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victoryword
Registered Member
Date Joined Apr 2003
Total Posts : 181
| Posted 12/9/2003 5:21 AM (GMT -6) |   | I am a lover of classic preachers from the precvious century, especially of the "Higher-Life" and holiness variety. I love reading the writings by R. A. Torrey, A. J. Gordon, Andrew Murray, Hannah Whitall Smith, S. D. Gordon, E. M. Bounds, F. B. Meyer, C. H. Spurgeon (yes a Calvinist but I can forgive him  ) and many others I could name. My favorite happens to be A. B. Simpson.
Albert B. Simpson (1843-1919) was a healing evangelist at the turn of the century and was the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. I have been blessed tremendously by his writings.
Reading some of what Simpson has written, it seems that he did not view God as one who lived in some "eternal now". Speaking on the LITERAL translation of Mark 11:22 (have the faith of God), Simpson says:
The faith of God must mean the faith that God Himself exercises. In Romans 4 we are told a little about this faith of God. We read that Abraham acted like Him "who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were" (Romans 4:17). God commands that which is not and expects it. He believes in the efficacy of His own command without a shadow of hesitation. Therefore He sees it instantly and ultimately accomplished. Even for the things that lie in the future in His purpose, He counts them as if they were present or past. The lapse of time is nothing in His mind and involves no uncertainty as to results.
Our Lord so believes in the things that are not that He calls them by names and actual realities. Long before Abraham even had a child, God told him plainly, "I have made you a father of many nations" (Genesis 17:5). Jesus Christ is spoken of as "the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). The cros was as real to the Father ages ago as it is now. He speaks of you and me as if we were already sitting in the heavenly places, shining like the sun in the kingdom of our Father. (The Life of Prayer, pp. 60-61)
In his commentary on Romans 4:17 (which speaks of Abraham's faith in God's ability), Simpson states:
Now in all this Abraham was just imitating God. The true reading of this passage (Romans 4:17) is, "Like Him whom believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were."
In acting this way, Abraham simply acted like God. This is the way God acts. He speaks of "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). Now Christ was not slain actually before the creation of the world, but in the purpose of God. He was to be offered on Calvary, and God acted as if this were really done. It was so certain that God counted it as if it were already accomplished, and on the ground of this He saved the Old Testament saints and acted toward them on the understanding that the price was already paid and the redemption already consummated. (The Christ in the Bible, Volume Five, pp. 47, 48, Chapter titled "The Law of Faith")
Simpson taught that God brought things into existence through a creative word. This is a theme in many of his writings (see for example his excellent exposition on Hebrews 11 in his book "Seeing The Invisible")
I am not saying that Simpson was an Open Theist, but it sure seemed that way from reading some of what he wrote. For certain he could not have written the above and still believed that God was in some eternal now where he saw past, present, and future simultaneously.
Anyway, just thought some of you might find these quotes interesting.
If your beliefs cannot be supported by Scripture, they ain't worth supporting
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