ECT Open Theism debate

Clete

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I don't mind you using any post of mine.
Glad you joined the discussion.


Ahhh, the word "good" and morality.

In what sense are you using "morality"?
(ha! Had to throw that in there!)

But seriously, I even question if sin is moral at times (considering we have scripture that says breaking the law is sin).
For instance:
Was it moral for the priest to give David and his hungry men the temple shewbread to eat, since it would be breaking the law?
Was it moral for Rahab to lie and deceive the citizens of Jericho to keep the Israelite spies safe, since bearing false witness would be breaking the law?
Was it moral for GOD to not implement the same standard of conduct afforded to other men when He did not have David killed for adultery and murder, since adultery and murder would be breaking the law?

How does one decide when they should implement mercy or implement the keeping of the law in any given situation?
For we know there is a time for all things under the sun. - Ecc 3:1-8

Man was not made for the law but rather the law for man but even so, it is only indirectly relevant because right and wrong (i.e. morality) existed before the law. Cain murdering Able was not against the law it was simply immoral. Indeed, the law came as a result of the first immoral act, the first rebellion against God of Life, the eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Law is, in fact, the fruit of that tree. Rebelling against the God of Life leads to death. The Law kills but the Spirit gives life. Thus, that which affirms, defends, sustains and enriches life is the good and that which denies, attacks, undermines and destroys life (i.e. that which leads to death) is the evil. This has always been so. Before the law, before the fall, before creation.

Resting in Him,
Clete
 

Tambora

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God have the capability to sin? What? No God can't sin, there is no capability for God to do wickedness whatsoever. God is love and there is no capability for God to sin. To say that, means that satan can tempt God, and God can't be tempted so God hasn't got the capability to sin.

We have the capability to sin because we are in flesh. This flesh is sinful, and we lust after it until God strengthens us through Christ to overcome.
Are you forgetting GOD's great wisdom?
Tell me why you think it is impossible for GOD's wisdom to not be great enough to cause GOD to always have the capability to make the right decisions in every choice GOD decides to make?
 

Tambora

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Man was not made for the law but rather the law for man but even so, it is only indirectly relevant because right and wrong (i.e. morality) existed before the law. Cain murdering Able was not against the law it was simply immoral. Indeed, the law came as a result of the first immoral act, the first rebellion against God of Life, the eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Law is, in fact, the fruit of that tree. Rebelling against the God of Life leads to death. The Law kills but the Spirit gives life. Thus, that which affirms, defends, sustains and enriches life is the good and that which denies, attacks, undermines and destroys life (i.e. that which leads to death) is the evil. This has always been so. Before the law, before the fall, before creation.

Resting in Him,
Clete
OK.
So would you then say breaking the law in those instances I mentioned was the moral thing to do?
 

Nihilo

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That's stupidity.

There is no authorized version of an apple. There is no authorized version of an orange. Can you tell the difference between an apple and an orange?

There is no authorized version of blue. In fact before a few hundred years ago what is called blue now was commonly called green. Can you tell the difference between blue and green?

Clete
:plain: I'd say you're mixing apples and oranges (pretty profoundly also), but you literally mentioned those yourself, so I'm at a loss . . . . :idunno:
 

Clete

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Hour two is mostly the Calvinist successfully refuting doctrines that Open Theists do not teach. He does this by, once again, redefining really easily understood English words. No one rightly believes, for example, that a decision that was made BECAUSE of something else was therefore not made freely. To have a will does not mean that your decisions are causeless, it merely means that you could have decided otherwise and that the final "cause" was your will. It's even something of a quagmire to even discuss it in those terms because to make decisions is what it means to have a will. It doesn't make a lot of sense to discuss your decisions and your will as though they are two separate things.

In order for the Calvinist's argument to even be partially effective against the Open Theist, he'd have to establish or get the Open Theist to concede that there is only one possible effect for any particular set of causes and that one's will is one of those effects. The Calvinist here doesn't even ask a question on that topic but instead presupposes the answer in the formulation of his argument. The problem he really has, however, is that if that supposition is true then it traps God just as much as it does the Open Theist. Sure, the Calvinist can claim that only God's will is uncaused but claiming is not proving and the bible never even makes the claim.

Also, the Calvinist seems to like to accuse Will of committing logical fallacies, pausing only long enough to associating Open Theism with Mormonism, Zeus and whatever other pagan thing he can think of to name. Guilt by Association Fallacy
He also commits several appeal to fear fallacies. Very dishonest but unfortunately effective tactics.


