May 29, 2017

Bible Reading May 29 by Gary Rose

Bible Reading May 29 (World English Bible)


May 29
Judges 15, 16

Jdg 15:1 But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father wouldn't allow him to go in.
Jdg 15:2 Her father said, I most certainly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion: isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead.
Jdg 15:3 Samson said to them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I do them a mischief.
Jdg 15:4 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails.
Jdg 15:5 When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.
Jdg 15:6 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? They said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion. The Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
Jdg 15:7 Samson said to them, If you behave like this, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
Jdg 15:8 He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
Jdg 15:9 Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
Jdg 15:10 The men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? They said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us.
Jdg 15:11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" He said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.
Jdg 15:12 They said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves.
Jdg 15:13 They spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand: but surely we will not kill you. They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
Jdg 15:14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands.
Jdg 15:15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith.
Jdg 15:16 Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.
Jdg 15:17 It happened, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi.
Jdg 15:18 He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised.
Jdg 15:19 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day.
Jdg 15:20 He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Jdg 16:1 Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her.
Jdg 16:2 It was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here. They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, Let be until morning light, then we will kill him.
Jdg 16:3 Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.
Jdg 16:4 It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Jdg 16:5 The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will each give you of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.
Jdg 16:6 Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, Please, in which your great strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you.
Jdg 16:7 Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.
Jdg 16:8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
Jdg 16:9 Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner chamber. She said to him, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.
Jdg 16:10 Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, Please, with which you might be bound.
Jdg 16:11 He said to her, If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.
Jdg 16:12 So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. The ambush was waiting in the inner chamber. He broke them off his arms like a thread.
Jdg 16:13 Delilah said to Samson, Until now, you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me with what you might be bound. He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.
Jdg 16:14 She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web.
Jdg 16:15 She said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? you have mocked me these three times, and have not told me in which your great strength lies.
Jdg 16:16 It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was troubled to death.
Jdg 16:17 He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man."
Jdg 16:18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand.
Jdg 16:19 She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man, and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
Jdg 16:20 She said, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free. But he didn't know that Yahweh had departed from him.
Jdg 16:21 The Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
Jdg 16:22 However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.
Jdg 16:23 The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
Jdg 16:24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us.
Jdg 16:25 It happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. They called for Samson out of the prison; and he made sport before them. They set him between the pillars:
Jdg 16:26 and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, Allow me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may lean on them.
Jdg 16:27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson made sport.
Jdg 16:28 Samson called to Yahweh, and said, Lord Yahweh, remember me, Please, and strengthen me, Please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
Jdg 16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and leaned on them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left.
Jdg 16:30 Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were therein. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life.
Jdg 16:31 Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial site of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years.


May 28, 29
John 7

Joh 7:1 After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn't walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.
Joh 7:2 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.
Joh 7:3 His brothers therefore said to him, "Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do.
Joh 7:4 For no one does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world."
Joh 7:5 For even his brothers didn't believe in him.
Joh 7:6 Jesus therefore said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
Joh 7:7 The world can't hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.
Joh 7:8 You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled."
Joh 7:9 Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.
Joh 7:10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.
Joh 7:11 The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, "Where is he?"
Joh 7:12 There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others said, "Not so, but he leads the multitude astray."
Joh 7:13 Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.
Joh 7:14 But when it was now the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
Joh 7:15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, "How does this man know letters, having never been educated?"
Joh 7:16 Jesus therefore answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
Joh 7:17 If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.
Joh 7:18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
Joh 7:19 Didn't Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?"
Joh 7:20 The multitude answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?"
Joh 7:21 Jesus answered them, "I did one work, and you all marvel because of it.
Joh 7:22 Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.
Joh 7:23 If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?
Joh 7:24 Don't judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment."
Joh 7:25 Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, "Isn't this he whom they seek to kill?
Joh 7:26 Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?
Joh 7:27 However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from."
Joh 7:28 Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, "You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don't know.
Joh 7:29 I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."
Joh 7:30 They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
Joh 7:31 But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, "When the Christ comes, he won't do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?"
Joh 7:32 The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
Joh 7:33 Then Jesus said, "I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me.
Joh 7:34 You will seek me, and won't find me; and where I am, you can't come."
Joh 7:35 The Jews therefore said among themselves, "Where will this man go that we won't find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?
Joh 7:36 What is this word that he said, 'You will seek me, and won't find me; and where I am, you can't come'? "
Joh 7:37 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!
Joh 7:38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water."
Joh 7:39 But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn't yet glorified.
Joh 7:40 Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, "This is truly the prophet."
Joh 7:41 Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "What, does the Christ come out of Galilee?
Joh 7:42 Hasn't the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"
Joh 7:43 So there arose a division in the multitude because of him.
Joh 7:44 Some of them would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him.
Joh 7:45 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, "Why didn't you bring him?"
Joh 7:46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!"
Joh 7:47 The Pharisees therefore answered them, "You aren't also led astray, are you?
Joh 7:48 Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?
Joh 7:49 But this multitude that doesn't know the law is accursed."
Joh 7:50 Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,
Joh 7:51 "Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?"
Joh 7:52 They answered him, "Are you also from Galilee? Search, and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee."
Joh 7:53 Everyone went to his own house,

