Featured Covenant Theology

Why not address what I did say? You keep rewriting my position so as to change it. Since you rarely get it right I must assume you misrepresent my position on purpose. Care to "guess again?"

Why not speak clearly rather than in code that can mean two or more things, so you can shuck and jive? Yet again, according to Calvinism Christ's death on the cross was the redeeming work of the Lamb, redeeming the Elect. Not my position so yet another effort at misrepresentation. Care to "guess again?"

Notice 12 Strings says God did not plan the fall? Ask yourself why he misrepresents by my views and Calvinism? Ask yourself why God would plan a redemption from the fall without planning for the fall?

No you don't. Calvinism says only those altered by "irresistible grace" the "I" of the Tulip are able to come to faith, and unable not to come to faith. Thus, according to Calvinism, God causes the elect to come to faith. Therefore we are saved by grace, then given faith. Our faith, according to Calvinism, is not ours, it is a gift from God. However scripture teaches we are saved by grace through faith, so our faith provides our access to saving grace.

When you enter a room through a door, do you go through the door before you enter the room? Of course. So faith precedes the grace in which we stand. Calvinism has it backwards yet again.

So the issue is not that the Bible teaches God had a plan of redemption before creation, because it does. The issue is that Calvinism rewrites the plan not according to scripture but very nearly the opposite of scripture, reversing the order of things making scripture to no effect.

Lets take redemption. Are we redeemed when Christ died or when God puts us spiritually in Christ. Can anyone pick one of these two positions? My guess would be no one will say such and such a verse or passage teaches one or the other of these two views.

 

Does God punish sinners for the sins He predestines?

Tick tock

 

Did God know with certainty that Adam would sin when and where and why he did so? He knew that was the likely outcome of the circumstance He had arranged, but God allowed Adam to sin and did not predestine Adam to sin when and where and why he did.

So the answer is no and therefore your follow up question is how could God plan for a contingent action? God does this all the time. If we do this, He will do that. If we choose to do something else, He will do something else too.

Note how this view differs from Calvinism where God predestines whatsoever comes to pass. Calvinism teaches God predestines our sins, yet is not the author of our sins. This is simply irrational absurdity.

So once again, I have explained my view of scripture, so lets see some accurate "got it" response.

God did plan for the fall. He arranged it, but allowed Adam to volitionally sin. Therefore God knew Adam's sin was highly likely but not a certainity. Adam could have chosen not to sin when He did choose to sin. Therefore punishment for the volitional sin is just.

 

According to Covenant Theology, the reformed view, not the biblical AIC view, God formulated a plan of redemption including choosing a Redeemer, and [corporately] those the Redeemer would redeem. The second person of the Trinity was chosen to be the Lamb of God before creation, thus Christ was foreknown as the Lamb of God before the foundation of the world, 1 Peter 1:19-20. Those to be redeemed were chosen, individually according to the mistaken reformed view, but corporately according to the balance of scripture, because our individual election occurs during our lifetime after we have lived without mercy.

The plan of redemption is revealed in scripture and all the pieces fit if Ephesians 1:4 is understood to refer to our corporate election, as the target group of God's redemption plan.

The Redemption offered by Christ, the Lamb of God, redeems us from our fallen state, in which we were conceived. Therefore God's plan of redemption included planning for and arranging the fall, but God did not cause or in any way predestine Adam's sin, He allowed Adam to sin of his own volition. Therefore the consequence of Adam's sin, that the many were made sinners, is just.

 

Anyone who studies the topic of redemption will conclude the plan was formulated before creation. You do not have to be a scholar, but simply be able to read English translations like the NASB, NET, HCSB, NKJV and ESV. On the other hand, no one would come up with the reformed understanding of God's plan of redemption because it is backwards, with individual election occurring unconditionally rather than through faith in the truth as taught by 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

 

The question is: Does God punish sinners for the sins He predestines? Yeshua1 did not answer the question.

Tick Tock