Does God React? - A Response to one Calvinist's Ravings.

Does God React?

A Response to one Calvinist's Ravings.

The following was written by Josiah Luke Spencer in his facebook note.  My Response will follow.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/josiah-luke-spencer/does-god-react/498456539053

What Spencer wrote.

"And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren."  Genesis 29:31.  Did God react?  There is much language in the Bible that would seem to declare that God reacts to human events just like we humans do. 

    There seems to be more to the issue, however.  When we look at James 1:17 we read this: Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, or shadow of turning."  So, God does not/cannot change.  How could God alter His course of action if He does not change? 

    And yet, we see a few places that say God repents.  What about Numbers 23:19: God is not a man that he should lie: neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?  How do we coalesce the two?

    What about Ephesians 1:11  In whom we also have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.  

    God is eternal, is He not?  There is much in the Bible that speaks of God in terms that men can understand.  Human emotions and human actions/reactions are ascribed to God because we could understand no other way.  If God had explained this all in detail to us in the Bible, we'd still be lost. 

    The problem is that we cannot understand how an eternal God interacts with a time-bound Creation.  How does that happen?  How is it possible?   This quandary is what has led to the Arminian/Calvinist argument.  Calvinists protect God's sovereignty and Arminian's protect God's fairness.  The only problem is, God doesn't say anything about being fair.  He says He will do as He pleases (Romans 9).  He will have mercy on whomever He chooses.

    So, did God react to sin by sending Jesus Christ?  Well, Revelation 13:8 calls Jesus the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  So, no.

    God does not react.  Somehow He interacts with us, but we cannot understand this.  We, real active agents, are working out a plan that He works according to His own will.

My Response

Introduction

Really this whole discussion is about free will isn't it?  Is God in total control of everything that happens?  If every event in the universe is determined by God including every action man does, including man's predestination to salvation or damnation, then it can't be conceivable that God could actually change his mind.  If every action in the universe is determined, then every action of God within the universe must be written in stone.  He can never make a mistake.  He can never change his mind.  He can never repent.  He can never react.  He can never respond.  He is just as mechanical as the universe he makes.  Let's take a look at the passages used.  And for the record I use the terms "react" and "respond" interchangeably.  They mean the same thing.

Genesis 29:31

In Genesis 29:31 God blessing Leah rather than Rachel is a way to bring about his covenant promise to make Jacob into a great nation.  He used the situation of the two sisters to his advantage to bring about his promise, otherwise he wouldn't have interfered.  Did he react?  Of course he did.  The feud between the two women was too good to pass up and it helped God make a nation.

James 1:17

James 1:17 is a statement about God's faithfulness to keep his covenant.  He is trustworthy.   It is not a statement about God's not being able to change or altar His course of action.  He is a freewill being.  His determination to keep his word does not in any way hinder his ability to make choices and adjust them as he pleases.

Numbers 23:19

Numbers 23:19 is also about God keeping his covenant promises.  If you look at the parallelisms it's quite clear.  Once God promises something he fulfills it, he acts upon what he has said and he doesn't change his mind (repent) about keeping his covenant.  That would make him into a liar.  This verse again does not limit God's ability to change his mind in any way.  All it says is he will keep his agreements.

But God does change his mind.  Genesis 6:1-8.  God regretted making man because man was a lot more sinful than he calculated he would be.  Such is the limitation of God when it comes to free will beings.  When God made Adam and gave him free will he limited himself to dealing with man in our universe's time dimension.  One cannot know  the choices of a free will being.  The fact is, he made a mistake in the calibration of man's life span and he started over after the flood, giving mankind a 120 year maximum life span as compared to 1000 before the flood.  In this way God limited mankind's expression of sin.  (Notice God miscalculated the depth of man's sin, a miscalculation is not a sin.)

Ephesians 1:11

In Ephesians 1:3-14, God's will and plan is for salvation to be through the New Covenant in Christ, not through the law or any other covenant.  In verse 3 the promises of the covenant are stipulated to be spiritual in nature and he elaborates what they are.  In verse 4 it says that before the creation of the world, it was planned (predestined) that through Christ ( in him) the Ephesians would be made holy and blameless in God's sight.  Salvation through Christ is what is predestined not specific individuals.  Calvinism perverts this verse.  Again verse 6 states that the adoption to be God's sons was predestined to be through Jesus Christ.  Verse 6 states that God's grace, (salvation through the New Covenant) is freely given.  Now if as the Calvinists say, that specific people are already predestined for salvation, how can salvation be said to be freely given?  There is no freedom involved at all.  Verse 7 again emphasizes that it is through Christ that redemption and forgiveness of sins is lavished on the Ephesians.  Verse 9 states that the mystery was made known and proposed through Christ, and was implemented when the (end) times (of the Old Covenant) reached their fulfillment.  All heaven and earth are brought together in Christ.  Then in verse 11-12 he states again that the plan of God is predestined again in Christ.  So that those who hope in Christ, through the New Covenant might give God praise and glory.  Verse 13 states how the Ephesians received the predestined covenant promises.  They were included "in Christ" by hearing and believing the word, the gospel of salvation and were given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the inheritance till Christ's parousia and redemption.

Let's review  the passage in a different way.  The promises of the New Covenant are specifically listed and are through Christ.  In fact Christ and the Covenant are almost synonymous to Paul.  Simply put, the parties of the New Covenant are God and anyone who is IN CHRIST.  The terms of the covenant are for believers to be LIKE CHRIST.  And the promises are that they will be WITH CHRIST.  So Christ is all in all.

