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Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 516
| Posted 6/28/2001 4:22 PM (GMT -6) |   | Message
writerdad
03/10/01 10:23 AM
On the debate
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From William Hasker in "God, Time, and Knowledge":
For a general perspective on the problem, however, I will cite some words of Clark Pinnock:
"The Bible seems to be pretheoretical in its approach to the relationship bewteen divine sovereignty and human freedom. Some passages can be read to support God's determining all things. Others, with equal strength, stress the significant freedom of human beings. A tension is allowed to stand in the biblical text; a definitive resolution is nowhere attempted."
I believe there is wisdom in this statement. If anyone doubts that there are forceful texts on both sides, the probably she just has not read the Bible very much, or at any rate not the works of the Calvinist and Arminian theologians who take the texts as battle standards. If she adknowledges the tension but thinks there is a definitive resolution in the biblical text itself, then most likely she has read the theologians, on one side of the controversy! But if Pinnock's statement is correct, as I believe it is, then it is up to us to construct a consistent position on the question, and to do it on the basis of the biblical data without claiming that the text clearly or unambigously supports the conclusion we have reached.
To be sure, the Christian tradition is closer to consensus in affirming comprehensive divine foreknowledge than it is with respect to predestination and human freedom. But again, it is not as though scriptural texts pointing in a different direction were lacking. Again I cite Pinnock:
"According to the Bible, God anticipates the future in a way analogous to our own experience. God tests Abraham to see what the patriarch will do, and then says through his messenger, "Now I know that you fear God" (Gen 22:12). God threatens Ninevah with destruction, and then calls it off when they repent (Jon 3:10). I do not receive the impression from the Bible that the future is all sewn up and foreknown. The future is envisaged as a realm in which significant decisions can still be made which can change the course of history.
The difficulty is, of course, that "readers almost never ...(read) the biblical story with this view in mind. (Pinnock)" We have been strongly conditioned, most of us, to dismiss what was said to Abraham as "anthropomorphic" and to affirm texts that suggest a more comprehensive foreknowledge as the literal metaphysical truth. But why so? It is not because one thing is said in the Bible more clearly or emphatically than the other. But the "hermeneutical circle" within which we have encountered these texts constantly turns us around and tells us to face in a particular direction---a direction that may, when all is said and done, be more toward Athens than toward Jerusalem!
Posted Originally From: Christus Victor Ministries
TGB
03/10/01 12:33 PM
RE: On the debate
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Writerdad-
Was the whole thing following your first colon from Hasker? Did you mean to quote from Hasker as well but forgot? Next time I'm in the US I wanna get a copy of Hasker's "God, Time, and Knowledge." Is it expensive?
In the quotes you gave of Pinnock, he almost sounds like a compatibilist!
Tom
Posted Originally From: Open Theism Information Site
writerdad
03/10/01 8:01 PM
RE: RE: On the debate
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TGB: I hope I wasn't too confusing! The parts in "quotes" are Pinnock's, the rest is from Hasker's book. The book is only about $15 and is excellant, even if you don't agree with him. Its only about 200 pages and he goes through many of the arguments in an easy to understand way. I particularly liked the two chapters on God being timeless. By the way, Pinnock is definitely an open theist (or at least the last time I read him...), but I think his main point was that scripture sometimes seems to go both ways. John 17:3 Harold
Posted Originally From: Christus Victor Ministries
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