I think you are quite right to say that such matters are a mystery and I think it was Immanuel Kant who said we humans are unable to imagine alternate reality or “categories” in detail. We seem limited to describing heaven and hell in earthly terms, including in the Bible.
Random Questions; Bible-based answers
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I think you are quite right to say that such matters are a mystery and I think it was Immanuel Kant who said we humans are unable to imagine alternate reality or “categories” in detail. We seem limited to describing heaven and hell in earthly terms, including in the Bible.
A lot of this comes down to language, which as i've mentioned before, it's very limited to describe the details of God. It can't.
That's where faith comes in. So far you have a very good understanding of harmonization between the Bible and our reality and i like a lot of your writings.
As it was mentioned in the other thread about Atheists, they also suffer from language barriers too and most of them are incapable of thinking freely.
There is no such thing as "lack of belief" when you realize something in your head. "lack of belief" means "blank state" or you're not aware of something. But once you're aware of it, you can't be unaware of it unless ... you have a head injury and you go into a coma.
But as long as you're conscious, you can't be unaware of an internal idea which you arrived at by yourself and then somehow be unaware of this idea, in this case regarding God.
I was very very close to "lack of belief" because i was raised in state-sanctioned atheism in a communist country.
Yet, i was able to ask Origin questions and arrive at a conclusion that there is an Almighty Creator who put this whole reality into motion.
I did this without anybody telling me anything about religion, Christianity or anything of the sorts.
This means that a human raised by the wolves in a forest has the inclination to ask origin questions without being affected by Culture.
The Bible speaks of the "no excuse" verses too, some of which you have mentioned in your posts.
Thank you.
Yes, as in morally accountable to God, but you are correct that this hardly matters. It is merely a mental exercise about a random topic, and I also doubt we will ever encounter aliens and thereby answer this question.
For quite some time one of my favourite movies was Contact, based on the book by Carl Sagan. Did you ever see it? The main character's dad used to tell his daughter that if there wasn't life on other planets, it was an awful waste of space. Or something like that. But such proclamations are only meant to, what? Give us some comfort? I wonder who is comforted by such thinking. Atheists? To know they/we are not alone in the vastness of the universe? We already know we are not alone. Science fiction is an interesting genre, though...
The heavenly bodies were created for the purpose of ministering to the earth:
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. Gen 1:14-15 (KJV)
I'm looking forward to your answer on this.
But besides that other concept that i'm waiting for you to say, that you haven't said it, i would like to tell you this:
With great power comes great responsibility.
This was sort of a joke that someone else said it here based on the spiderman movie, i think it was @Aaron56 who said it to another user who was enlightened like you GWH.
But there is truth in that joke because when we have growth, then you have to be caring of others so you don't stress them out since many may be unable to cross certain mental barriers and may not have a free mind like you, me or a few others.
Just saying.
I appreciate your word of caution, and so I would like for you to answer first, preferably citing Scripture, but not necessarily.
I'll answer a couple.
Is God free?
Yes. I don't have a specific scripture for this but that's the understanding that one gets after reading the Bible and finding ourselves in His Creation.
Can God be evil?
I'll skip this one, since i also suffer from the same language limitations of our condition here where we don't have the words to describe the mind and character of God and since we're in text, it will most likely be misunderstood.
Can The Father change His will?
Yes. Moses did and "changed His mind".
We are approaching language barriers here too.
"will" , "mind", "plan", "course of action", "divine mercy" etc.
Can Jesus sin?
No. There are many passages in the Bible that confirm this. I don't have any at the moment since i'm also from my phone, but it's also like the question 1. It's sort of a summary of the understanding of the Bible.
Could the Holy Spirit become demonic?
No. This is the same as above.
I'll answer a couple.
Is God free?
Yes. I don't have a specific scripture for this but that's the understanding that one gets after reading the Bible and finding ourselves in His Creation.
Can God be evil?
I'll skip this one, since i also suffer from the same language limitations of our condition here where we don't have the words to describe the mind and character of God and since we're in text, it will most likely be misunderstood.
Can The Father change His will?
Yes. Moses did and "changed His mind".
We are approaching language barriers here too.
"will" , "mind", "plan", "course of action", "divine mercy" etc.
Can Jesus sin?
No. There are many passages in the Bible that confirm this. I don't have any at the moment since i'm also from my phone, but it's also like the question 1. It's sort of a summary of the understanding of the Bible.
Could the Holy Spirit become demonic?
No. This is the same as above.
Thanks! Re language limitations, I agree although we must assume given that we are created in God's image that this barrier is breached to a sufficient extent for understanding His plan of salvation. Here is my reasoning by way of answering these related questions.
If God cannot do what He has decreed to be evil, then He would not be as free as volitional creatures, and there would be no basis for praising His holiness. Paul (in RM 9:16-21) upholds the freedom of God to love or hate as He chooses. Just as God created physical laws such as gravity, so He created moral laws such as “love everyone” and determined a plan of salvation involving the atoning death of Messiah to win our redemption from hell. Thou shalt love (MT 22:37-40).
