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Originally Posted by Presbyterian Deacon  Quote:
Originally Posted by Semper Fidelis Quote:
Originally Posted by Presbyterian Deacon
Thank you. I appreciate the comment about asymmetry rather than symmetry, but a few verses come to mind that make me wonder. 
Peter speaks of those who "stumble at the Word...where unto they were appointed..." And Jude speaks of those who were "before of old marked out for this condemnation..." and Paul talks about "vessel of wrath prepared for destruction..." So, it seems to me that God is indeed active in the reprobation of the lost. | I didn't state he was inactive. I already noted that it was not a bare permission. My point is that there is no 4 chapter corollary to Romans 5-8 that speaks definitively about God's activity toward the reprobate. There is no "golden chain" of reprobation where the sinner sees God impelling Him toward sin and judgment. We need to recognize the very special care and attention that God pays toward His own and not assume that, on the reverse side of the coin, he's doing the exact opposite to every reprobate. Even Paul's language about the two vessels in Romans 9 is distincitively different in terms of care and attention. One vessel is being lavished with attention while the other is being endured. | Right, I get that. That is what WCF 5. 4 says: Quote: |
IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God, so far manifest themselves in his providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first Fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to his own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God; who being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.
| I guess my "sticking point" right now is: Though we affirm it is not a matter of "bare permission," and that there is no "golden chain of reprobation," yet there definitely seems to be a sense of God's direct agency in the reprobation of the non-elect. Can we know "where the line is?" (so to speak). Or is this one of those areas that are a "mystery?" "How far" does Scripture allow us go in our understanding of God's agency in reprobation? |
Personally, I'm not comfortable speculating beyond what the Scriptures reveal at this point. I believe that the will of the creature is not overthrown nor the contingency of secondary causes by God's decree of all things. I do not precisely understand the activity in reprobation.
One thing that really has struck me over the last several weeks as I'm going through Acts chapter by chapter is how the response of the Sanhedrin and other rejecters of the Gospel is in stark contrast to the same evidence and same News as others who were cut to the heart. I suppose I could speculate on God's agency in hardening their hearts to such clear Truths. I mean, really, what kind of hard heart does one require to see the healing of a lame man since birth and then tell the Apostles to stop preaching in the Name the man was healed?! It struck me, though, that this is exactly how they treated Christ's miracles.
There has got to be some sort of profound spiritual blindness that doesn't see the inconsistency between what they notice must be the case and how they decide to deny what they know. The Synagogue of the Freedman drum up charges against Stephen because they cannot withstand his exegesis. Instead of submitting to the Truth they kill the person with the Truth. Why? It makes no sense.
I cannot simply state that God is somehow the author of this because Romans 10, as elsewhere, never allows men the out to say "...God made me deny it...." Romans 1 clearly condemns men for their supression of the Truth.
I cannot be certain of how spiritual blinding works in all its details but I am very certain how it is I see and rejoice and that is by the agency of the Gospel and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. I can speak all day long about how God makes men alive who were dead in transgressions and sins but there is a respectful distance I maintain before I'll venture into speculation about the agency God uses to blind men. I know He does it and I know He'll be glorified in the punishment of men for it. I also know that nobody will be able to answer against their Creator for it and will have to acknowledge that His judgment is Just. That's enough for me.