God says what he means! by Gary Rose

 
There are many ways to love; familial, romantic, erotic, a close friendship and selfless love.  I believe that this sign is referring to the last one- selfless love. The Greeks had a word for it - "agape". Selfless love at its finest; the sort of love that God has for man. As far as that "neighbor thing"(true, selfless love) goes, Jesus had something to say about that!
Consider the following...
Luke, Chapter 19 (World English Bible)
 25 Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 

  26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” 

  27 He answered, “You shall love (true, selfless love, or agape. GDR) the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

  28 He said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.” 

  29 But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” 

  30 Jesus answered, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.   31  By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.   32  In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side.   33  But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion,   34  came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.   35  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the host, and said to him, ‘Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.’   36  Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?” 

  37 He said, “He who showed mercy on him.” 

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” 
Love for God is easy for me to understand, love for man is more difficult. Why? Because truly loving your fellow man often involves sacrifice and if the person is, say, less that socially acceptable (i.e. the homeless, a drug addict, a convict, sex-offender, member of a religious cult, habitual liar, a thief,  etc.) most of us think twice before helping. In the parable of the "Good Samaritan", Jesus shows us that sometimes "religious" people may not exhibit their "love" for both God AND MAN. When a hated Samaritan does the good that they (religious people like a Priest and a Levite) should have done, it gives a lesson to all that anyone can love another human being.

In fact, loving God and loving man are linked together, for you can't truly love God without loving your fellow human being as well. The apostle John puts it this way...
1 John, Chapter 4 (WEB)
 20 If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  21 This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother. 

Somehow that sign takes on a new meaning, doesn't it?

The Foreknowledge of "I AM" by T. Pierce Brown

http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Brown/T/Pierce/1923/iam.html

The Foreknowledge of "I AM"

Most of us are aware of, and perhaps have meditated upon the answer God gave to Moses in Exodus 3:14 when Moses wanted to know what he should say when he was asked who had sent him. Part of the verse reads, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, 'I AM hath sent me unto you.'" We have probably come to the conclusion that regardless of what other wonderful things may be involved in that answer, it suggests that God is eternal -- timeless. There is neither past nor future with God, but everything is now. He can thus "declare the end from the beginning" (Isa. 46:10).

It has long been a problem for philosophers, theologians and even for brilliant Christian scholars to explain how, if God foreknew that a thing would happen and thus it had to happen, could man have any freedom to choose. It appears to me that the problem becomes relatively simple, although fantastically profound, if one recognizes that the word "foreknew" is merely a word that applies to man, not to God. From God's standpoint, God knew a thing because to Him it was as if it was happening at that moment, for God is not subject to time as we are. He could say to Joshua, in Joshua 6:2, "I have given into thine hand Jericho," because to Him it was a present reality, though to Joshua it was future. He could say to Abraham in Genesis 17:5, "A father of many nations have I made thee," for it was done, as far as God was concerned, though to Abraham it was future.

Many astute philosophers, theologians, scholars and those who have wrestled with the problem, even those who deny the false assumptions of Calvin, have reasoned like this: "If God knows anything that will happen in the future, then those things are unchangeable and the effect is the same as if God had predestined that they happen." But we may fail to realize that it is not a matter of God "knowing what will happen in the future" for there is no "future" in God's experience, for God is timeless. He only speaks of "future" to accommodate man's understanding. It is what is called an "anthropomorphism," or using human language to accommodate man's perspective. This is common in the Bible. For example, in Isaiah 59:1 we find, "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear." Surely most of us understand that God does not have a hand or ear as man has, and when "his eyes run to and fro throughout the earth" (Zech. 4:10) we understand the metaphorical language. Surely most of us do not think that in Genesis 18:21 where God says, "I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know" that God had to literally go down and find out personally if Sodom and Gomorrah were sinful. In Genesis 22:12, when God says, "Now I know that thou fearest God" surely few of us would assume that God did not know this before the event. The language is simply adapted to man's way of thinking and speaking, as when a teacher has solved a math problem on the board and says, "Now we know that x equals 6." She knew that x was equal to six before she worked the problem. So, when God says, "It will happen" it is not a matter of his making a decision that it will happen and man therefore has to abide by his decision. It is a matter of his ability to see what IS happening (for the future and the past are all present with him) and simply saying so.

