Comments on: Searching for The Third Way: Baptism, Part 6

By: David

David — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:33:38 +0000

Science has proven that time is a physical dimension, just as height, width, and length. For instance, gravity affects time as does velocity. We don't limit God to being only "so wide" or "so high" so I think it is incorrect to limit Him in time, as you have said. That being so, I don't think it's as correct to say God remembers the past and knows the future as it is to say that He exists in our future and our past as much as He exists in our present. For us it would appear He is only remembering or forknowing, but that is because, as you stated, we are bound to time.

By: Alan

Alan — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:54:12 +0000

God told Abram he would bless him in Genesis 12, when Abram was 75 years old. But he didn't tell him why he chose Abram for the blessing. That didn't happen until several decades later, in Gen 22:

Gen 22:16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
Gen 22:17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
Gen 22:18 and through your offspring [2] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

So God chose to bless Abram because he offered his son. The effect preceded the cause.

By: mark

mark — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:32:41 +0000

Todd
"light comes first, the light sources later."
very interestng

By: Todd

Todd — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:48:14 +0000

Genesis 1 gives us a possible example of effect preceding cause – light comes first, the light sources later.

By: Jay Guin

Jay Guin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:01:40 +0000

Mark,

Churches of Christ have normally shied away from eschatology. We rejected premillennialism but largely left things vague: Jesus is coming back; when is God's secret.

Campbell was a premillennialist (his papers was called the "Millennial Harbinger") but he considered the question too divisive and so rarely wrote or spoke on the subject.

Combine that with Foy Wallace's attacks on premillennialism in the 1940s and we just never had much interest in the subject.

While I personally have little interest in trying to predict the future via the Revelation, I do think there's a lot to be gained by studying the End and what happens later. Hence, my "Surprised by Hope" and "Surprised by Hell" series from this last summer.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:42:56 +0000

Jay

"God can make effects occur before the cause "

I'm thinking on this one it could explain a lot…..a couple of questions is our present history prophetic? And does our restoration roots fit in our present day eschatology?