Trinity Broadcasting Network

[SIKSIKA]

lmorovan: Response to Limitations of God

"I cannot believe in a God with limitation. He either is Omnipotent or He is not. He either is Omniscient or He is not. He is either Omnipresent or He is not. All of God's attributes are absolute, lest He is incomplete. I cannot believe that."

Response: I suggest you reexamine what you believe. You already have stated that your omniscient God forgets our sins. If that be the case, then how can he be omniscient?

"The rapture and the Second Coming of Christ happen at one time."

Response: The tribulation is referred to in Scripture as the 'time of Jacob's trouble'. Who is Jacob? It is Israel. This is the time when God concludes His program w/ Israel, not the Church. This 7 yr period is the Tribulation period, referred to as Daniel's 70th week.

Do you believe that Christ could return today? To state that He cannot, and that we must go through this 7 year period of God's wrath, denies it. Yet the early Church lived w/ the expectation that Christ could return immediately. (Imminency)

I believe that the promises made to Israel do not apply to the Church, and will ultimately be fulfilled.

I Thes 4.16 states that the resurrection of the Church takes place at the Rapture. The resurrection of Israel is associated w/ the coming of the Messiah (Is 26.19), the conversion of Israel (Rom 11.15), and the inauguration of the Kingdom (Lu 14.14-15), with the Tribulation coming before it (Dan 12.1-3).

If the Rapture & the Second Coming occur at the same time, and since none of these events have occurred, it could not happen now. As stated earlier, it appears that the early Church were consumed w/ the idea that the Lord could return immediately, not after 7 years of Tribulation. I believe they were correct.

"If God is not Sovereign to chose who will be saved, then God is not Sovereign."

Response: I need to disagree w/ you on this point. Are you stating that God was not Sovereign w/ Adam & Eve, but is now sovereign w/ mankind? If God is sovereign and chooses who is to be saved, then all He needed to do was the sovereign act of making sure that Adam & Eve never sinned. Yet billions of people are going to a Christless eternity of eternal torment because He didn't.

Are you saying that God's sovereignty was effected by the sin of man? God was, is, and always will be sovereign. But He chose to limit His sovereignty by allowing Adam & Eve to choose. Or, are you proposing that God chose to have Adam & Eve sin, therefore making Him the author of sin?

"From where I stand, God either is or is not"

Response: I agree. Either God was sovereign at the time of the Fall or He wasn't. Then it would appear that 1) He chose to make them sin and is the originator of sin, or 2) He limited His sovereignty to allow mankind to choose of its own free will. I believe the latter.

I must leave until next weekend. I will take a look at the other board, and see if I can respond to any questions there before I retire from the boards for the week. Have a great week.

In His Name,

NJMARK50