It is presumed that if God foreknows (or knows) everything, we are but pawns in his hand. This is not so, for God knows that man has freedom of choice, for he made us that way, and God can know that man is freely choosing to do what he does. A good question for those to answer who assume that God's knowledge leaves man no freedom of choice is this: Did God know before the foundation of the earth that he would send Jesus to redeem mankind? If so, he knew that mankind would sin, but in no case does the Bible suggest that God was the cause of man's sin, or predestined that he had to sin. 1 Peter 1:20 states that not only was it known, it was "foreordained." Then he must have known that man would sin, and need redemption. Calvin and his followers then assume that since God foreknew that man would sin, man had to sin and that every act of man was foreordained of God. That is not so, as we have pointed out, not because God did not know that man would sin, but because God knew that man would, of his own free will, choose to sin. Let us repeat: It is not that God knew man would do it, so man had to do it. It is the case that God sees Adam choosing to sin as a present reality (from His perspective), and plans for his redemption. He foreordained that Christ would come to redeem man, and what God foreordained could not be changed by any act of man, and would not be changed by any act of God. God did not foreordain that Judas would betray him, but God "foreknew" that Judas would, of his own free and wicked will choose to betray him. In Ezekiel 3:18, God is represented as saying to the wicked, "Thou shalt surely die." Did God know that some of those would not surely die? Of course, for he tells what will happen so they would not die. He was not lying when he told what would happen, but there is not the remotest indication that he made it happen, or that it had to happen because he said it would. He simply knew that some would repent, and when they did, God is represented as repenting. He is not represented as repenting because he changed his mind and did not know what would happen.

1 Samuel 15:29 says, "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent." So when the Bible says that God did repent (Ex. 32:14, Jonah 3:10) it is not teaching that God did not know what was going to happen, and changed his mind because he had made a mistake. He had already told us in Ezekiel 33:8-18 that when the wicked changed, God would change, relative to him. God did not change in himself, or in his essence, nature or purpose. He did not need to say, "I am sorry for what I did, for I did not really know what would happen," for God is always sorry when man sins, and is always glad when he repents. So when the Bible says that God does repent, it is not contradicting the statement that says God does not repent. God does not repent in the same sense that man does, but only repents relative to man. God knew (foreknew from man's viewpoint) that he would destroy Israel (Deut. 9:14) and Nineveh (Jonah 3:4) if they did not repent. He told Jonah to preach "Forty days and you will be destroyed." Was God lying? Of course not, although they were not destroyed after forty days. And when he "repented of the evil that he would do, and did it not," was God sorry because he was going to do evil and decided he had made a mistake? Surely not. He already knew what would happen, but from man's viewpoint, he repented or changed relative to man. God is an unchanging God in himself, but is represented as changing toward man because when man acts properly God is pleased, and when man does not, God is displeased. "In him is no variableness, nor shadow of turning" (James 1:17) yet he is represented as turning when man turns.

Then when we find in the case of Judas as recorded in Acts 1:16 that "the scripture must needs have been fulfilled" it is often assumed that since God had prophesied before that Jesus would be betrayed, Judas was forced to do it, for God had already decreed that he would. If we can look at it from God's standpoint, so to speak, we can see that God is looking at Judas, long before Judas was born, and sees Judas of his own free will, because of a covetous heart, deciding that he would betray the Lord. So it is not a situation where God determined that it had to be that way, and foreordained it, but that He sees what is happening and tells it like it is, when from man's standpoint it has not yet happened. So in various passages like John 17:12, where it seems to imply in the King James Version that the son of perdition (Judas) had to be lost in order to make sure that the scripture was fulfilled, the truth would be better served to realize that the expression should be translated "with the result that the scripture was fulfilled." The idea that God had to make people wicked whether or not they chose to be wicked in order to make one of his predictions come to pass is totally out of harmony with the whole tenor of the scriptures.

