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The Future

Some great contemplations from Skip Moen.
"The God of Aquinas is an idea—an idea of total control, total information, total determinism; a God who encapsulates every cause and effect explanation including your actions. But this is not the Hebrew God. The Hebrew God is fundamentally personal, and that means the future is not fixed. God does not know everything that you will do in advance."

4 comments:

Dawn McLaughlin83 said...

I'll bet this was a major head scratcher for most. The idea that due to God giving us free will to make choices would leave the future open to many possibilities is strange. I am still learning about this one and how the Greek notion of Y-H is NOT the Hebrew Y-H. Makes sense though since faith to a Hebrew means action, doing, moving ahead (a verb vs a noun). God is not a stagnant God by any means and neither should His followers be.

S. Edwin Rufener said...

Open theism is an interesting topic to say the least. I have not invested much time into it's possibilities as of yet, but I do have Skip's "God, Time and the Limits of Omniscience" on my shelf waiting to be examined. As you have suggested, unless his followers are willing to step out of their "box" much of who God is - especially in relation to the context where he revealed himself - will remain a "mystery." It's one thing for God to be a mystery and outside of human comprehension, it's quite another when confusion about him and his ways is a "self-inflicted wound" from tradition and adherence to developed dogma built around a Hellenistic paradigm. Blessings.

Dawn McLaughlin83 said...

"Self-inflicted wound." Wow. That creates a powerful picture and I believe is very apropo here. I understand the book you mentioned by Skip is very deep so charge up your brain before you crack open the cover!! A little sleep wouldn't hurt either. LOL
I don't always get to read your posts but I appreciate the time you put into them. Always learning and growing. Moving ever forward...that's me!!
Shalom

S. Edwin Rufener said...

I appreciate your encouragement, I'm proud to have you as a reader. =)