Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Doctrine of divine decrees part 8: Standing on the border between the infinite and the finite.
Friday, June 25, 2010
The true Biblical view of lapsarianism:
1. To create all mankind for the purpose of bringing many sons into glory — Hebrews 2:10 — and resolving the angelic conflict.
HEB 2:10
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
2. To permit the fall of mankind with the subsequent extension of the angelic conflict to the human race.
3. To provide salvation for all mankind — unlimited atonement.
4. The first primary asset: The decree to provide a portfolio of invisible assets for every believer by depositing escrow blessings for every believer for time and eternity.
5. The second primary asset: The simultaneous decrees of election and predestination
Ephesians 1:4,5.
6. To apply salvation to those who believe in Christ and to leave all others under Just condemnation.
While the sovereignty of God programmed the directive will and overruling will of God, remember that the omniscience of God programmed the permissive will of God.
Though God designed the plan in eternity past, the Bible states that man is the object of grace after, not before, the fall in Jn 15:9, ROM 11:5-7; EPH 1:4-6; 1 Pet 1:2.
John 15:9
Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
Point 4: Standing on the border between the infinite and the finite.
The execution of the decree is not simultaneous with the decree itself.
The decree occurred in eternity past, the execution occurs in human history. The false views of lapsarianism fail to take cognition of this.
Distinction should be made between God’s laws and God’s decrees. Laws regulate human conduct, while decrees are God’s plan and action in eternity past.
Distinction between God’s desires, like election, and the rejection of God’s desires must be understood.
The difference exists between the Sovereignty of God and the Omniscience of God.
The issue must stand without modification that God, who is actively and infinitely holy and who is utterly free in all His enterprises has permitted evil.
God is able to create or not create and to exclude evil from that which He did create, but He has, nevertheless, permitted evil to appear and run its course in angelic and human spheres.
“If every thing in religion were level to the comprehension of reason, there would be no room for faith.”
“It is better to believe humbly, than to reason presumptuously.”
“And presumptuous all those reasonings may be called, which lead to the denial of the immutability of the divine counsels, or of the freedom of the human will; which make man a machine, and God the author of sin.—Lectures on Theology, p. 186”