Overcoming

[Anthony Pritchard]

You are still trying to redefine the word “approval” to frame it in a manner that is not how people understand it.

We cannot move “outside the terminology and definitions of words” and communicate effectively. You seem to want to force us to relinquish the common meaning of ‘approval’ and accept your idea that God approves of all that happens, including vile crimes and horrific acts. Then it will be said that God therefore decreed and ordained these ungodly events. And that is the concept that God is the author of sin, which is a blasphemy.

Approve means to endorse something as acceptable, pleasing, desirable, satisfying.

So God never approves of sin or evil, for He hates and punishes wickedness.

God does not give His approval to the abominations and atrocities that happen in this world, no matter how you try to twist that word “approval” to suit your Calvinism.

God would prefer to bring about His will and kingdom without allowing any human misdeeds to occur, but in His mercy, He designed a plan that overcomes human sin, and will eventually result in that preferred world, the new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness.

Thank you, that’s exactly the distinction I’ve been trying to maintain. The issue isn’t whether God permits events within His sovereign plan; we all agree He does. The issue is whether Scripture ever uses the word approve for the sinful acts themselves. It does not.

God’s plan is perfect. Human sin is not. God permits sin; He never approves it. God uses sin; He never endorses it. God overrules sin; He never delights in it.

If we collapse approve into permit, we end up saying God “approves” every atrocity ever committed, which Scripture flatly denies. That’s the only distinction I’m guarding.

 

[percho]

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. from Gen 1:2
because it is God who said, Out of darkness light is to shine, from 2 Cor 4:6

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, from Acts 26:18

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. from Rev 12:9

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? from Gen 3:1

that he might destroy him - - - - - - , that is, the devil; from Heb 2:14


On the earth, when did, "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan," arrive? Was he already Satan? Did he upon arrival need to be destroyed? How exactly was God, the Light, going to go about destroying the devil and his works. Was ,the means to do so, going to require the sin and thus the death?

Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Eph 6:12 YLT because we have not the wrestling with blood and flesh, but with the principalities, with the authorities, with the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, with the spiritual things of the evil in the heavenly places;

Why did God make man in his own image?

1 John 3:8 KJV He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

 

[Anthony Pritchard]

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. from Gen 1:2
because it is God who said, Out of darkness light is to shine, from 2 Cor 4:6

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, from Acts 26:18

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. from Rev 12:9

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? from Gen 3:1

that he might destroy him - - - - - - , that is, the devil; from Heb 2:14


On the earth, when did, "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan," arrive? Was he already Satan? Did he upon arrival need to be destroyed? How exactly was God, the Light, going to go about destroying the devil and his works. Was ,the means to do so, going to require the sin and thus the death?

Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Eph 6:12 YLT because we have not the wrestling with blood and flesh, but with the principalities, with the authorities, with the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, with the spiritual things of the evil in the heavenly places;

Why did God make man in his own image?

1 John 3:8 KJV He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Percho, the verses you quoted all testify to God’s victory over darkness, but none of them say that sin or Satan were necessary for God’s plan. Christ destroys the works of the devil, but that does not mean God required those works in order to accomplish His purpose.

God permits evil, overrules evil, and ultimately defeats evil, but Scripture never presents evil as something God needed or approved. The fall was not necessary for God’s glory; it is something God overcomes for His glory.