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NASB | Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 1:20 For ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through His workmanship [all His creation, the wonderful things that He has made], so that they [who fail to believe and trust in Him] are without excuse and without defense. [Ps 19:1-4; Eph 2:10] |
Subject: Is God somehow responsible? |
Bible Note: Dear Tim, If God has (and we know He has: acts 4) prededestined some things, then, if we wish to say that " He has predestined some but not all", we must show from Scripture that He has not predestined all things. My interpretation of God's Word prevents me from seeing Him as a reactionery being. If all His works are known beforehand, it must be because He foreordained all the means by which His works would produce the fruit He intended they produce. The Great Question is "Why did God create man"? (this is not an attempt to escape, but to shed addditional light on our topic) Rev 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for THY PLEASURE they are and were created. God is pleased, or recieves pleasure when men give Him all the glory due Him as their Lord and King. I fail to see how God is glorified when He is seen as failing to accomplish that which He has planned. Is He helpless in the face of a stubborn creature who refuses to bow before Him, and, is there nothing He can do to persuade this rebel? Then God is not Almighty, for He has failed to accomplish His desire. There is no glory in failure! I know you will say that God merely permitted man to exercise his free-will and that the failure lies with the man and not with God. But even as an a believer in free-will, I could not understand why I believed and why anyone else would not. Faith is a gift. Gifts (in human terms) are given at the will of the giver. Gifts may be refused. On what basis may gifts be refused? A person may dislike or be offended by a inappropriate gift,or, they may not wish to be obliged to the giver. But in the case of the gift of faith, we are speaking of an entirely different kind of gift altogether! Let's say that you present the gospel to an unregenerate person. They listen carefully, but when asked to place their trust in Christ, they politely say that they do not believe what you have told them. In other words they do not believe because they have not recieved the gift of faith! If they had recieved the gift of faith they would have believed. If you have sight you will see, If you have hearing you will hear (these are gifts that God has graciously bestowed on those who posess them). What is true of these two gifts is also true of faith. If you have been given the gift of faith, you will believe. It is impossible to refuse God's physical gifts! Sight, hearing, smelling, taste and touch etc. and yet we do not accuse Him of violating our "free will" by causng us to have them. God is not obliged to give these physical gifts to everyone because if He were they would not be "gifts". How then can anyone say: Man may refuse the gift of faith. How is it possible for man to refuse something, that he is not even aware of, until he expeiences the effect of it upon his being? And then it is too late, for the effect has changed him into a new creature in Christ. It was not his will that determined this miraculous rebirth but the will of God. God Bless You, John |