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NASB | Acts 8:13 Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 8:13 Even Simon believed [Philip's message of salvation]; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he watched the attesting signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. |
Subject: How do I make sense of the context? |
Bible Note: "Lecture? As long as you provide the Scriptures which define God's will as being of three types! :-)" I will try and avoid cracking open the Francis Turretin for now. ;) The argument centers more squarely on the fact that it doesn't make sense to ascribe the same connotation to every use of the word "will." For example, was it God's will that Jesus die? To say "no" directly contradicts Isaiah 53:10 and Acts 4:27-28. To say "yes" would apparently mean that the sixth and ninth commandments, expressions of God's will, didn't apply here. So the murderers of Jesus accomplished God's will by violating God's will? Therein lies the problem. We also see that God works all things according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11). Since "all" means "all" (insert smile here), His will is done. And yet, as you point out in Matthew 23, Jesus desires the repentance of Israel, and God commands repentance, an expression of his will. Isaiah 46 is a testimony to the efficacy of God's will, as is Psalm 115:1-3. Yet, we see that the unregenerate are unwilling to do what God's will, and are successful in doing so. Another apparent quandry. Does God accomplish all of his will or not? For a last example, we can look at the Lord's Prayer. Jesus teaches us to pray for the kingdom of God to come and for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does Jesus mean by "will" here? If we are asking God to accomplish the conformity of creation to His eternal purpose of bringing glory to Himself, then we are asking God to will (efficaciously) that His (preceptive) will be done! You wrote: "It always seems like any verse which says that God's will was resisted or didn't come to pass means something else, while every verse which says that God's will was accomplished or accepted means that God determined that to happen! :-)" It isn't the verses that say that God's will WAS accomplished that we have to worry about, but rather the ones that insist that all of God's will, in no uncertain terms, WILL BE accomplished. "I'll have to check out your recommended book. I like the guys from Trinity! :-)" I found it to be a throught-provoking book. It is a rather brief one (less than 100 pages, comprising four lectures that Carson gave at Dallas Seminary a few years ago), but is jam-packed with things that left me praising God for the revealed complexity of the nature of His love. --Joe! |