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NASB | Ecclesiastes 6:10 ¶ Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ecclesiastes 6:10 ¶ Whatever exists has already been named [long ago], and it is known what [a frail being] man is; for he cannot dispute with Him who is mightier than he. |
Subject: Predestination |
Bible Note: Dear NC, Actually, Professor Gundry said it. I'm glad I was able to draw your attention to Ephesians 1:11 (if not, Ephesians 4). A very cursory reading of just about any Reformed writer will reveal the consistency with which this passage is interpreted. That's to be expected, since the Reformed hermeneutic is based in the grammatical-historical exegesis of Scripture; rather than an individualistic subjectivism or experientialism of liberal theologies. The Holy Spirit is rationale and consistent. For example, this precise interpretation -- the one you've rarely heard -- is explicitly stated in the following Reformed statements of faith: Scots' Confession (1560), the the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Book of Concord (1580), the Belgic Confession (1618), the Canons of Dort (1619), the 1644 London Baptist Confession of Faith, the Westminster Confession (1646), the First London Baptist Confession of Faith (1646), the The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689), the Philadelphia Confession of Faith (1742), the Abstract and Principles (1858), and the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy (1978). All of the Reformed commentators express this, too. But here are a few quotes by Reformed folks down through the years. "Here then, is something fundamentally necessary and salutary for a Christian, to know that God foreknows nothing contingently, but that He foresees and purposes and does all things by His immutable, eternal, and infallible will." --Martin Luther (1483-1546) "When we attribute foreknowledge to God, we mean that all things have ever been, and perpetually remain, before His eyes, so that to His knowledge nothing in future or past, but all things are present; and present in such a manner, that He does not merely conceive of them from ideas formed in His mind, as things remembered by us appear present to our minds, but really beholds and sees them as if actually placed before Him. And this foreknowledge extends to the whole world, and to all the creatures." --John Calvin (1509-1564) "The decree of God is his firm decision by which he performs all things through his almighty power according to his counsel." --William Ames (1576-1633) "His 'will' stands first as being the more general and comprehensive expression of the mind of God; for His will takes the widest range, exercising supreme control over all things and all persons in heaven and in earth -- there being nothing too great and nothing too small to escape its sovereign domain." --J. C. Philpot (1802-1869) "There is no attribute of God more comforting to His children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe troubles, they believe that Sovereignty hath ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than the dominion of their Master over all creation -- the kingship of God over all the works of His own hands -- the throne of God, and His right to sit upon that throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by world-lings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne." --Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) "Not only did God make this plan that includes absolutely all things that ever take place in heaven, on earth, and in hell; past, present, and even the future, pertaining to both believers and unbelievers, to angels and devils, to physical as well as spiritual energies and units of existence both large and small; He also wholly carries it out. His providence in time is as comprehensive as is His decree from eternity." --William Hendriksen (1900-1982) "First, if God 'can do all things' and 'none of His purposes can be thwarted' (Job 42:2), then if follows that for anything that occurs, God could have prevented it if He had wanted to. Thus, if God allows something, it must be because it was part of His plan. For whenever one is able to prevent something that he wants to prevent, he will prevent it. The objection that God in many cases might want to prevent something but does not so that He does not violate our 'free-will' fails because Scripture is filled with instances of God causing people to do His will (Ezra 1:1; Daniel 1:9; Exodus 14:4; Genesis 39:21), and because if God is our Creator He can, as Thomas Aquinas has said, cause us to act without doing violence to our wills. Thus, God only permits what He has purposed--what He wants, in some sense, to occur. " --John Piper (1946-????) In Him, Doc PS Jerome Zanchi, by his own admission, never delved into the study of the doctrine of election. If one is going to argue against election, it would be advantageous to quote somebody who has studied election. |