PhD: Twitter quote 29
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MPhil: John Calvin (1543)-If freedom is opposed to coercion, I both acknowledge and consistently maintain that choice is free and I hold anyone who thinks otherwise to be a heretic.
MPhil version
Calvin stated concerning free will: If freedom is opposed to coercion, I both acknowledge and consistently maintain that choice is free and I hold anyone who thinks otherwise to be a heretic. If, I say, it were called free in this sense of not being coerced nor forcibly moved by an external impulse, but moving of its own accord, I have no objection. Calvin (1543)(1996: 68).
Human beings in Calvin’s thinking were not forced by God to sin, but God as an infinite being had and used the power to use their sin for the greater good. So to say that God willed evil for the greater good means that God could use sinful actions of others in order to accomplish his divine purpose.
CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.
The MPhil was part one of the PhD program, in a sense.
MPhil Full Version This website
Interesting. Allow me, without putting my foot in it (I keep the other foot in a duffel bag, to present my view. Sin. What is it? Well, we know this. The word sin is a noun. A sinner has more to do, if not everything, with religion is seen as an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. For me there is no such thing as divine but I guess you already know that. Now as I understand it the word, as all words are, is an invention of humankind. Its meaning for religious purposes is of or like God or a god. It also applies to "heroes with divine powers." Divine is an adjective. Now these two words, sin and divine are words I fully understand but which have different meanings depending on how you stand in the debate. From John Calvin's viewpoint I presume he believes in 'original sin' therefore making humankind sinners. That is right isn't it? It then follows John Calvin believed humankind unable or rather incapable of going cap-in-hand to God to repent as they, humankind that is and according to Calvin, don't have the free will that God has? Right? Does this not present God as only half doing His job? Would the creator of all things have created humankind only for them to constantly mess up his creation? No doubt I am being thick here. Therefore, God having given us free will must have known, deliberately making us flawed so able to fail at times. Right? (Give a fellow a break as I am English!)
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Allow me, without putting my foot in it (I keep the other foot in a duffel bag, to present my view. Sin. What is it? Well, we know this. The word sin is a noun. A sinner has more to do, if not everything, with religion is seen as an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. For me there is no such thing as divine but I guess you already know that. Now as I understand it the word, as all words are, is an invention of humankind. Its meaning for religious purposes is of or like God or a god. It also applies to "heroes with divine powers." Divine is an adjective. Now these two words, sin and divine are words I fully understand but which have different meanings depending on how you stand in the debate. From John Calvin's viewpoint I presume he believes in 'original sin' therefore making humankind sinners. That is right isn't it? It then follows John Calvin believed humankind unable or rather incapable of going cap-in-hand to God to repent as they, humankind that is and according to Calvin, don't have the free will that God has? Right? Does this not present God as only half doing His job? Would the creator of all things have created humankind only for them to constantly mess up his creation? No doubt I am being thick here. Therefore, God having given us free will must have known, deliberately making us flawed so able to fail at times. Right? (Give a fellow a break as I am English!)
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Russell
ReplyDeleteI pray for you at times, glad you are hanging in there! My Dad and I were planning on seeing Scotland and me Scotland/England this year, but that was flushed down the drain by the pandemic.
God’s work is not yet completed. Good point, Russell. There is not a new heaven and new earth (Revelation 20-22).
See Genesis, then Romans, Galatians, Ephesians 1-2, there is due to the fall, a sin nature, sinful, human nature.
Right, humankind, to Calvin, and to me (Reformed theology), cannot repent in salvation, apart from God, sufficiently, because it is sinful nature that leads to sinful choices. People do not have libertarian free will (incompatibilism), but what I call limited free will (compatibilism).
God did not coerce or force a fall, but made significantly free angels (some fell) and significantly free human beings (all fell other than God incarnate Christ). The fall was in the plans of God. I do not believe people were made flawed but they were finitely (limited) perfect and in the case of humanity, at least, inexperienced with potential problems of evil.
The atoning and resurrection work of Christ for those chosen in him, is an eternal plan of God.
Some within humanity will be regenerated, justified and sanctified in salvation and some will not. This being God's perfect will. Christ is the lamb slain from the foundations of the world (Revelation 13: 8).
Also...
Ephesians 1:3-4 New American Standard Bible (NASB) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before [a]Him. In love Footnotes: (a) Ephesians 1:4 Or Him, in love
God's eternal plan as the first and primary cause, included a human sin, fall and rebellion. This implies significantly free creatures that will sin, is the eternal plan which makes sense as Christ is the lamb slain from the foundations of the world, in other words, the atoning and resurrection work of God the Son, Jesus Christ, applied to those chosen is an eternal triune, plan. Persons are morally accountable for sin as secondary causes, as long as they are not forced or coerced to do so, and therefore those not within the Kingdom of God, post-mortem, with limited free will, embrace their exclusion.