Truth Smack

Does God Repent?

2008-02-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Gen 6:4-9 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord repented [it repented the LORD] that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I repent that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.

Ex 32:9-14 And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation. 11 Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, `He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and repent from this harm to Your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. 14 So the Lord repented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

Jud 2:18 And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord repented because of their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.

1 Sa 15:11,29,35 I repent that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. 29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent. For He is not a man, that He should repent. 35 And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.

2 Sa 24:16And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, It is enough; now restrain your hand.

1 Chr 21:1,15 Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. 15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord looked and repented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, It is enough; now restrain your hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Psa 90:13 Return, O Lord! How long? And [repent concerning] Your servants.

Psa 106:45 And for their sake He remembered His covenant and repented according to the multitude of His mercies.

Jer 4:28 For this shall the earth mourn and the heavens above be black because I have spoken. I have purposed and will not repent, nor will I turn back from it.

Jer 15:6 You have forsaken Me, says the Lord, You have gone backward. Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of repenting!

Jer 18:7-10 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will repent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will repent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

Jer 20:16 And let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not repent; Let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noon.

Jer 26:3,13,19 Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may repent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings. 13 Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will repent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you. 19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and seek the Lords favor? And the Lord repented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves.

Jer 42:10 If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I repent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you.

Eze 24:14 I, the Lord, have spoken it; It shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not hold back, Nor will I spare, Nor will I repent; According to your ways and according to your deeds they will judge you, says the Lord God.

Joel 2:13,14 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He repents from doing harm. 14 Who knows if He will turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him – A grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?

Amos 7:3-6 So the Lord repented concerning this. It shall not be, said the Lord. 4 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, the Lord God called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory. 5 Then I said: O Lord God, cease, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, For he is small! 6 So the Lord repented concerning this. This also shall not be, said the Lord God.

Jon 3:9-4:2 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? 10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it. 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who repents from doing harm.

Zec 8:14,15 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Just as I determined to punish you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath, says the Lord of hosts, and I would not repent, 15 so again in these days I am determined to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Does the future already exist?

2008-01-25T19:11:00.000-07:00

Many Christians will tell you that the future already exists. They say God is outside of time, yet to God He can see all the future because it already exists for Him.

Yet that isn't the way the Bible describes God interacting with His creation.

In the Bible we read....

"They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin." - Jeremiah 32:35

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. - Genesis 22:10

Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. - Genesis 2:19-20

Yey there is one passage that seems to get over looked....
In the midst of a somewhat unrelated story (about Samson) we find a juicy nugget that helps us determine that the future does not exist for us, nor for God.

Judges 14:3 Then his father and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well.” 4 But his father and mother did not know that it was of the LORD — that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. 5 So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him.

Did ya get that? God was "seeking an occasion to move"!

God was looking for the right moment. The moment that best fit God's needs. The future does not exist, for if it did God would never once seek an occasion to do anything, as all of His occasion's would be settled in advance - no seeking required.

Interaction with perfect foreknowledge Pt. 3

2007-03-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

(you may want to read part 1 and part 2 before you read part 3)

Foreknowledge and divine interaction . . . . a mechanism to influence freewill.

OK, so lets again focus in on how foreknowledge and divine interaction is used to affect our will. I would like to illustrate how foreknowledge and divine interaction are meaningless unless the future is unsettled and we have the real ability to make choices that are not predetermined.

Imagine we are driving down a hot desert highway and there is nothing but miles and miles of emptiness. No towns, no gas stations, no rest stops . . . nothing!

Then we see a billboard.

The billboard says . . .

"Joe's Diner 1 mile ahead

Last chance to stop for 200 miles!"

This billboard interacts with us in a form of foreknowledge. Prior to seeing the billboard we really had no idea what the future held for us, but now we do have an idea what the future holds for us, there will be a Diner in a mile or so and there won't be another place to stop for 200 miles! So why did the creators of the billboard construct the billboard and place it on the side of the road?

The creators of the billboard did this to influence our freewill and future decisions. They desire that we stop and eat at their restaurant. And they also inform us that if we don't stop there we will not have another chance to stop for food for 200 more miles, that's about another 4 hours of driving time!

Because of this billboard we are now presented with a choice. Should we stop at Joe's diner or drive on for another four hours? Our freewill is now being influenced by the billboard. The creators of the billboard don't know what we will choose - but they certainly want to influence our choice which is the ONLY reason they took the time to interact with us via the billboard.

God's billboard to Adam.

God created Adam and Eve in the garden. Adam and Eve had it good! No rules, awesome surroundings, great company, communion with God, etc. Now God, wanting to have UN-coerced love with His creation didn't want to lock Adam and Eve in a box forcing them to love Him with no other option. So God introduced a rule. A single rule for Adam to follow (or not follow). Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet by introducing this rule it introduced the ability for Adam and Eve to do other than God's will for them. It introduced the ability for Adam and Eve to use their own will contrary to God's will for them. You might say that this instruction or rule was the birth of man's freewill.