I will say that Will made the error of trusting the Calvinist enough to simply answer his questions. He should have refused to answer the question about whether God's holy triune nature ever changes. He should default with the opposite of whatever answer he thinks the Calvinist is expecting him to say or make him make his point before offering an answer. You always have to remember that English words mean something different in the Calvinist's mind than they mean in every day usage.

I'll also say that this Calvinist is, as they seemingly universally are, a condescending jerk. "It wouldn't be fair" to talk about the Greek and "I'll teach you about" this or that later. This guy's breath must smell like methane.

Clete
 

Clete

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:plain: I'd say you're mixing apples and oranges (pretty profoundly also), but you literally mentioned those yourself, so I'm at a loss . . . . :idunno:

You're suggesting that the doctrines of Open Theism and Calvinism are so plastic as to be topics that they cannot be meaningfully debated. That's just dumb.

If you have a will, Calvinism is false. If God predestined everything you have no will. The two, no matter which particular flavor you happen to pick, is fundamentally incompatible with and mutually exclusive of the other.
 

Gary K

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Back up to Adam.
Was Adam created with a sinful nature?

Because .... He has no choice to make????

From what I can tell, GOD does not have to be good and loving to all, and isn't loving and good to all.

There's that 'love' again.
GOD does't have to love everyone just because GOD is love.
GOD gets angry and kicks folks out of His presence and dumps His enemies in the lake of fire.

Sense?
Well ..... not really.
It seems you are insinuating that since GOD's nature is love, then GOD must love everyone and everything.
I don't think that means that GOD has to love everyone or everything.
Also, what GOD does can be 'good' for one group of folks and 'bad' for another group of folks.
Why is GOD being good to some and bad to others?
Is that what a good father does, only protect and save some of his children?

I think folks tend to forget that the attributes of GOD also include wrath, anger, jealousy, hatred, etc.
"GOD is love" only tells a small portion of the story.

I'm not "insinuating" anything. I'm simply saying what scripture says.
IJohn 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Paul tells us that "all scripture" is given by inspiration of Godd and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness. Therefore, one verse of scripture does not invalidate another verse. There must be a way to harmonize them. I don't disagree with the texts you referenced, and I don't disagree with John either. So, there has to be a way to harmonize these scriptures without invalidating any of the scripture. God is love. God also gets angry, has wrath, experiences jealousy, and hates, all without violating the principle that He is love. Can you agree?
 

Clete

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The Calvinist's closing statement wasn't really a closing statement. Rather than recapping his arguments he makes new ones. This is typical of Calvinist debaters. They like making arguments when the format forecloses direct response. He then goes on to respond to Will's closing statement, knowing that Will won't have a similar opportunity. He also claims that Calvinists do not affirm doctrines that they absolutely do affirm. I'll say it bluntly - he lies. He flat out and without any doubt about it KNOWS for a fact that Calvinism very clearly DOES teach that those who love God do so because and ONLY BECAUSE God ordained that they would do so and they could not have done otherwise. He's a liar, pure and simple.


Clete
 

Tambora

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I'm not "insinuating" anything. I'm simply saying what scripture says.
"Part" of what scripture says.


Paul tells us that "all scripture" is given by inspiration of Godd and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness. Therefore, one verse of scripture does not invalidate another verse. There must be a way to harmonize them. I don't disagree with the texts you referenced, and I don't disagree with John either. So, there has to be a way to harmonize these scriptures without invalidating any of the scripture. God is love. God also gets angry, has wrath, experiences jealousy, and hates, all without violating the principle that He is love. Can you agree?
Of course all scripture must be used.
Which is why saying "GOD is love" is not the whole story.
Love is not hate.
GOD does both.
If everything GOD does has to be considered "good", then hating someone (instead of loving someone) is "good" because GOD does hate.
 

Clete

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I LOVE IT when someone in the audience gives the Calvinist a dose of his own condescension and he got so offended that he nearly stands up to leave! What a lying hypocrite!
 

Clete

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The longer this goes the more I despise this dishonest fool.

He claims to equate Open Theism with Mormonism as a response to Open Theists comparing Calvinism to pagan Greek philosophy.


HE KNOWS - and I mean that literally - HE KNOWS for a fact that there is a direct historical connection between Calvinist doctrine and Greek philosophy and there is NO SUCH CONNECTION WHATSOEVER between Open Theism and Mormonism.

