Predestination is misunderstood...

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
Does that mean Psalm 51:5 is fantasy?

Amplified Bible

I was brought forth in [a state of] wickedness; In sin my mother conceived me
[and from my beginning I, too, was sinful].


Sir.... you are failing your discipleship course....
No. It means the translation you are reading is incorrectly eisegeting total depravity into a text that does not allude to total depravity.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
And we have those whom God has appointed to teach His word. You would ignore them and rely on your own understanding instead? Teachers are supernaturally gifted to do their job and they have a responsibility to prepare themselves well as they cop a stricter judgment.

Ephesians 4:11
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,

James 3:1
My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
You are free to have others do your thinking for you and to simply eat from the trough of whoever tickles your ears as you eat. But God wants you to mature to a point where He is able to teach you directly by His word and spirit. At some point you will need to leave the safety of your systematic theological nest and explore the real world following your Shepherd's own voice..
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,928
419
83
No. It means the translation you are reading is incorrectly eisegeting total depravity into a text that does not allude to total depravity.
No one said "total depravity." We were born with a sin nature that is in our body.
God creates the soul.
Our parents produce the sin nature body that our soul lives inside of.

Total depravity would indicate that our soul is doomed to be depraved even after it leaves the body.
God saved our souls only. Not the body.

Total depravity would mean there would be nothing for God to save.
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,928
419
83

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,928
419
83
You are free to have others do your thinking for you and to simply eat from the trough of whoever tickles your ears as you eat. But God wants you to mature to a point where He is able to teach you directly by His word and spirit. At some point you will need to leave the safety of your systematic theological nest and explore the real world following your Shepherd's own voice..
You read Hebrew fluently? Ancient Hebrew????
 

sawdust

Active member
Feb 12, 2024
935
194
43
67
Australia
You said: "Satan can do nothing without the Lord's permission".

Nowhere in the Bible is this stated.
I gave you examples. Satan was under authority when testing job and the demons had to ask permission to enter pigs.


I agree with the bold part, but then you wander off into unscriptural Christianese rationalising jargon not found in the Bible. "Spiritual death" is not mentioned anywhere in scripture. Death is physical death, or the second physical death or a sentence of future physical death. It is also used metaphorically of continually putting to death daily the old man, the flesh. I just don't see "spiritual death" anywhere.
I don't think it says anywhere that Adam died spiritually. It does say that he would die within 1000 years, which is within one day of his sin. The lord is not slack concerning His promises as some consider slackness. A day with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. And Adam, and every descendant of Adam, has died physically within one "day", 1000 years. Why any need to creat a category of spiritually dead, and spiritual death?
It does not say he would die within a thousand years. It says literally " on the day you eat from it, to die you will be dying" (Gen.2:17) You also go into Christianese rationalising because Peter says "a day is like a thousand years to the Lord". News flash, a day is not like a thousand years to us so when God speaks of a day to a human He means a 24 hour period. The Lord speaks of two deaths, one on the day Adam eats and the other over time.

God's decree is the reason we die.
So you say then blame the devil for death. Make your mind up.
 

sawdust

Active member
Feb 12, 2024
935
194
43
67
Australia
You are free to have others do your thinking for you and to simply eat from the trough of whoever tickles your ears as you eat. But God wants you to mature to a point where He is able to teach you directly by His word and spirit. At some point you will need to leave the safety of your systematic theological nest and explore the real world following your Shepherd's own voice..
A good teacher teaches the word faithfully so you have the truth with which to think. And God wants you to learn to walk under authority but you're welcome to ignore those God appoints and think you have no need of a teacher.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
I gave you examples. Satan was under authority when testing job and the demons had to ask permission to enter pigs.




It does not say he would die within a thousand years. It says literally " on the day you eat from it, to die you will be dying" (Gen.2:17) You also go into Christianese rationalising because Peter says "a day is like a thousand years to the Lord". News flash, a day is not like a thousand years to us so when God speaks of a day to a human He means a 24 hour period. The Lord speaks of two deaths, one on the day Adam eats and the other over time.



So you say then blame the devil for death. Make your mind up.
You are committing the error of generalising one event into the case for every event.

Like saying: I only went to the movies because my mother let me go. Therefore everyone who goes to the movies has to have my mother's permission. Silly and false inductive reasoning.

oLaM (translated in the command as day) can mean a day, a season, a period of time, a lifetime, and age.... Death within 1000 years was God's decree. The means of death was not decreed. The devil is one of the means by which we die. He is a murderer, right? Do yu agree that he is a murderer?
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
A good teacher teaches the word faithfully so you have the truth with which to think. And God wants you to learn to walk under authority but you're welcome to ignore those God appoints and think you have no need of a teacher.
A good teacher teaches people to think coherently and lucidly. They do not tell people what to think. they teach people how to come to reasonable conclusions from given data. How to do things. How to see things from other perspectives. How to cooperate and participate in communal activities. They do not teach people to rattle off memorised talking points from a single unexamined perspective.
 

Genez

Junior Member
Oct 12, 2017
2,928
419
83
You are committing the error of generalising one event into the case for every event.

Like saying: I only went to the movies because my mother let me go. Therefore everyone who goes to the movies has to have my mother's permission. Silly and false inductive reasoning.

oLaM (translated in the command as day) can mean a day, a season, a period of time, a lifetime, and age.... Death within 1000 years was God's decree. The means of death was not decreed. The devil is one of the means by which we die. He is a murderer, right? Do yu agree that he is a murderer?
May I ask? Where are you getting you info from? What reference material?
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
PaulThomson said:
You are committing the error of generalising one event into the case for every event.

Like saying: I only went to the movies because my mother let me go. Therefore everyone who goes to the movies has to have my mother's permission. Silly and false inductive reasoning.

oLaM (translated in the command as day) can mean a day, a season, a period of time, a lifetime, and age.... Death within 1000 years was God's decree. The means of death was not decreed. The devil is one of the means by which we die. He is a murderer, right? Do yu agree that he is a murderer?

May I ask? Where are you getting you info from? What reference material?
Olam has a diverse set of meanings, including, world, existence, lifetime and eternity. As is often the case in Hebrew, the etymology of the word suggests the link between its different senses; olam comes from alam, a verb meaning to hide or conceal.
https://www.thejc.com/judaism/jewis... has a diverse set,meaning to hide or conceal.

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/logical-fallacies-definition-fallacy-examples/

Answer: 2 Peter 3:8–9 reads:

‘But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’​
God used the word 'oLaM in Genesis

King James Bible
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
 
Apr 27, 2023
538
39
28
No. Is that required to be able to parse biblical text?
To understand noun phrases requires both Greek and Hebrew. There are plenty nouns spelled singularly in English, but are plural without articles, but Hebrew and Greek have one article which is wrongly thought to be definite.
 
Apr 27, 2023
538
39
28
We were born with a sin nature that is in our body.
The desire for self-preservation is not this alleged nature. But worse is the gnostic belief that it is in the body. The sin nature is voluntary and is related to separation from God. This separation is to prevent reward for sin.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
Not really......

You mind sharing your qualifications if you wish to assume the position you have?
What position do you imagine I am assuming? Is asking questions and presenting an alternative perspective to someone else "assuming a position"? Or simply expressing my own thoughts?

No. I have been informally studying biblical Greek and Hebrew and the Bible for 35+ years. I know how to provide references for the linguistic points I make in attempting to rightly divide the word of truth.
 

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
3,474
455
83
Have you ever seen real exegesis being done?
Its rare to find....
Yes. You have to start by divesting yourself of all your presuppositions as you approach a text or passage, and look at what it simply says, without inserting ideas it does not say.