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| Summer in British Columbia: trekerarth |
Two more fine sermons from Grace Baptist Church and Pastor Michael Phillips
The Apostasy May 23 2004
Cited
If Apostasy is deserting God at any time, The Apostasy is a worldwide deserting of God just before the Second Coming of Christ. That's the doctrine.
Cited
Revelation 20:7-10....(In regards to, my add).
Continued with Citation...
I agree with much of this: Satan will run amok near the end of time. He will deceive the nations as he once did. He will be arrested and sent to hell by the Returning King. But what does this have to do with the Apostasy of the Church? John explicitly tells us that Satan misleads the nations, not the Church.
The imagery of a Surrounded City or a Besieged Camp seems to teach persecution from the outside-and not corruption from the inside.
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Agreed.
Cited
II Thessalonians 2:1-12 Two things precede the Second Coming, vv.3-4. Before the Lord comes again, there will be (1) a falling away, and (2) The Man of Sin will be revealed.
Cited
I think the Man of Sin is a real man, flesh and blood, like you and me, only possessed by the devil.
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Pastor Phillips does not indicate this is 'Man of Sin' is 'the antichrist' (the Antichrist)..
In other sermons he reasons that there are biblically many, from the New Testament era to now, that opposed and will oppose Christ as 'an antichrist'. However, I must admit here, that if biblically, there is one key antichrist, perhaps the Antichrist; then the lawless one in 2 Thessalonians is certainty a significant and key, candidate.
This event is also as I have noted in other articles, futurist and not preterist in the New Testament text. Nor, as history tells us, did the events in 2 Thessalonians 2 occur within the New Testament era..
2 Thessalonians 2: 7-8
New American Standard Bible
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. 8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His [f]coming; f 2 Thessalonians 2:8 Or presence
Jesus Christ literally destroys the lawless one at this point, in some context to do with breath from his mouth. It appears quite literal language, as Jesus Christ as the God-man would be quite capable of destroying an opponent that way. It is a future event.
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MOUNCE, ROBERT H. (1990) The Book of Revelation, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Pelagianism November 17 2002
Cited
In regard to Pelagius Cited In other words, he believed in man's free will. The term itself is not always understood.
All Christians (nearly all of us at any rate) believe that man's will is free-in a certain way. God does not force us to do things against our own wishes. On this point, both St. Augustine and John Calvin would agree with Pelagius.
But Pelagius meant far more than this. He believed that man's will is neutral or equally free to choose God or Satan, good or bad, heaven or hell.
Cited
Salvation by grace doesn't mean God endows us with everything necessary to save ourselves (that's what Pelagius said). It means God saves us! Jesus Christ is not our helper, He is our Savior! We are not saved by our good works, but by the Grace of God.
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Corrupted human nature (Genesis 1-3, Romans, Ephesians as examples) cancels out any legitimate, biblical theology of a neutral human nature. Presently, human nature is fallen/corrupted/sinful and needs regeneration (John 3, Titus 3) via the Holy Spirit in the Gospel, to begin the work of sanctification in salvation. Competed at the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).
My MPhil and PhD theses work, and my website work, within a Reformed theological tradition, and within philosophy of religion, is not pelagian, which would be within incompatibilism. An extreme form of incompatibilism.
Instead I hold to compatibilism. Note that my British theses work heavily depended on philosophical terminology, as I have noted my work was as much philosophy of religion as it was Reformed theology.
I remain unapologetic! All truth is God's truth!
Indeterminism is equated with incompatibilism which states that God, or any other being, cannot cause by force or coercion any human action, nor can any action be simultaneously willed by God or any other being, for the human action to remain significantly free. Also known as libertarian free will.
Or at least libertarian free will is within incompatibilism.
Philosophically, compatibilism would agree with incompatibilism that God or any other being cannot cause by force or coercion any significantly free human action, for which there would be significant moral accountability, but contrary to incompatibilism reasons that God can simultaneously will significantly free human actions for which there is significant human, moral accountability.
J.S. Feinberg explains that compatibilism does not allow for coercion or force, but holds that God, or some outside force, can simultaneously determine with the use of persuasion, that an action will or will not take place. Feinberg (1986: 24). Feinberg writes that certain nonconstraining conditions could strongly influence actions, in conjunction with human free will performing these actions. Feinberg (1994: 60). With this viewpoint, there will be no contradiction in stating that God would create human beings who were significantly free, unconstrained, and yet committed actions that God willed. Feinberg (2001: 637).
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