Subject: Whats the point? |
Bible Note: Dear Brother Hank, My far-better-half assures me that I do not attain the clarity that I have such a great desire to achieve. So I appreciate your pointing out opportunities to improve! I fully agree that clear and precise definitions go a long way to helping resolve disagreement. I also believe they contribute to avoiding error. I suspect that this is why so much of theology, throughout history, is concerned with defining terms. A good example is the word justification. It is an extremely important word to those of us who belong to Christ. This is word is used in both the Old and New Testaments. However, the definition of this word is distinctly different between Evangelical theologians and Roman Catholic theologians. Both parties can say, "The believer is justified by faith through grace," with equal honesty. Nevertheless, as they say, the devil is in the details. Perhaps I will post on that word one day soon. I guess that last statement is an acceptance of your proposal. :-) The infralapsarian/supralapsarian issue is a bit academic. However, it can significantly contribute to how we understand God. It has to do with the logical order in which God's decrees were made before creation. In a sense, it is an effort to look into the mind of God before time was. (Note that logical order is a pretty important phrase since one could not speak of chronological order before there was time.) The question is this: What is the logical order of decrees that God made for the Eternal Plan of Salvation. Before anyone objects that no one can know the mind of God, I will remind you that we have the Word of God in which God Himself reveals some things about Himself. Therefore, there are clues as to the question at hand. There are five schemes that are currently extant. In a subsequent post I will list them. However, I must be going. Wasn't it Groucho Marx who sang, "Hello, I'm leaving. I came to say, I cannot stay, I'm leaving. I'll stay a night or two, or perhaps the whole week through, but I am telling you, I'm leaving!" On that note... I'll post again tomorrow. In Him, Doc |