Originally Posted by Z Man
Good point. What is your take on Psalms 90?
Psa 90:1 <A Prayer of Moses the man of God.> Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Psa 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
It reaffirms my position on time, While God is from everlasting to everlasting, no beginning or end, the earth is not, God at some point in time actually created it, the mountains etc etc
Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
Psa 90:4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Peter pulls this verse out and uses it to apply to God's patience with men verses their patience..
Psa 90:5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
Psa 90:6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
Psa 90:7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Psa 90:8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
Psa 90:9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
Psa 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Psa 90:11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
Psa 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psa 90:13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
Psa 90:14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Psa 90:15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
Psa 90:16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
Psa 90:17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Was there anything else in here you wanted me to comment on?
God does not ordain, control every thought and action.God does control, ordain every thought and action. It seems to be Zman verses Zman..
God verses God..
Zman trys to convince us he believes both are true:
This is a twofold question here.
1) Was it God's divine will that Israel worship Baal? Yes.
Zman, can you show me where God says it was my *divine* will for you to do what I didn't command, think or order?
2) Did God cause Judah to sin? No.
Was it God's divine will? Who caused them to sin and whoever it was, could they have done different? You cannot have it both ways.
First, lets look at the verses.
Jer 19:3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold,
I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
Jer 19:4
Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah,
and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
Jer 19:5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal,
which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
Jer 32:32
Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which
they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jer 32:33 And
they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
Jer 32:34 But they set
their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to
defile it
Jer 32:35 And
they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom,
to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which
I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind,
that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
I say that we're in some deep anthropomorphism here. I don't really think God has a 'mind', persay. Do you?
Yes, God actually ponders and thinks, we are not sooo totally, completely, in every aspect of our being different then He is, as to even say he has no thought process, that is to much like a man.
In fact, God Himself says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts" "My thoughts are HIGHER then your thoughts" He made us in HIS image, he has thoughts and so do we...He doesn't have them because we have them, but we have them because He does.
Notice also above once again God is saying that the thoughts we have are not his..Your theology once again says they are.
Notice God is about to pass judgment on them BECAUSE they DID NOT do his will as he had forbidden them earlier not to do this very thing.
He also points out that they are not following His instructions.
You point out they surely were..they were not out of God's will, but in it.
Notice the tone,..Israel is being blamed and the cause is God's absense..
Notice God also explains why this happened, "Because they have forsaken me"
In my theology, there is a cause clearly laid out here as to why they did this, "Because they have forsaken me"
They forsook God. They forsook God's will and repeated instructions for them to do other wise.
In your theology they didn't *really* forsake God, but merely forsook God's *revealed* will to them. His *secret* will, that only Calvinist can see..,was in effect here and Israel was simply the puppet on his hand. He was the one murdering their kids, he was just using their hands..
If I have a child and I preprogram him with a micro chip to rape, molest etc etc etc..
I can't say, well, I told you not to do this, you are doing it because you are forsaking me.
No, I am doing it through him, it's my will, not his. He doesn't have a will to do otherwise.
Your view: God pushes Israel away from him and makes them murder their kids..because he wants them to see how good they have it with him? Zman, they never left Him in your theology..Who can leave God in your theology? Your theology is contradictory and so is the nature of God your are presenting. "Only God's will comes to pass" "We don't always do God's will" Both cannot be true.
If God ordains all things..can something other then what he ordains happen?
God also says that they SHOULD not have done it. At some point if this was God's will for them he would have had to of orderd it, he says he never did, but we do see he orderd them not to..
2)Zman, is obedience better then sacrifice? Does God delight more in obedience or sacrifice? Which would he rather have and which brings him the most glory?
1 Sam. 15:22 plainly states that God delights in obedience more than sacrifice. In other words, God is more interested in the heart than in your good works. Many Jews took sacrificing for granted, thinking that they could get away with a lot of stuff, as long as they made a sacrifice at the end of the day, or week, or month, or whatever, to cover their sins. But God made it known that He is more interested in genuine love and obedience from the heart rather than someone who uses God to cover their guilt. That's all I take from that verse.
So you are affirming that God has more "Delight" in obedience then sacrifice?
He wants men to love him and do what is right for THEIR own good..saying a few hail marries doesn't negate the consequnce of sin..
But why isn't isreal doing what you say God wants of them above, if that is His will for them? How are they able to thwart it and do otherwise?
And if God would rather have obediance, then why didn't God bring about what he would rather have so he wouldn't have to come in the person of Christ and die on the cross?
Wouldn't he rather of had Adam obey from the start?
3)In your theology isn't it true that there really is no such thing as disobedience to God? Are we not always obeying God no matter what we do?
Of course not. When we sin, it's not because God MADE us against our will. A person's desire to murder someone, or to rob a store, are not for God's glory, but for their own personal glory or selfish ambitions.
Zman men don't have a will in your theology other then Gods. They are simply carrying out God's will at all times, please name a time when a man is not doing the will of God.
You cannot have it both ways, God ordains all and men can't do otherwise, and then this, "When we sin it's because we want to"
Why do we want to Zman?
In the end, all knees will bow, and every tounge will confess that Jesus is Lord. He'll get His glory, one way or another. That's His perfect will. We may not like it, and we may not even follow it sometimes, as Israel is seen doing here, but nonetheless, it still stands, and forever will.
How could we resist his perfect will?? "We may not follow it at times"??
It is not possible for men to disobey God who preprogrammed them to obey his every command, regardless of what that thought or action is.
I'm not saying Jesus didn't have power to do such a thing. I'm simply stating that He would never use it. His plan was for redemption for all mankind, so that He could receive glory. If calling angels down from Heaven would of glorified God more than sacrificing His own Son, it would of been done that way. But God knew better. Thus, Jesus had no choice
.
But my question is, did he have the true freedom to do it? I didn't ask you if he would have, but if he COULD have, considering all the prophecies..and what would be your take on "Slain before the foundation of the world" You already agreed that Jesus was not wrong when he said the father would send them if he called..
Is it possible what glorified God most is that Jesus had the freedom to call on those angels, but redeemed us instead. That Jesus could have really done other then the prophesies, yet with his freewill, chose not to, isn't that, in part not only the value of the cross, but the evidence for Christ love for us?
Does God have emotions?
Danny