When we read in John 18:31-32, "The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die," surely we do not need to assume that in some way God made the Jews say something in order to make sure that what the scriptures had said would come to pass. Rather it is as Thayer indicates on page 304 "with the result that the scripture was fulfilled." There are several such passages that in most versions may sound as if the event had to be that way because God ordained that it be that way in order to fulfill what He had said would happen. But the truth is that God did not ordain that it be that way and thus had to overrule the will of some person or persons. God merely saw the event taking place as if it were what we would call "present time" and said so. When it happened as a result of the free will of man, the result was that the scripture was fulfilled.

This realization will help us to understand many things that may be a mystery to us. For example in Acts 2:23 we find, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." If one wonders how or why one can accuse a person of having wicked hands when he does what God had already determined that he do, the answer is relatively simple, although profound. God had determined long ago that Christ was to die for our sins. The Bible teaches that many times, and the first hint of it is given in Genesis 3:15. However, at no place in the Bible are we taught that God had determined that some specific person would do the wicked deed. God knew who would, of their own free will, do the wicked deed, for all future events (from man's standpoint) were present events from God's standpoint. Remember that God can declare the end from the beginning, but that does not say nor mean that God predestinates the end from the beginning. This is why predestination and foreknowledge are not the same thing, though many have assumed they have to be for they reason that if God knew that a thing would happen, He must make it happen. Again the simple explanation is that God knows a thing will happen because from His viewpoint it is happening. For God to be able to see the future (from our viewpoint) as present (from His viewpoint), does not necessitate his determined purpose or plan that it happen. God does have some specific fixed purposes, and all that man can do will not change those. But not everything that happens is because God had a fixed purpose that it happen that way, as John Calvin and his followers assumed. For example, God does not have a fixed purpose that any should perish (2 Pet. 3:9) but many will, and God knows that and has said it will happen. When it does it could be written, "These are lost that the scriptures might be fulfilled that said, 'Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat.'" But the expression, "that the scriptures might be fulfilled" would be better understood if it were stated, "thus the scriptures were fulfilled," for that expression does not suggest that God decreed that certain persons be lost and at the same time other scriptures said that he did not so decree, nor was it his will. Remember that the primary key to your ability to grasp that which seems so hard for many brilliant persons and great scholars to grasp is the realization that God said, "I AM." He is eternal, and sees everything that has been or will be as a present reality. Do not be disturbed if when you read this, you think, "I simply can't understand that." Of course you cannot understand infinity, or eternity, or omnipresence. You cannot understand how God can see any future event as certain, nor how God can be everywhere in the universe, although he is represented as "coming down" to some mountain or other place.

Someone may say, "I believe that God has the ability to foreknow some things and the ability to choose not to foreknow some other ones." The main problem with that concept is that in order for God to choose not to foreknow some specific thing, He would have to know what he chose not to foreknow before he could choose not to foreknow it. That is simply a contradiction that cannot be resolved with man's words. If one can comprehend the idea that whatever is going to happen (from man's viewpoint) is now happening from God's standpoint, he can at least grasp the idea I am trying to present. To state it another way, all events, past, present and future have already happened from the standpoint of an eternal God. There is a great deal of difference in the fact that we cannot understand an eternal God for whom time means nothing, and who can be everywhere (omnipresent) at the same time and our not believing in those realities that the Bible reveals. That man freely acted and is responsible for his actions God has always known. The fact that God knew that Adam (or any part of mankind) would sin does NOT involve the idea that God predestined that Adam, or any other man, would sin. But God had to know that or he could not have foreordained that Christ would come and redeem mankind from sin. From His timeless perspective, God simply sees Adam (and us) sinning as we choose to do so. Adam is responsible for his sin, and we are responsible for ours. God did not foreordain us to sin, although He did foreknow that we would.

We will continually be confused if we do not differentiate between what God knew (foreknew is the way we put it), and what God determined would take place. The whole idea of Calvin and those who follow his assumptions, even when they do not realize they are doing it, is contrary to God's will and His revelation. Man does have freedom of choice, and if God predestined him individually to be saved or lost, he would not have it. Man's freedom of choice cannot change that which God predestined. He predestined that Christ would die for the sins of the world, and regardless of who did what, Christ would have died for the sins of the world. He was "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8) and no power in the universe would change that. Man's salvation depends on his submission, but the fact that God knew that man would rebel and that He would provide a way for man to be saved in spite of that rebellion did NOT mean that God predestined man to rebel and made certain that he would, so that he could gloriously save his specific predetermined elect. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden" is still God's message, even if He knows some will not. He knows beforehand that some will not, but he has not predestined every thing he knows beforehand, for he is not willing that any should perish.

T. Pierce Brown


Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)