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| Maple Ridge 2012 |
Preface
I met the late Dr. Pinnock in 2000-2001 in
Manchester, England at Ivy Cottage Church. He was very kind and supportive as I
had moved on from my appointment at Manchester University, after a worldview conflict,
to the University of Wales.
He was a proponent of openness, as he called it. Open theism.
Edited work with commentary from
2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: PhD thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter
On God’s Sovereignty
Clark Pinnock (1986) explains that God
could have made a world in which he determined every last detail,[1]
but God did not, and instead there exists a world where significantly free
moral agents exist.[2] The created universe therefore does not
always follow God’s intentions.[3]
Continued
Pinnock explains that there is a tension in the Biblical text between God determining things and human freedom.[4] Contrary to strongly Calvinistic or sovereignty orientated approaches,[5] there is within the Bible the idea that God has the power to create any possible universe, including ones with significantly free creatures.[6] Such a universe would ultimately be under the sovereign control of God, but this does not mean that everything occurring is according to God’s intentions.[7] Pinnock states that God did not create a world where he determines every detail,[8] and therefore the Biblical idea of God’s sovereignty is not as deterministic as the Calvinistic concept. Pinnock’s idea is similar to Plantinga’s free will philosophy,[9] the conclusion being that if God creates a world with significantly free creatures, the creatures will eventually commit wrong actions.[10]
The Problem Of Evil
Clark Pinnock would counter that God is not
the primary cause of evil[11]
as he limits himself within creation in order not to prohibit human freedom,[12]
and this would lead to the human problem of evil.[13] This idea, however, would not be suitable for
many Calvinists and those who are Reformed, as Jonathan Edwards writes that God
controls all things.[14]
On Hell
Clark Pinnock (1992) describes a
conditional immortality view within the Four
Views on Hell text by William V. Crockett.[15] Pinnock explains that reconciliation and
redemption would be questionable within heaven if evil existed in hell forever.[16] Surely God would have to
abolish all evil in his new creation postulates Pinnock.[17]
2015
In regard to sovereignty it reads like an incompatibilist view, contrary to compatibilism and a Reformed view.
2015
In regard to sovereignty it reads like an incompatibilist view, contrary to compatibilism and a Reformed view.
In my view reconciliation and redemption does
not Biblically take place with the unregenerate (or demonic forces), but only those in Christ. The problem of evil is Biblically eventually solved in
the present realm, our Universe, which would be restored. It is not solved in
the lake of fire (Revelation) where those opposed to God and Christ, reside
everlastingly.
BROWING, W.R.F.
(1997) Oxford Dictionary of the Bible,
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
CROCKET, WILLIAM
(1992) Four Views On Hell, William
Crocket (ed.),
Grand Rapids,
Zondervan Publishing House.
EDWARDS,
JONATHAN (1729)(2006) Sovereignty of God,
New Haven, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University.
http://edwards.yale.edu/archive/documents/page?document_id=10817&search_id=&source_type=edited&pagenumber=1
EDWARDS,
JONATHAN (1731-1733)(2006) Law of Nature,
New Haven, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards Center, Yale University.
EDWARDS,
JONATHAN (1754)(2006) Freedom of the Will,
Flower Mound, Texas. Jonathanedwards.com.
http://www.jonathanedwards.com
http://www.jonathanedwards.com
PINNOCK, CLARK
(1986) Predestination and Free Will, Downers Grove, Illinois, InterVarsity
Press.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN
C. (1977)(2002) God, Freedom, and Evil,
Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN
C. (1982) The Nature of Necessity,
Oxford, Clarendon Press.
PLANTINGA, ALVIN
C. (2000) Warranted Christian Belief,
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
[2] Pinnock (1986: 145).
[3] Pinnock (1986: 145).
[4] Pinnock (1986: 143).
[6] Pinnock (1986: 145).
[7] Pinnock (1986: 145).
[10] Plantinga (1977)(2002: 53).
[13] Pinnock (1986: 108-109).
[14] Edwards (1729)(2006: 414).
[16] Pinnock in Crockett (1992: 154).
[17] Pinnock in Crockett (1992: 154). Browning suggests everlasting hell concepts
such as Hades may relate to the Christian, New Testament use of ancient myths
that consisted of the ‘decent of deities to the underworld,’ such as Orpheus,
Eurydice and Persephone. Christ may be
understood to have descended here after his death (First Peter 3: 19). Browning (1997: 168).
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