The cliche “might makes right” is true; it is because God is almighty that only He can determine what is right ultimately. There is no super-divine authority that determines God; God is self-determined. The only basis humans have for evaluating whether God is just is understanding how God’s acts and judgments are consistent with the moral principles He has ordained for those created in His image (RM 3:22-26).
God’s decision to be all-loving is rational, because God is pleased by doing good for creatures, but it is free because God could have chosen to anoint Satan to embody evil logic/lies rather than Jesus to manifest love and truth (JN 1:14, PHP 2:9-11), and this earthly existence would be hell (RV 19:11-13, 20:7-10 & 21:6-8).
If God were ever to change His mind, it would mean that God is tricky and that morality is ultimately arbitrary. Thus, ultimate reality would indeed be a farce (although we are unable to imagine an alternative moral reality in detail, cf. Kant). This is why we should not take God and divine love for granted. Instead, we should be eternally grateful that God has decreed loving to be right, and He promises never to change (ML 3:6). Let us praise God in the spirit of Psalm 66:1: “Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing to the glory of his name; Offer him glory and praise!”
I will share my answers for the three questions involving the Triunity next time.
The Bible speaks of "wisdom from above" as a standard of reason for the sons of God. So, I will employ what I have gained from my connection with God to answer your questions. I won't have room to unpack everything but I invite further discussion. ("And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much debate...")
Is God free?
Since God is all-powerful, power cannot be used to understand His nature. His will will always be done. However, He limits Himself in this manner: God is love and truth. Since He has decided to be known by love and truth then love and truth constrains His will. He decided this as it is His prerogative to do so.
If God is constrained in any way it is because He decided to be so. And, because of His eternal nature, He is not free to vacillate between positions that change His character. He is. And He has not changed. Now, His positions might change on a number of things but no position will change His character. He cannot be "good" and then "evil" from an eternal p.o.v.
In short, no, God is not free. He is constrained by love and truth. As a son of God grows in wisdom and maturity he becomes less free, as well.
Can God be evil?
Only from man's point of view.
Is the Father able to change His will?
Yes, as long as He remains in love and truth. He limited Himself in this way.
Is God the Son free to sin?
If you mean Jesus, yes. Like Adam he was free to sin. But, unlike Adam He did not sin. If He had then He would not have become The Christ with all authority in heaven and on earth. There is no sin in Him and there never will be.
Could the Holy Spirit become demonic?
A fallen angel and the Holy Spirit are two different beings. Only fallen angels are demonic. And, because the Holy Spirit shares the same nature as God (love and truth) He cannot be evil or take part in evil.
Aaron, I like/agree with most of what you said, but I think God's character is known by His actions (just as ours, who are in His image).
I think you were more correct in saying "If God is constrained in any way it is because He decided to be so".
Yes, and this is why we should not take God's love for granted but rather be grateful that He promises never to change His mind/character/law of love--even though He is as free to do so as we are to sin, repent, and commit apostasy.
We DO rightfully judge that God is righteous or just by understanding how God’s acts and judgments are consistent with the moral principles He has ordained for those created in His image (RM 3:22-26).
I am from the phone again so I won’t be able to give you a full response but I can give you a quick summary.
The reason why the dualities exists as you’ve explained elsewhere @GWH is to make our small minds appreciate God WITHOUT understanding the fine details in creation by seeing with our eyes or by faith, by not understanding how God creates a miracle within the miracle of creation by defying the rules.
So this remains an ultimate mystery and as @Aaron56 eloquently put it, from
Our point of view, God may appear as “evil” but our point of view is pretty stupid because we don’t have the full deck that God has.
So we have faith and believe again.
This is very close to the young earth vs old earth argument.
The Bible says 6 days but my eyes see 14 billion years.
What do I make of that?
A mystery. I simply know and trust that God’s ways can’t be understood by my small mind.
The reason why the dualities exists as you’ve explained elsewhere @GWH is to make our small minds appreciate God WITHOUT understanding the fine details in creation by seeing with our eyes or by faith, by not understanding how God creates a miracle within the miracle of creation by defying the rules.
So this remains an ultimate mystery and as @Aaron56 eloquently put it, from
Our point of view, God may appear as “evil” but our point of view is pretty stupid because we don’t have the full deck that God has.
So we have faith and believe again.
This is very close to the young earth vs old earth argument.
The Bible says 6 days but my eyes see 14 billion years.
What do I make of that?
A mystery. I simply know and trust that God’s ways can’t be understood by my small mind.
Not a chance.
The Bible is not a moral book. It is spiritual and to be understood spiritually. That means without the Spirit of God in a man, that man cannot understand what God is saying through the scriptures. To treat it as a moral book would be to make it another Law of Sinai where the people, because they did not know God, would follow the text thinking they, through it, obtain a superior position in the earth. Such reasoning keeps men in darkness.
Well, if YOU have not made a moral judgment that God is righteous, then why did you decide to accept His Lordship?
The Bible is a book that advocates cooperating with God's will, about BOTH spiritual or salvific faith AND moral behavior; both EPH 2:8-9 AND EPH 2:10, etc.