Is our God a God of absolutes or of hypotheticals?
... secondly, it does not reverse the succession of grace and glory in the two orders of eternal intention and of execution in time, but makes glory depend on merit in eternity as well as in the order of time.
Eternal glory by merit? OK.
This hypothetical decree reads as follows: Just as in time eternal happiness depends on merit as a condition, so I intended heaven from all eternity only for foreseen merit.
It appears that God is leaving out somebody pretty important here. Maybe the name slipped His mind. :) I hope that I am just misunderstanding this whole thing.
It is only by reason of the infallible foreknowledge of these merits that the hypothetical decree is changed into an absolute: These and no others shall be saved.
The fatal flaw in this is that it only potentially works if God created, and then turned His back completely on His creation and just watched what happened. If one believes, as I do and I "think" all Catholics do, that God is active in our world, then God is foreseeing His own actions. Therefore He is already a part of the action and CANNOT rely solely on what He foresees as the actions of others to make His predestination determinations. He's already involved. The hypothetical thus falls apart.
As the “possessing” of the Kingdom of Heaven in time is here linked to the works of mercy as a condition, so the “preparation” of the Kingdom of Heaven in eternity, that is, predestination to glory is conceived as dependent on the foreknowledge that good works will be performed.
A perfect example of what I'm saying. This theory requires that good works are done TOTALLY APART from God. But if good works are God working through us, then the whole thing reverts back to the Reformed position on predestination. It makes no logical sense for God to predestine based on foreseen good works, IF God was involved in those good works.
Mark: The dogma of double predestination assumes that God is the author of sin and death. We reject that. If God gives the whole world His grace, then He has made it possible for everyone to be saved.
Then you don't accept the definition of double predestination by those who believe in it. You redefine it and disagree with THAT. This has nothing to do with us. Double predestination means that God in His sovereignty infallibly predestined some to glory by giving them saving grace. By logical extension, it also means that God did not predestine others to eternal glory because He did not give them saving grace. That's pretty much it. Where is God authoring evil in any of this? Do you hypothetically call God evil for choosing not to give someone saving grace? If so, on what basis? God DOES give SOME grace (or blessings) to all men, but not saving grace.
***Is our God a God of absolutes or of hypotheticals?***
God is. What we know of Him is what He has chosen to tell us.
***Eternal glory by merit? OK.***
The Beatitudes. The parable of the talents. We do not reverse the order of importance - without God’s Grace we absolutely cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven - that is first and foremost. But we can reject His Grace as Jesus kept telling us, and the Epistles keep telling us.
***It appears that God is leaving out somebody pretty important here. Maybe the name slipped His mind. :) I hope that I am just misunderstanding this whole thing.***
So do I. :)
***The fatal flaw in this is that it only potentially works if God created, and then turned His back completely on His creation and just watched what happened. If one believes, as I do and I “think” all Catholics do, that God is active in our world, then God is foreseeing His own actions. Therefore He is already a part of the action and CANNOT rely solely on what He foresees as the actions of others to make His predestination determinations. He’s already involved.***
Certainly He is involved and active. God so loved the world - the whole world - that He sent His Son to be crucified, killed and resurrected. Rejection of the philosophy of free will reduces Creation to a mechanical program in which God is enslaved to His own predestination.
***A perfect example of what I’m saying. This theory requires that good works are done TOTALLY APART from God. But if good works are God working through us, then the whole thing reverts back to the Reformed position on predestination. It makes no logical sense for God to predestine based on foreseen good works, IF God was involved in those good works.***
There is a huge difference between enabling and frogmarching. The Gospels keep referring to behaviour of humans in a free will sense.
***Then you don’t accept the definition of double predestination by those who believe in it. You redefine it and disagree with THAT. This has nothing to do with us. Double predestination means that God in His sovereignty infallibly predestined some to glory by giving them saving grace. By logical extension, it also means that God did not predestine others to eternal glory because He did not give them saving grace. That’s pretty much it. Where is God authoring evil in any of this? ***
That is quibbling, sir. Double predestination means that God chose some for Heaven and that He chose the rest for hell. So therefore nobody has any responsibility, authority, or the means to do anything other than mechanically go through a mechanical life in mechanical fashion just because.
***Where is God authoring evil in any of this? Do you hypothetically call God evil for choosing not to give someone saving grace? If so, on what basis? God DOES give SOME grace (or blessings) to all men, but not saving grace.***
If God predestines someone to hell, He authors evil. Why? Evildoers go to hell. But if men who do evil only do so because they HAVE to do evil, then the responsibility for that evil falls upon their Reformed Creator.
If I program my desktop computer to pop up a banner glorifying myself, is the computer worshipping me? No. It has no volition because it is made to do it. If I then program my laptop to pop up a banner that indicates that it hates me, does the computer hate me? No. It has no volition.
The Reformed viewpoint would then indicate that the laptop is evil and needs to be thrown into the trash while the desktop is good and needs to be kept near to my heart.
If God gives His Grace to the whole world, it is then up to each individual in the world to decide what to do with it.
John 3:
And just as Moses lifted up 5 the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
16
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
17
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
1 John 2:
1
My children, I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.
2
He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.
3
The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his command ments.
4
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5
But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him:
6
whoever claims to abide in him ought to live (just) as he lived.
7
Beloved, I am writing no new commandment to you but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
8
And yet I do write a new commandment to you, which holds true in him and among you, for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
9
Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.
10
Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall.
11
Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 Tim 2:
1
First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,
2
for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.
3
This is good and pleasing to God our savior,
4
who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.
5
For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human,
6
who gave himself as ransom for all. This was the testimony at the proper time.
It would seem that Christ’s message, the Grace of God, and the preference of His will to save all does not resonate with the Reformed doctrine of predestination to hell.