Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The reality of choice and the testimony of scripture

Arminian, on May 25, 2010 at 1:28 am Said:

**** Of course people don’t make choices if Calvinism is true. That’s one among many reasons to reject Calvinism. it is inconsistent wit hthe very conceot of “choice”, and if true means that no human beings ever have a choice nor choose. Calvinism claims to believe in people making choices. But its tenets are incompatible with that position. See Ben’s excellent article: http://arminianperspectives.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/the-reality-of-choice-and-the-testimony-of-scripture/ ( also at SEA: http://evangelicalarminians.org/Henshaw-Determinism-Free-Will-The-Reality-of-Choice-and-the-Testimony-of-Scripture).

http://arminianperspectives.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/fallacies-of-calvinist-apologetics-fallacy-8-calvinism-doesnt-charge-god-with-the-authorship-of-sin/#comment-4625

I’ve responded in detail to Ben’s “excellent” article, so I won’t repeat myself here. But now I’d like to make a more general point. Critics of open theism object that open theism is incompatible with Biblical prophecy. God can’t predict the future unless God knows the future.

But Arminianism represents the flip side of the same problem. Arminians traditionally affirm Biblical prophecy. But if God can predict the future, then the future can’t be open-ended. For if the future could go either way, then the outcome is unpredictable.

Let’s also keep in mind that Biblical prophecy often involves many different human agents. Indeed, a serious of human agents whose cumulative choices result in the forecast outcome. For the prophecy to come true, all these independent agents must unwittingly work in concert to yield that particular result. So the testimony of Scripture runs counter to libertarian choice.

Of course, Arminians try to get around this, but they lose any prima facie presumption for the Scripturality of their position.

3 comments:

  1. "Arminians traditionally affirm Biblical prophecy. But if God can predict the future, then the future can’t be open-ended. For if the future could go either way, then the outcome is unpredictable."

    That's just plain common sense.

    You don't need to be an M.Div graduate, a scholar of Bible Languages, or to have even taken one course in formal logic. I don't even think you have to graduate high school to have some common sense.

    And just plain common sense will tell you that since God knows the future, the future can't be open-ended.

    How stupid can Arminians be?

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  2. Steve

    might I read this: "...Let’s also keep in mind that Biblical prophecy often involves many different human agents. Indeed, a serious of human agents...." another way?

    Instead of the word serious, use the word series?

    thanks

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  3. TUAD

    who said we were dealing with common sense?

    Tell what's so common about this:

    Eze 37:1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.
    Eze 37:2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.
    Eze 37:3 And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."
    Eze 37:4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
    Eze 37:5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

    From where I sit, that is quite an amazing way to get to Heaven! :)

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