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J.N.Darby
Registered Member
Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 124
| Posted 2/24/2007 9:26 AM (GMT -6) |   | Greetings in Christ.
First, if you don't already know me, I'm a 5-point Arminian who accepts Open Theism. As an open theist, a conclusion I came to on my own is that none of us were specifically or directly designed/created by God - only Adam and Eve were, and the rest of us are their progeny. Given another possible timeline, I may never have existed, because I wasn't specifically planned by God; and thus it would seem that there are multitudes of potential/possible persons who never came to be born. God's foreknowledge was fully aware of the possible me and all the possible variations of me, but He was also aware that I might never come to pass.
While I have no emotional qualms with this view and accept it readily, I realize such a view is typically rejected by Calvinists and other Christians who insist on EDF (Exhaustive Definite Foreknowledge); my question is:
1) how many of the other open theists here share a position similar to mine; if yours is similar but varies significantly, would you mind sharing the details?
2) is anyone aware of some sort of middle-position on this matter that is compatible to open theism - something where God may have or did in fact have us specifically in mind, and managed to bring us to pass in a world where the future is otherwise open? If so, what is the logic/philosophy behind this?
If this topic has already been explored, or is being explored elsewhere, on this board, perhaps someone could show me an address where I could find it?
Thanks,
Ricco | | Back to Top | | |
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Starkman
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 2/24/2007 2:13 PM (GMT -6) | | As for me, Ricco, I am inclined to believe that part of what entails an open future is children that are produced from the freewill (unless otherwise forced) relationships. Perhaps God has a certain number of people in mind that will be born, but I don't know that we can go too much further, because we start getting into questions like, "Would I have the same personality if I were born to other parents?" and stuff like that.
I figure that if God created the world to go along on its own in many ways, the kinds of children that would be born included, then that works for me. I can see people getting nervous, though, if they think, "But...God had to know me from eternity past, and...well, I might not have been born if..." and all that. Scary from someone's EDF perspective, eh!
Anyway, that's part of my take.
For personhood as it's conceived,
Starkman
My teacher used to say that whenever he read Scripture, he would always ask the question, "What does this have to say about the character of God?" Working off his thinking, as I read Scripture, I have come to ask, "What does this have to say about the heart and passion of God's desire for relationship with us? | | Back to Top | | |
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JET
Registered Member
Date Joined Jun 2002
Total Posts : 397
| Posted 2/25/2007 11:29 AM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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