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To: Alamo-Girl; Quix; HarleyD; Kitty Mittens; kosta50; Alex Murphy; Gamecock; blue-duncan; ...
Of a Truth, the only certain knowledge I possess is that which has been revealed to me by the Spirit...In sum, a thing is True because God says it.

Your excellent posts reminded me of a few lines from Calvin's Commentary on Romans 11:34 as Calvin seeks to further understand Paul's use of the phrase "the mind of Christ." (Note also the word 'predestination' here simply means God's will and His plan for creation.) Calvin's comments regarding the Holy Spirit are remarkably similar to your thinking.

34. Who has known the mind of the Lord?

He (Paul) begins here to extend as it were his hand to restrain the audacity of men, lest they should clamor against God’s judgments, and this he does by stating two reasons: the first is, that all mortals are too blind to take a view of God’s predestination by their own understanding, and to reason on a thing unknown is presumptuous and absurd; the other is, that we can have no cause of complaint against God, since no mortal can boast that God is a debtor to him; but that, on the contrary, all are under obligations to him for his bounty.

Within this limit then let every one remember to keep his own mind, lest he be carried beyond God’s oracles in investigating predestination, since we hear that man can distinguish nothing in this case, any more than a blind man in darkness. This caution, however, is not to be so applied as to weaken the certainty of faith, which proceeds not from the acumen of the human mind, but solely from the illumination of the Spirit; for Paul himself in another place, after having testified that all the mysteries of God far exceed the comprehension of our minds, immediately subjoins that the faithful understand the mind of the Lord, because they have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which has been given them by God, by whom they are instructed as to his goodness, which otherwise would be incomprehensible to them.

As then we cannot by our own faculties examine the secrets of God, so we are admitted into a certain and clear knowledge of them by the grace of the Holy Spirit: and if we ought to follow the guidance of the Spirit, where he leaves us, there we ought to stop and as it were to fix our standing. If any one will seek to know more than what God has revealed, he shall be overwhelmed with the immeasurable brightness of inaccessible light. But we must bear in mind the distinction, which I have before mentioned, between the secret counsel of God, and his will made known in Scripture; for though the whole doctrine of Scripture surpasses in its height the mind of man, yet an access to it is not closed against the faithful, who reverently and soberly follow the Spirit as their guide; but the case is different with regard to his hidden counsel, the depth and height of which cannot by any investigation be reached.


958 posted on 03/18/2007 11:23:32 AM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg

Some good wisdom in your post . . . however, I take this a bit differently than you, most likely:

and to reason on a thing unknown is presumptuous and absurd;

I consider it presumptuous and absurd for hyper Calvinists to functionally obliterate the BOTH/ANDs of Scripture on such issues.

We don't know--certainly with any precision--how to resolve the SEEMING mutually exclusive FLAVORED Scriptural BOTH AND Scriptures on such a topic.

But it IS PRESUMPTUOUS AND ABSURD to therefore throw out all the uncomfortable ones via WHATEVER rationalization or 'slightl-of-hand-logic.'


973 posted on 03/18/2007 1:28:15 PM PDT by Quix (GOD ALONE IS WORTHY; PAID THE PRICE; IS ABLE; LOVE GOD WHOLLY, HIM & HIS KINGDOM 1ST)
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To: Dr. Eckleburg
Thank you so much for sharing Calvin's testimony and insights! And thank you for the encouragements.

...the certainty of faith, which proceeds not from the acumen of the human mind, but solely from the illumination of the Spirit

Beautifully and truly said.

1,001 posted on 03/18/2007 9:25:20 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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