His stupid lies are no more valid than if I called out the similarity between Calvinism and Mormonism based on the fact that they both believe someone named Jesus died on a cross!

:madmad:
 

Clete

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I'm not "insinuating" anything. I'm simply saying what scripture says.


Paul tells us that "all scripture" is given by inspiration of Godd and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness. Therefore, one verse of scripture does not invalidate another verse. There must be a way to harmonize them. I don't disagree with the texts you referenced, and I don't disagree with John either. So, there has to be a way to harmonize these scriptures without invalidating any of the scripture. God is love. God also gets angry, has wrath, experiences jealousy, and hates, all without violating the principle that He is love. Can you agree?

Tambora doesn't need any help here but I thought that you made a good point that really touches on the very heart of the whole debate. What it comes down to in the end is one's foundational presuppositions. The Calvinist has a decidedly different set than does the Open Theist. I strongly urge you to read Bob's Enyart's opening post in a debate on this same topic.
 
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Danoh

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There is no authorized Calvinism or Open theism. Every Calvinist and OVer is their own magisterium. You're right to notice that these arguments boil down to homonymy and ambiguity. Nothing's ever solved or resolved or finalized. These things are pointless.

What there CAN be, though, is a sharper soundness in APPROACH - as in all areas of life.

Which then brings up the issue of what is going to constitute said sharper SOUNDNESS.

What are its NORMS and STANDARDS and PRINCIPLES going to be?

And then there is the issue of by what STANDARDS and NORMS and PRINCIPLES are we going to test or examine those things that differ as to whether or not we have actually been sound in our approach.

All that right there begins to allow sorting out all kinds of obvious soundness and or unsoundness - both in each our own, and or another's APPROACH and or its resulting ASSERTIONS.

And then there is the ever incompetent or hack, who easily takes issue with anyone pointing out the obvious need for an actually much more objective APPROACH.
 

glorydaz

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Tambora doesn't need any help here but I thought that you made a good point that really touches on the very heart of the whole debate. What it comes down to in the end is one's foundational presuppositions. The Calvinist has a decidedly different set than does the Open Theist. I strongly urge you to read Bob's Enyart's open post in a debate on this same topic.

Excellent read. Thanks, Clete.
 

Danoh

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I'm not "insinuating" anything. I'm simply saying what scripture says.


Paul tells us that "all scripture" is given by inspiration of Godd and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness. Therefore, one verse of scripture does not invalidate another verse. There must be a way to harmonize them. I don't disagree with the texts you referenced, and I don't disagree with John either. So, there has to be a way to harmonize these scriptures without invalidating any of the scripture. God is love. God also gets angry, has wrath, experiences jealousy, and hates, all without violating the principle that He is love. Can you agree?

At the same time, one lesson to be learned from various errors is that attempting harmonize passages that appear to contradict each other is not always the way to go - that that can just as often proved a double-edged sword, as not.

At the same time, you have just now revealed what might at times be a possible hole in your APPROACH.

For as is often proven as not, within any use logic and or rationale, to attempt to use them to somehow harmonize a thing that might or might not actually harmonize, but only appears to due to where one was looking at a thing from, can often end up one heck of a "gold" looking "fools gold."
 

glorydaz

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Indeed.

The ultimate ends for our creation by God was for God’s own glory.

In all of God’s actions, the one underlying objective is that He will be glorified. God’s unchanging purpose in everything He does is to exalt the honor of His name. God is infinitely jealous for His reputation. "For my own sake, for my own sake I act," says the Lord. "My glory I will not give to another!" (Isaiah 48:11) This is not some negative ego-centricity on God’s part. Instead it is a stunning truth—that God's passion for his glory is the measure of His commitment to our joy.

God's saving designs are penultimate, not ultimate. Redemption, salvation, and restoration are not God's ultimate goal. These he performs for the sake of something greater: namely, the enjoyment he has in glorifying himself.

If God were not infinitely devoted to the preservation, display, and enjoyment of His own glory, we could have no hope of finding happiness in him. But if he does employ all his sovereign power and infinite wisdom to maximize the enjoyment of his own glory, then we have a foundation on which to stand and rejoice.


AMR

So, "the enjoyment of His own Glory" does sound extremely prideful. What exactly do you mean by His Glory?
 

JudgeRightly

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I LOVE IT when someone in the audience gives the Calvinist a dose of his own condescension and he got so offended that he nearly stands up to leave! What a lying hypocrite!
Timestamp?
 
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