This instruction was like a billboard on the side of the road.

The instruction was an interaction between God and Adam in which God gave Adam some foreknowledge... "for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

This foreknowledge that God dispensed to Adam had the TWO FOLD purpose that I outlined in parts 1 and 2 of this blog.

Purpose One: Attempt to influence Adam's will so that he doesn't eat from the tree and die spiritually.

Purpose two: If Adam DOES eat from the tree and dies spiritually Adam will know that God is who He says He is.

If . . . (on the other hand) all of Adam's choices are already known by God (a millennia beforehand) and all of this history has already been seen by God, what appears to be an interaction between Adam and God becomes merely an interaction in appearance and nothing else. The entire point of God interacting with Adam is an attempt by God to influence Adam's will. If Adam's will can be influenced, there must be different courses of history that are actually possible - i.e., the future cannot be settled - even if only settled in the mind of God.

Interaction between man and God is a lever or mechanism to effect and conform the will of man to the will of God.

God Himself stated this rather nicely when He told His disciples...

"Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He". - John 13:19

“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe" - John 14:29

In other words... I am telling you this in advance so that when it happens you will gain trust in me. I am telling you this in advance to alter the future.

The very fact that God gives prophecy is proof that the future is not settled in advance because God is attempting to alter upcoming events to more closely conform to His will.

Interaction with perfect foreknowledge Pt. 2

2007-02-22T15:18:00.000-07:00

(you may want to read part 1 before you read part 2 - consider that a prophetic statement) :)

God's TWO FOLD purpose for dispensing foreknowledge.

Why does God dispense His foreknowledge to us? I assert there is a two fold reason, with a single overlying reason. The single overlying reason I explained in Interaction with perfect foreknowledge Pt. 1, is that God wants to effect our will in an attempt to influence our will to more closely conform to His will.

But now lets dig a little deeper.
I assert that there is a two fold purpose in making foreknowledge known to others.

EXAMPLE:

When we say to our son who just got a new BB gun for Christmas....

"You are going to shoot your eye out with that thing!"

Our foreknowledge (educated guess) tells us that our child is too inexperienced to understand the safest way to handle the BB gun so he is most likely going to shoot a BB and have it ricochet hitting him in the eye.

But why do we dispense our foreknowledge to him? Why do we tell him what we think is going to happen?

I assert we do this for TWO REASONS:

1. We want to effect a possible future event. We want our son to think about safety. We DO NOT want him to shoot his eye out!!!

But it doesn't stop there. There is yet another reason we dispensed our foreknowledge to our son.

2. We realize he may not heed our warning and he might STILL carelessly shoot his eye out! And when that unfortunate event happens we want him to realize we were right in our foreknowledge and therefore give our advice credibility and possibly restore our sons faith in our enlightened foreknowledge (this will help us the next time we give him advice).

I assert that this TWO FOLD tactic is the very reason why God INTERACTS with us and dispenses His foreknowledge to us!

CASE IN POINT:
God wanted Peter to be a powerful witness for the gospel, a leader of the church. But God knew Peter's heart. God knew Peter's faith was weak. Therefore God interacted with Peter using this TWO FOLD use of foreknowledge.

God told Peter that Peter would deny Christ three times before the rooster crowed.

What was the point of this foreknowledge being given to Peter? Why didn't God just keep it to Himself? Why did He bother to tell Peter?

PURPOSE NUMBER ONE:
God wanted Peter to NOT deny Him! He wanted Peter to NOT shoot his eye out with the BB gun (so to speak). Yet God knew that Peter was likely going to deny Him regardless and then reason for prophecy number two kicked in . . .

PURPOSE NUMBER TWO:
God wanted Peter to have renewed faith in God's foreknowledge and therefore renewed faith in God because God was able to accurately predict Peter's future actions. Peter could then say to himself "WOW God must be the real God because He knew I was gonna shoot me eye with the BB gun." (so to speak).

And therefore the overall purpose of the foreknowledge is manifested.... EFFECTING Peter's will in a manner which persuaded Peter's will to more more closely conform to God's will for Peter. God created a "win win" prophecy tailored specifically for Peter to effect Peters will no matter what Peter chose to do.

The dispensing of foreknowledge has NO purpose unless the future is unsettled. Dispensing foreknowledge is a lever to effect future actions.

More to come in pt. 3.

Interaction with perfect foreknowledge Pt. 1

2007-02-15T15:50:00.000-07:00

The popular argument lately regarding God's foreknowledge seems to be....

God can have perfect exhaustive foreknowledge without settling the future and removing man's freewill. Personally I think this argument refutes itself.

Yet I think there is another objection to this notion of freewill and exhaustive foreknowledge being compatible that hasn't really been explored yet.

