Anton Bruckner
Puritan Board Professor
Days of Vengeance pg 157-158& 400
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There is no such thing as Nature. God has not given any inher- ent power of development to the universe as such. God created the universe and all life by immediate actiorw, not by mediate processes. When God withdraws His Breath (which is the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life), death follows immediately (Gen. 7:22). The idea that God wound up the universe and then let it run its course, so that there is such a thing as Nature which has an intrinsic power, is Deism, not Christianity. Theistic evo- lution is Deism, not Christianity. To the extent to which the pro- cesses of Nature replace the acts of God in any system, to that extent the system has become Baalistic.�23 �Because of the influence of neo-Baalism (secular human- ism) in our modern culture, we tend to think that God, when He made the world, installed certain �natural laws� or processes that work automatically and impersonally. This is a Deistic, not a Christian, view of the world. What we call natural or physical law is actually a rough approximate generalization about the or- dinary activity of God in governing His creation. Matter, space, and time are created by God, and are ruled directly and actively by Him. His rule is called �law.� God almost always causes things to be done the same way, according to covenant regularities (the Christian equivalent of natural laws), which covenant regulari- ties were established in Genesis 8:22. Science and technology are possible because God does not change the rules, so man can confidently explore the world and learn to work it. Such confi- dence, though, is always a form of faith, faith either in Nature (Baal) and natural law, or faith in God and in the trustworthi-ness of His commitment to maintain covenant regularities.�zd
There is no such thing as natural �law�; rather, as Auguste Lecerf has said, �the constant relations which we call natural laws are simply �divine habits�: or, better, the habitual order which God imposes on nature. It is these habits, or this habitual proc- ess, which constitute the object of the natural and physical sciences.�9 This is what guarantees the validity and reliability of both scientific investigation and prayer: On the one hand, God�s angels have habits � a cosmic dance, a liturgy involving everyaspect of the whole universe, that can be depended upon in all of man�s technological labors as he exercises dominion under God over the world. On the other hand, God�s angels are personal beings, constantly carrying out His commands; in response to our petitions, He can and does order the angels to change the dance. 10 There is, therefore, an �Angel of the Waters� (in terms of St. John�s zodiacal progression, this is presumably the cherub of the fourth quarter, Aquarius); I� he, along with all of God�s personal creation, rejoices in God�s righteous government of the world. God�s strict justice, summarized in the principle of lex talionis, is evidenced in this judgment; the punishment fits the crime."
The above is totally radical in my opinion. Consider the following from the Catholic Encyclopedia, "In its strictly ethical application–the sense in which this article treats it–the natural law is the rule of conduct which is prescribed to us by the Creator in the constitution of the nature with which He has endowed us."
Can you guys give me your definitions, and which you think is best.
"
There is no such thing as Nature. God has not given any inher- ent power of development to the universe as such. God created the universe and all life by immediate actiorw, not by mediate processes. When God withdraws His Breath (which is the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life), death follows immediately (Gen. 7:22). The idea that God wound up the universe and then let it run its course, so that there is such a thing as Nature which has an intrinsic power, is Deism, not Christianity. Theistic evo- lution is Deism, not Christianity. To the extent to which the pro- cesses of Nature replace the acts of God in any system, to that extent the system has become Baalistic.�23 �Because of the influence of neo-Baalism (secular human- ism) in our modern culture, we tend to think that God, when He made the world, installed certain �natural laws� or processes that work automatically and impersonally. This is a Deistic, not a Christian, view of the world. What we call natural or physical law is actually a rough approximate generalization about the or- dinary activity of God in governing His creation. Matter, space, and time are created by God, and are ruled directly and actively by Him. His rule is called �law.� God almost always causes things to be done the same way, according to covenant regularities (the Christian equivalent of natural laws), which covenant regulari- ties were established in Genesis 8:22. Science and technology are possible because God does not change the rules, so man can confidently explore the world and learn to work it. Such confi- dence, though, is always a form of faith, faith either in Nature (Baal) and natural law, or faith in God and in the trustworthi-ness of His commitment to maintain covenant regularities.�zd
There is no such thing as natural �law�; rather, as Auguste Lecerf has said, �the constant relations which we call natural laws are simply �divine habits�: or, better, the habitual order which God imposes on nature. It is these habits, or this habitual proc- ess, which constitute the object of the natural and physical sciences.�9 This is what guarantees the validity and reliability of both scientific investigation and prayer: On the one hand, God�s angels have habits � a cosmic dance, a liturgy involving everyaspect of the whole universe, that can be depended upon in all of man�s technological labors as he exercises dominion under God over the world. On the other hand, God�s angels are personal beings, constantly carrying out His commands; in response to our petitions, He can and does order the angels to change the dance. 10 There is, therefore, an �Angel of the Waters� (in terms of St. John�s zodiacal progression, this is presumably the cherub of the fourth quarter, Aquarius); I� he, along with all of God�s personal creation, rejoices in God�s righteous government of the world. God�s strict justice, summarized in the principle of lex talionis, is evidenced in this judgment; the punishment fits the crime."
The above is totally radical in my opinion. Consider the following from the Catholic Encyclopedia, "In its strictly ethical application–the sense in which this article treats it–the natural law is the rule of conduct which is prescribed to us by the Creator in the constitution of the nature with which He has endowed us."
Can you guys give me your definitions, and which you think is best.