Archive for the 'Religion' Category

“Systematics is necessary if men are to think intelligently and logically.  Without the concept of systematics and the God it sets forth, we cannot hold to a rational and understandable universe nor to any meaningful order therein.  Unregenerate man’s reason and logic operate against the background of chaos and a meaningless void, so that reason and logic are in essence more than irrational: they are absurd.  Systematics not only makes reason reasonable, but it declares that there is a necessary and meaningful connection between all facts, because all facts are the creation of the sovereign and omnipotent God and are thus revelations of His purpose and order.  The idea of preaching the whole counsel of God is only a possibility if systematics is a reality.  Otherwise, there is no necessary and real connection and unity in the Word of God, and we have instead a developing, changing word and plan under different dispensations.  We have then a fragmented word, not a whole counsel which is necessary and authoritative unity.

Thus, without systematics there is no word of God, and, indeed, no such God as His revelation in Scripture sets forth.”

Rousas J. Rushdoony, “The Necessity for Systematic Theology.”

Systematic theology isn’t dry or boring.  Theology is “talk about God.”  If you dismiss or don’t like theology, it is the God of that theology who may be your real enemy.

For systematic theology is simply the arrangement of Scripture, and the translation and exegesis of that Scripture, that bears on various subjects, such as the nature of God, who He is, what names by which He calls Himself (e.g.,Elohim, El-Shaddai, Yahweh, Jehova, Adonai, etc.) and what that tells us about God, the trinity, the person of Jesus, soteriology, who man is, the federal headship of Adam and what that means for man, from what man must be saved, God’s plan to do just that and how He accomplishes it.

We cannot simply make up out of our imaginations doctrine about God when He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, nor can we fabricate out of whole cloth what we want to believe about God, how He communicated with us, and what we must do to have joy in obedience.

His word is identified with Him. In the Scriptures, it takes on holy attributes by self proclamation.

Prepare.

Judgment cometh.

My opinion is that without renewal and reformation of the church in America, there is no basis upon which to save the republic.  It lacks any foundation upon which to build.  If we cannot save the republic, we cannot hope to build a new one.

For there to be reformation in the church, we must go back to the basics.

John MacArthur, discussing joy, obedience to God’s law and sanctification.  Here is the takeaway: “You know you’re a Christian not by the perfection of your life, but by the direction of your life.”

See 28:17 – 32:17 of this video.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being by Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

John 1:1-4

“In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding: the Son is eternally begotten of the Father: the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.”

Westminster Confession of Faith, 2.3

It is truth.  All denial of this leads to perdition.

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.  For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 1:3-6

The wonderful thing about God having chosen His saints is that they will assuredly end up at the destiny which God has ordained.  His saints are eternally secure.  Chastised at times to be sure, as a loving father disciplines His children, but still His.

“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

“And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”

Col 1:17, Heb 1:3

For the Christian, our ontology and cosmology sees the universe as utterly dependent upon the Son of God, who could bring something into or out of existence with a thought.

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”

Acts 4:12, Acts 13:48

Open theism holds that because God loves us and desires that we freely choose to reciprocate His love, He has made His knowledge of, and plans for, the future conditional upon our actions. God does not know what we will freely do in the future.  Thus, purveyors of this doctrine deny that God is omniscient.

Isaiah 46:9-10 declares “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not yet been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’.”

Paul repeats this doctrine in Ephesians 1:11, declaring that “we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.”

Paul Helm is a wonderful theologian and philosopher with whom I have spent many hours (at least by reading his books).  He is also a wonderfully nice man with whom I have exchanged email.  In his book “Eternal God,” he states the following.

For if there are creatures with the power of indifferent or agent-causal freedom then the existence of their choice will change God by increasing His knowledge.  God will know more after His creatures have acted than He did before.  The existence of such creatures would be sufficient to deny to God both omniscience and changelessness.

The argument: open theism claims that man’s actions are not under the control of God or foreordained by Him.  Thus, there are things that God cannot and does not know since He doesn’t currently know how those creatures will respond.  If there is a future to be known by God even if unknown to His creatures, then there is a future that is unchangeable and thus His creatures aren’t really free.

Open theism is in a dilemma.  They must deny the omniscience of God in order to hold to their position on the ultimate freedom of man, that God is not in control.  Philosopher Richard Swinburne, who holds this view, even admits that his views limit God’s knowledge.  He is a smart man, regardless of his false view.  He knows that he must jettison at least one core doctrine of the faith in order to hold to open theism.

But since God is omniscient and His knowledge cannot change or increase, there is a future, and God has ordained it.  Therefore, this is a hope and comfort to the believer since God is most wise and holy, knowing what is best for His purposes and His elect.

“Not only a theology, but an eschatology, or doctrine of last things, which renounces history, or sees it as defeat, is faithless to Christianity.  God is maker of heaven and earth, not Satan.  History culminates in God’s plan and triumph, not in Satan’s victory.  To the extent that any eschatology involves the victory of evil in history, to that extent it surrenders and retreats from history.  Currently, one of the major sins besetting evangelical Christianity is eschatology which denies the evangel and denies history.”

Rousas J. Rushdoony, “The Foundations of Social Order: Studies in the Creeds and Councils of the Early Church.”