I don't like long-winded opening arguments so I am going to make this as brief as possible and develop the argument over time.

Here goes . . .

God is a personal God, a relational God. God has been extremely involved in mankind's history. God's word is filled, page after page of stories describing God interacting with His creation. God isn't sitting idly by on the other other side of the universe simply observing His creation. God is with us! He interacts with us, He moves us, shakes us, He influences us, He picks people for tasks and ministries, etc. He smites some, kills some and destroys others etc. But why? Why does God interact with us?
True freewill and perfect exhaustive foreknowledge are not compatible, they are mutually exclusive.

When He left us His word in the form of the Bible it was an interaction with us on a grand scale and for good reason.
When He wiped out the world with a flood it was interaction on a global scale and for good reason.
When He picked Abram, Moses, David etc. He was interacting with His creation for a reason.

God wants to affect our freewill! He wants to move us in the direction that more closely conforms to His will.

If God were an uninvolved God watching creation from a distance one might be able to make a more persuasive argument that God can know our future without effecting our freewill (the argument still fails logically but it would be far more understandable). Yet that isn't the God of the Bible! Please don't misunderstand, I am not claiming that those arguing for freewill and exhaustive foreknowledge being compatible are claiming God is not involved, far from it!

God is in the business of affecting our will without completely controlling our will, sort of like gathering sheep.

I am simply saying that their argument would be more believable if God weren't a personal God.- God wants us to choose Him!

- He desires that we choose Him! (1 Timothy 2:3)

- God wants us to love our wives.

- God wants us to raise up our children in His ways

- God wants us to convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

- God wants to persuade and affect our will to be more like His will regarding these things and many other things.

We know these things because God has interacted with us by leaving us His word and telling us what He wants us to do.

So one must ask . . .

A millennia ago did God's perfect exhaustive foreknowledge contain His interaction with us? And of course the answer must be a resounding YES otherwise the foreknowledge isn't perfect, yet lacking (lacking the interaction).

Did God perfectly foreknow His interactions with man infinitely into the past? And if so, doesn't that defeat the purpose of the interaction?

God interacts with man for a reason, I assert that divine interacting for the purpose of altering the course of history is only rational and logical if the course of history is truly alterable and not perfectly foreknown.

Said another way . . .
If there are two possible choices a man can make and God would prefer that we pick one of those choices above the other choice, He would only interact with us if He knew He could possibly influence that choice.

To be continued in pt. 2.

Did God create Satan evil?

2006-12-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

Many folks I bump into think that God created Satan evil.

On my website TOL one member (Kimberlyann) states:

"I don't believe Satan was a perfect angel that willfully gave up his place in heaven. I believe he was created to be God's adversary in the beginning."

This seems to be a common misunderstanding, I don't think many people realize that God did address this issue in a variety of ways in the Bible.

God didn't create Satan evil.

In a often overlooked passage God uses the King of Tyre as an example to describe how Satan was actually created as a protector in the Garden. It was Satan who took opportunity (via pride) to disobey God and therefore fell (we learn in Revelation that about one third of the angels fell with him).

Ezekiel 28:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created. 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. 16 “By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. 17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you. 18 “You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities, By the iniquity of your trading; Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth In the sight of all who saw you.

Therefore we know that Satan was created as a "anointed cherub who covers" and it was Satan who fell (God didn't create him evil) "You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor".

The case is now closed! There could never be a more clear description of how Satan was actually created as a protector who fell and turned evil.

MORE EVIDENCE:
To drive home the point even further, we also know that after creation God said everything was "good" (at this point Satan was still good).

Genesis 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.

At creation everything in heaven and on earth were good! (even Satan).

Yet Satan fell by tempting Eve to sin.... notice what God tells Lucifer regarding what Lucifer did in the garden...

Genesis 3:14 So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.

“Because you have done this, You are cursed"
“Because you have done this"

God cursed Satan because what he did in the garden, God did not create Satan as a evil being.

In the end....
Would a perfect father put a poisonous snake in the crib with his new born baby? Of course not! God put Satan in the garden as a protector! Yet Satan fell. Satan used his own freewill to disobey God and thus the history of mankind begins with a bang!

God sums it up like this....

Matthew 7:9 “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 “Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

My first blog

2006-12-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

Wow… so this is what it is like to be a blogger. I have never blogged before, yet I have heard many good things about blogging. So what is a "blog"? Well, "blog" is short for "weblog". I guess its like a log, except its on the web.

So what on earth could I write about in my first ever blog?

I could state some of my pet peeves.
Or talk about something funny that happened to me today.
Or possibly even make some sort of insightful commentary on the state of society!

Nah…..

I think I will just ramble on a bit more wasting valuable disk space and bandwidth.

But I plan to blog a great deal for here on out so you best prepare yourselves and I am sure at some point in the future something very interesting will be posted in one of these blogs of mine! Until then, this will have to do.