Tuesday 4 August 2009

Calvin or Arminius - Who Was Right?

God is sovereign - but does His will always get done? Yes and no.

God may condemn a person to hell - but hell wasn't what God originally wanted for any person.

God put sickness on Abimelech's household, but making people barren wasn't what God originally enjoyed doing.

God may permit a person to rob a bank, but He won't commission it - as brother Hagin said.

Brother Hagin didn't take sides with either Calvin or Armenius - in fact Hagin said they were both wrong.

I think Calvin and Arminius both saw some truth - and both those truths are entirely reconcilable.

It would be wrong if either of them thought their truth excluded the others. Both are reconcilable.

God is capable of willing something that He didn't originally will.

We are the same. It's like, do you as a parent like to smack your child? No and yes, at the same time. No, you wish you didn't need to smack your child; but yes, you know it's beneficial.

Do you want to go to the dentist? No, because it hurts; but yes, because you know it's necessary.

Does a parent want to temporarily kick their wayward son out of home and put them in rehab? Of course not, but yes, at the same time, if need be.

No and yes, at the same time.

Does God will to heal everybody, to give everybody long life, and accept everybody into heaven? Yes, but no.

Does God will to curse anyone, to put sickness on them, to condemn them? No but yes.

Is He the doer of it? Yes and no.

God is not willing that any should perish, we are told. Does God's will always get done? No but yes.

It really is that simple. It's only when we try to take sides with one party and describe our view using technical terms, that we start to miss it.

So whether or not a permissive verb is employed in the Hebrew Bible, still it's fair enough to say the idea at least exists in the Bible.

If God permits something, we may as well say He did it. The truths are reconcilable.

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