 |
| 
PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 3/26/2004 4:03 AM (GMT -6) |   | quote:
Originally posted by GregBoyd
. . .So, for all intents and purposes, the central difference between Arminians and Open Theists concerns the ontological status of possibilities. Arminians hold that they are epistemological, not ontological, for they are not real to God. God knows all reality as settled, not possible. Open Theists hold that possibilities are ontological. Hence God, being omniscient, knows them as possibilities.
Where that is ackward, is, in my opinion, centers on whether "possibilities" are something autonomous.
As with the analogy of the girl and the car (a good one), the center of God's gracious actions (whether that be a carrot, a stick or a banquet) is his creation. "Possibilities" seems stuck in the abstract, self-focused. "Real to God" seems to treat "immutability" as if there were only a Yes or a No to the issue. God is Love; and personally cares for and huddles over his creatures, and scolds too. The future for US is not a matter of algorithms. Meaning is not in math and abstract relationships. That is not even true for us. And it is certainly not an experience for God. For the Shepherd the sheep are the center of his love. This battle against Determinism has twisted appreciation for God's providence to where the 'mechnical' modifies our appreciation of the 'lived.'
We might consider one aspect of God's "experience" that we may begin to grasp, and that is "communion." We only know a shaddow of the communion of the Holy Trinity -- only what we actually share in by grace through the Spirit. But while God's "experience" does not change God (as experiences do change us), we might begin to appreciate that God's "experience" IS love of and with us.
And that can be taken another step too. WE can begin to appreciate what the saints of the Church meant when, struggling for words, they hinted that as we grow in communion with God we move from action towards inaction ourselves too. Never ceasing to change and grow we grow towards the "center" of God's stillness, away from the frantic and constantly redirecting scatter of our individualistic lives.
So, the apt-ness of the phrase "Living Water."
| | Back to Top | | |
 | Forum Information | Currently it is Monday, November 09, 2026 11:59 AM (GMT -6)
There are a total of 97,718 posts in 6,040 threads.
In the last 3 days there were 0 new threads and 0 reply posts. View Active Threads
|
Forum powered by dotNetBB v2.42EC SP3
dotNetBB © 2000-2026 |
|
|