Comments on: Question About Doctrine http://www.multnomah.edu/blog/2010/07/08/omniscient/ The Official Multnomah University Blog Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:52:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Daniel R. Lockwood http://www.multnomah.edu/blog/2010/07/08/omniscient/#comment-387 Daniel R. Lockwood Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:27:06 +0000 http://blogs.multnomah.edu/University/?p=2630#comment-387 Dear Paul,

Thanks for your comments. I’d prefer to say ours is a biblical (not Arminian or Calvinistic) statement that reflects Eph. 1:11 “him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (ESV). I’m not certain how your alternative readings are really different, unless you intend to mean that, while all the things God plans come to pass, there are many things he doesn’t plan, so the outcome is uncertain. We do not believe that reflects the best interpretation of Ephesians 1 (or other passages). And if you hold to uncertain outcomes, then open theists would say you’ve moved into their camp, where God is neither omnipotent nor omniscient.

“Temporal perspectives” must be taken into account but I am not as optimistic as you seem to be that they offer a simple solution to the paradox. After all, when Paul says, “before the foundation of the world,” be gives a time-related phrase that he sees as meaningful.

Nor is the question “Is Jesus God or man” really the issue, either. Calvinists and Arminians stand shoulder to shoulder in affirming Christ is the God-man. While this, too, is a mystery, we should not shy away from trying to give some understandable statement of what Scripture means by both of these “mysteries” even if we cannot perfectly resolve them.

Thanks again for your interaction!

]]> By: Paul Marshall http://www.multnomah.edu/blog/2010/07/08/omniscient/#comment-386 Paul Marshall Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:31:40 +0000 http://blogs.multnomah.edu/University/?p=2630#comment-386 That is a Calvinistic statement, alright. However, a more apt expression of what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:11 may better read “all that the Father has planned comes to pass.” (Some other scriptures may be better suited for the statement in question). A more Arminian phrasing could be “the Father has planned [for] all that comes to pass.”
As for the whole Calvinist/Arminian debate: I think we get caught up a lot in temporal perspectives, when, in fact, once the omni-temporality of God is added to the equation, the aspect of “knowing”, “planning”, pre-destining” is moot. 1,000 yrs = day; day = 1,000 yrs. is not some encryption key for deciphering Daniel and Revelation. It is a reality of God’s being. All (past, present and future) is the eternal now for the creator of time who stands apart, affecting yet unaffected by time. Thus, only from our perspective is something planned, predestined or fore-seen. For God it is, was and will be in that instant that we cannot even speak before it passes–the elusive “now”.
I address the Calvin/Arminian debate with this question, the answer to which, I believe answers the debate entirely: “Pick one–Is Jesus God? or Man?” While at first gloss, this may seem to avoid the question, this is at the very heart of the issue as, whenever the eternal touches the temporal, reasonable explanation and human intelligibility suffers greatly, and the human mind boggles, rather. I guess I’m not a very good Calvinist OR Arminian.

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