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NASB | Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 9:13 As it is written and forever remains written, "JACOB I LOVED (chose, protected, blessed), BUT ESAU I HATED (held in disregard compared to Jacob)." [Mal 1:2, 3] |
Bible Question: This is going to sound like a stupid question. I have been studying predestination and free will. Now, that's been beat to death here, so I do not want an answer to it. What I have begun to notice is more worrying to me. When I stepped back it suddenly became clear that there was no answer. Or, more correctly, as I studied, the Bible contains no clear answer to this. As I begun to study some other classic arguments it was clear they persisted because they too lacked answers, not because one side studied less or did not get it. It should have been obvious to me before, but there it was. The Bible was inerrant, but must be incomplete for doctrine. Why else would such devout and faithful people disagree about so many basic issues? So, I wanted to know if anyone else has found any other things that have helped them, like the Apocrypha or Dead Sea Scrolls. I feel like I just need more information. Any recommendations on where to go now? |
Bible Answer: Ted546, You're right that the topic of Calvinism and Arminianism has been beat to death. The argument has not been resolved over the past 500 years of debate and the consensus here was that we would not resolve it either:-) May I offer some help in the form of reposting the words of the late and emminent C.H. Spurgeon: "DO NOT IMAGINE for an instant that I pretend to be able thoroughly to elucidate the great mysteries of predestination. There are some men who claim to know all about the matter. They twist it round their fingers as easily as if it were an everyday thing; but depend upon it, he who thinks he knows all about this mystery, knows but very little. It is but the shallowness of his mind that permits him to see the bottom of his knowledge; he who dives deep, finds that there is in the lowest depth to which he can attain a deeper depth still. The fact is, that the great questions about man's responsibility, free-will, and predestination, have been fought over, and over, and over again, and have been answered in ten thousand different ways; and the result has been, that we know just as much about the matter as when we first began. The combatants have thrown dust into each other's eyes, and have hindered each other from seeing; and then they have concluded, that because they put other people's eyes out, they could therefore see. Now, it is one thing to refute another man's doctrine, but a very different matter to establish my own views. It is very easy to knock over one man's hypothesis concerning these truths, not quite so easy to make my own stand on a firm footing. I shall try to-night, if I can, to go safely, if I do not go very fast; for I shall endeavour to keep simply to the letter of God's Word. I think that if we kept more simply to the teachings of the Bible, we should be wiser than we are; for by turning from the heavenly light of revelation, and trusting to the deceitful will-o'-the-wisps of our own imagination, we thrust ourselves into quags and bogs where there is no sure footing, and we begin to sink; and instead of making progress, we find ourselves sticking fast. The truth is, neither you nor I have any right to want to know more about predestination than what God tells us. That is enough for us. If it were worth while for us to know more, God would have revealed more. What God has told us, we are to believe, but to the knowledge thus gained, we are too apt to add our own vague notions, and then we are sure to go wrong. It would be better, if in all controversies, men had simply stood hard and fast by "Thus saith the Lord," instead of having it said, "Thus and thus I think." I trust that this will be of help. BradK |