sovereignty by yielding it to men. I know that you didn't use those words, but that's in effect what the case would be. And if it were the case, there is no way that God could have orchestrated the Cross to happen. One "decision" of man, one maverick Molecule as RC Sproul said above, could ruin God's plan. Instead we find passages such as Ephesians 1:11 in which God is said to work ALL THINGS, etc. We also have examples like this one from Acts 4:27-28, which help us to understand that He is doing more than just "permitting" and "allowing": "...for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."Posted by: Jim from OldTruth.com on Friday, October 13, 2006

DO WE REALLY NEED DOCTRINAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIBLE

• There is no danger of inconsequential doctrine; the real threat is an undoctrinal attempt at application. Application not based on solid interpretation has led Christians into all kinds of confusion.

We see that there is much to be said about this point of view. But it’s a good topic for us to learn. Doctrine for a Christian is like gasoline for a car. God in a sense is a mystery. Yet God has revealed Himself to us through the Word, and He has written down Doctrine to help us with living life. For every experience that we encounter in this daily life, there is a prescription from the Word of God that will address the situation

• So our question within this series has been: HAS GOD DIRECTED THE DIRECTION THAT WE HAVE TRAVELED?. HAVE WE BEEN IN THE WILL OF GOD? IS THERE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE TO THE FACT THAT GOD HAS BEEN IN CONTROL OF ALL THE EVENTS.

We all say, "God you are in control, we pray that you would direct, guide, give wisdom, bring to yourself your own unto salvation...yes, but do we really believe God is in that much control?

\Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant October 13th Checked by Charity October 16th Posted 19th