The New Covenant promises listed in the passage are:

1. "every spiritual blessing in Christ" (3)

2. "in him....to be holy and blameless in God's sight" (4)

3. "to be adopted as his sons though Jesus Christ" (5)

4. "in him we have redemption...the forgiveness of sins" (7)

5. "made known...the mystery of his will...which he proposed in Christ" (9)

6. "to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ (10)

7. "in him...we might be the praise of his glory" (12)

8. "marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Sprit...guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption" (13-14)

Notice the promises are all "in Christ" given to those "in Christ".  The covenant and the promises are what are predestined though Christ.  Those who hear and believe the gospel and join the New Covenant through baptism into Christ receive them.  God's GRACE to us is THE NEW COVENANT IN CHRIST.  It is a free gift.  We receive the gift in faith through our free will.  Deterministic Calvinism kills covenant.  Deterministic Calvinism kills Christianity.

Anthropomorphism

Spencer says, "Human emotions and human actions/reactions are ascribed to God because we could understand no other way.  If God had explained this all in detail to us in the Bible, we'd still be lost."  That's an often used appeal to dismiss God's emotions.  It's called anthropomorphism.  But if God's emotions as recorded in the Bible can't be trusted then how can we trust Jesus?  Was Jesus' emotions faked so that we could understand him?  Are God's love, anger, regret, sadness, joy all faked?  Is God a deceiver and liar?

Does the parable of the lost son actually portray God's emotions or is it all anthropomorphism?  If God as the Calvinist claims, knows all future events then how can he have joy when one sinner repents?  If he is controlling and giving the sinner faith in the first how can he have joy when the sinner repents?  And if he already knows who will or won't be saved then how  much fun is that?  It's like watching the same sports game over again.  No fun if you already know  who is going to win.  How can the father display so much joy if he knows if that the prodigal will return, when the prodigal with return, and what he will say when he returns?  There is no joy in that.  Give me a break!  Calvinism turns God into a mechanistic monster.

If the scriptures cannot be trusted about God's emotions then how can we trust it about anything else?  Anthropomorphism is a Calvinistic way to depersonalize God, because free will and personality go together.

Romans 9

The whole point of Romans 9 is not the individual election of some to be saved and others to be damned.  The point of Romans 9 is that God makes the rules when it comes to salvation and if he decided it should be through the New Covenant in Christ, nobody has any authority to challenge his decision.  The Old Covenant Jews cannot complain that they are the pottery made to be an "object of his wrath" to shortly be destroyed. The Old Covenant had it's purpose in God's plan.  Jesus satisfied the requirements of the law  and in so doing paid the price for sin.

Verse 30 makes it very clear that the Jews were complaining about the Gentiles.  They were saying God's unfair in verse 14.  But Paul says no.  God will have mercy on who he will have mercy.  If he decides to grant mercy to the Gentiles too than that's his prerogative.  If he decides it must be through faith in Christ in the New Covenant rather than the Old Covenant then that's his prerogative too.

God chose to fulfill his promise to Abraham through Isaac rather than Ishmael.  Abraham tried to bring about the promise on his own.  God said no, it is I who decides.  The promise does not come through one's own efforts.  God chose to fulfill his promise through Jacob instead of Esau.  It is not though firstborn birthright that the promise is brought about.  God decides not man.  And notice in both cases it is the younger rather than the older that is chosen.  Paul says this is figurative of God choosing the New Covenant to bring about his promise rather than the Old. (Galatians 4:21-32)

Pharaoh was raised up to bring about God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-16.  So also, Israel was raised up for it's purpose to bring about the New Covenant and then be destroyed.  The Jews cannot complain.  God decides how he wants to bring about his salvation plan.

Romans 9 describes God's prerogative to set up salvation through Christ in the New Covenant.  It is not about individual predestination as the Calvinists want us to believe.  All scripture must be read in context.  Pulling verses out of context is bad exegesis.

Revelation 13:8

Finally we come to Revelation 13:8.  Spencer says that "Revelation 13:8 calls Jesus, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."  It is central to his argument that the sending of Jesus wasn't in response to man's sin because he was the lamb of God prior to man's creation.  Although I agree with Spencer that Jesus' death was planned before the foundation of the world this verse cannot be used to defend it.

Although NIV and KJV put the phrase "from the foundation (creation) of the world at the end of the verse, the NASB and NRSV do not.  The latter two are clearer.  Everyone who has ever lived from the foundation of the world, regardless of whether their names are written in the book of life or not, will worship the Lamb that was slaughtered.

Revelation 13:8 And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.  (NASB)

8 and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered.  (NRSV)

I also need to note that there are theologians, Max King for instance, that interpret the phrase "foundation of world" as "foundation of the New Covenant world", and this is equally possible.  But even if Christ's atonement was pre-planned before the foundation of the world.  It is no argument that God does not change his mind or respond/react to free will decisions made by mankind.

The Personality of God disproves Calvinism

The answer to this problem is not knowing whether God reacts in our universe's timeline but whether he and we are free will beings.  Deterministic Calvinism is a lie.  Free will is what we experience.  Free will is the foundation of covenant.  If man who was made in the image of God has no free will then it stands to reason that neither does God.  And that is exactly what Spencer has been arguing.  He claims, God cannot change, He cannot make a mistake, He cannot respond, He cannot react, He has no emotions, He is not personal.  That's not the description of a powerful God that's the description of an impotent one.  If God is only a machine then there really is no difference between Christianity and Naturalism.  God becomes nothing more than nature in extra-dimensions, nature in the spiritual world.  Hence the syllogism: God is machine.  Nature is machine.  God is nature.  (Might as well become Buddhist then, because that is exactly what they teach.)  Is this the road we want to travel?

Free will is an extension of personality and if Francis Schaeffer was right and God is personal then He must exercise free will.  Man is made in the image of God.  The personality of God disproves Calvinism.