I do not believe that God’s goal is to create a world (New Earth) without any freedom of will. And I wouldn’t call such a world perfect either. So that definition of perfect doesn’t work for me either.
Nor do I think the “new Earth” means a world without children for whom sin will always be possibility. I think the “new Earth” more likely means a world where sin and evil isn’t such a dominant force and power – a world where sin is understood for what it is (self-destructive) and thus overcome much more quickly.
That seems to mean Mary praises the Lord. And no I don’t think God created us in order to praised by us. Our praise for God is for our benefit.
My unfamiliarity is more about not being raised in a Christian culture let alone a Catholic one.
Something that you learn in Freshman Comp that you have apparently forgotten is that you do not need to keep repeating “I think”, “I believe”, “It’s my opinion”, etc etc. Of course it’s your opinion or whatever – it’s your voice! (It also weakens your argument in public speaking or debate.)
Try thinking about it this way: when your will is subsumed by love, you cannot sin. It’s got nothing to do with losing your free will! (Mine isn’t there yet, you might have noticed.)
We are are in agreement. Darkness, chaos, void was a necessary essential precondition for creation.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance define them as: “From an unused root meaning to lie waste; a desolation (of surface), that is, desert; figuratively a worthless thing; adverbially in vain: - confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness. From an unused root (meaning to be empty); a vacuity, that is, (superficially) an undistinguishable ruin: - emptiness, void. The dark; hence (literally) darkness; figuratively misery, Destruction, Death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness: darkness, Night, Obscurity.”
We can agree on negative state yes? also No word creation? yes ?
I am wondering…how is this any different from Theistic Evolution?
The entire problem with any reconciliation here is that it has the exact same theological problems. If one takes a wholistic theological approach to the consistency of biblical self revelation in its interpretation (across all of the Bible), it is impossible to marry the two together. This is also unfortunately why it is that there are very few Christian denominations that actually are true Christian churches.
The vast majority of Christian churches do no follow the bible properly…particularly when it comes to the 4th Commandment. As soon as that commandment is thrown out the window, there is room for theistic evolution to intermarry with true Christianity. This is because Exodus 20:8-11 becomes irrelevant to the problem TEism faces because its already been explained away by another false doctrine found in the majority of Christian churches (ie Sunday worship)
Exodus 20:8Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates. 11For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
No there is not…there is no biblical passage anywhere in the Bible where you will find God actively promoting Sunday worship. here are the key tests of this doctrine:
God Rested on the Sabbath
God blessed the Sabbath
God Sanctified the Sabbath
Please show me a biblical passage that supports God doing any of the above to Sunday worship? Also, I am a former high school teacher. Teachers normally teach what they wish their students to put into practice in life. Given the nature of teaching, show me an example where our teacher (Christ) teaches us to worship on Sunday?
EDIT,
your article is wrong about the only commandment of the ten being called a covenant BTW.
oh i see…so you now have your own bible based on how apparently you view Gods heart. Im rather suprised at that because here is what the prophet samuel said to king Saul in that regard
1Sam 15:10Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, 11“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.”
You cannot distinguish between the kind of rest God took in Genesis 2:2 and the one he took on the first day of the week after his bloody sweat in Gethsemane?
The essence of privation is the removal of Gods power. ( I think we all agree with this definition? ) Gods self removal creates what we see here as first state for the creation. Next Gods Goodness (word) begins to form, or like you said paint on this canvas turning it from negative state to progression toward goodness. God does not nor cannot call Gen 1v1,2 “good”. as he cannot lie. Goodness starts in vs 3 “let there be light” like calling Lazarus from the tomb.
I’m thinking in a new way that makes more sense of the text, and our observations of the universe. Also it reads the text as gospel truth, death to life which is a powerful apologetic and evangelistic tool rather than arguing about age of earth, creation order as provable scientific fact etc.
Why I believe it needs to be negative as first state? God Is ontologically absolute or actually Infinite. No space in God (no room). God glory is ALL IN ALL. For God to create anything He has to create first space within Himself, a self removal to accommodate anything at all. This can only be the death of Christ. Gods self removal is the first cause or universal necessity for creation.
This is the ontological problem I was referring to earlier. We have two things needing to be justified.
our existence within a actual infinite God of Glory (spatial dilemma caused by Gods maximal glory)
So it shall be, while My Glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand…(Exodus 33:22) Why? because Gods glory is absolute and by definition should annihilate all but Himself (lots of texts for this).
This cleft God creates is space (heavens) itself… I mean outer space, dark, entropic and desolate. It defines God as Holy and separate from the creation. And the creation is In God. Like a baby in the womb the creation is in, dependent and separate as being.
our moral condition (well developed atonement theology)
I’m suggesting In Christ’s work we have a ontological universal justification for all things to exist within the actual and also a particular moral justification for the elect. The body (ontological) and blood (atonement), The body contains the blood. The universal contains the particular. Paul said “we all sin AND fall short of his glory”. I’m suggesting these are two separate issues both solved by Christ’s work.
So you are still not providing direct biblical passages that give us Gods intention to change the sabbath…not a single one. I have another for you from the last book in the bible cannon (and likely one of the last books written in scripture as it is dated about A.D 90…after most of the original apostles had died)
Revelation 14: 9And a third angel followed them, calling out in a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives its mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. Day and night there is no rest for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
12Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
and i take issue with the validity of the article used as a reference for changing the sabbath too. Heres why…these are quotes directly from its author:
I have been rewarded per John 14:21 8 regarding this issue?
and will manifest myself to him.” I would like to suggest that he manifests himself to me as the Sovereign Lord
Most who know me know that Father has given me a lot of what I call “co-instants” or
“co-instances”
If I have been so rewarded to see his personal and interventionist immanence so frequently
Apparently the author of this article is a prophet of the Lord who has been given insight into the doctrines of TEism and Sunday worship…God has told you to worship on Sunday (despite his own Word saying that the Seventh Day Sabbath is the Sabbath of the Lord our God).
Clearly you do not understand the importance of the OT Sanctuary service and what it means on this topic. If you did, you would not defend Sunday worship.
Its is different in that it transcends over the debate and plants the Gospel as the focus. Jesus said I am the first and last. Now if we apply this as an rule we can look most intently for Jesus in the beginning and the end of the bible. By placing our focus on Jesus in the Genesis creation narrative (as well as revelation) we can gracefully and humbly navigate difficulties that can cause much division in the body. We can claim with all zeal that Genesis is absolutely true in its written form, it is an inerrant narrative about the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Genesis is also metaphysical absolutely true as well. (that’s a philosophical discussion). Is it Literal/ historical truth?.. it could be but it may not need to be… we need to do more “good” Science.
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8,
“All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:3)
I’m sorry we could discuss lords day in a private message if you would like. I’m not a real expert on that issue. I wanted this to stay on track with the original topic
