A logic of the plan of God
Waldemar
Janzen, September 9th 2004
God proceeds logically?
Some contest, but how can you praise God,
or anybody, without understanding the logic of his thoughts or acts? To praise him for the simple reason that he
is God, or for the reason he was presented to us as God does not seem to have
any valid merits in itself and falls short of being praiseworthy. Imagine somebody praises you for something he
did not understand. The appropriate term
for this type of behavior is to fawn. God obviously does not want to be fawned
and for this reason it is appropriate that we dedicate ourselves to understand
a little of his thoughts and works in order to bring authentic honor to him.
If I praise God for his justice, I must be
capable to evaluate and approve it. I
can make this evaluation only through logic.
We have some examples in the Bible. Only one of them to show this: "And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord,
which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they
have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to
drink; for they are worthy.." Rev. 16:5-6
They have shed the blood of saints so it is logic and
just that God gives them blood to drink!
I developed a sequence of arguments for a
logic explanation of a possible reason for God
"to incur" the risk to create human beings that he knew
beforehand would err.
Make your own evaluation if this makes
sense, is logic, to you, too .
This is not a prerequisite for salvation
but only a reason to reflect on and praise God.
Everything that we need to know for our
salvation is in the Bible, however, For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Ro. 1:20
For the fact that God is intellectually infinitely
above us it is obvious that not always we will have the intellectual capacity
to understand/comprehend (to follow his logic) the completeness of his thoughts
and proceedings, because
"as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Isa. 55:9 Even so, many of his thoughts and works we
can understand and comprehend.
The following argumentation is made,
basically, through axioms self-evident principles that cannot be proven.
1- God does not have opposition at his
level, on the contrary he already would have been defeated.
2- Due to his eternal existence his
attributes need to be, forcibly, absolute, i.้, almighty, omniscient,
absolutely saint, absolutely just, etc.
3- He also needs to have all of the good/pure/saint
absolute attributes. If they were not
absolute and complete he would be weak/imperfect/wanting and, already,
defeated.
4- The completeness of his eternal
existence must include spontaneous praise, as well. This is the main point
of the logic of this argument. Rev 4:11 Thou art
worthy (forcibly, due to his accomplishments and by what He is), O Lord, to
receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for
thy pleasure they are and were created.
5- Spontaneous praise can only be given by
an absolutely independent being.
6- A created being is only independent when
it has the capability to oppose.
7- Authentic demonstration of opposition
capability is only given when, in fact, transgression/opposition has occurred
at least once.
8- The minimum of transgression/opposition
is incompatible with an environment of absolute sanctity.
9- From the viewpoint of absolute justice
it is inconsistent simply to eliminate the transgressor. This, actually, is not justice at all. It,
again, does not leave an independent
being. There is no capable independent being left to give authentic
praise if each transgressor is eliminated each time he transgresses. When the opposition party is eliminated, only
the situation party remains!
10- An absolute justice requires an
absolute punishment for the trespass.
11- An absolute punishment cannot be other
than eternal.
12- An eternal punishment without
whitewashing resource is absence of mercy.
But, mercy is an indispensable attribute of a supreme eternal/perfect/loving
being.
13- Mercy is not absolute if it is not
exerted in favor of a being under absolute perdition.
14- Mercy without just punishment is
arbitrariness.
15- Arbitrariness is injustice. Injustice is incompatible with a supreme
perfect/eternal being.
Where it is the solution?
Substitute punishment.
16- But if all were saved automatically
through this substitute punishment it would not prove that it was a real
threat, an authentic punishment. It
would seem to be only a stage play. On
the other hand a substitute for the punishment could not have had part on
transgressions because in that case it was under the same condemnation and
could not substitute. For this reason
God himself had to become men, live, as a man, without contest/sins, unjustly
be made sin for the beings under conviction, and in this condition, suffer
death, giving God the legitimacy to exert mercy without injuring his
justice. The punishment was executed,
the defendant could be acquitted because it is not just to apply two times the
same punishment for the same trespass.
For the fact that the trespass has been punished by the application of
the death penalty to an innocent, God had the power and right to defeat death
in the resurrection, and forgive the transgressor.
17- He can only apply his mercy to those
who out of free and spontaneous will appeal to the substitute sacrifice,
otherwise the mercy of God, as well as the independent praise of God by his
creatures, would cease to be authentic.
18- The appeal to the substitute punishment
is only free and spontaneous when it is accessible to all.
19- His love is absolute because it was
disclosed in his sacrificial death for the absolutely lost ones.
Conclusion: This way God receives, through the receivers of his mercy,
authentic/impartial praise, compatible with his supreme eternal existence.
For this reason we read in the last book of
the Bible, Rev.. 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,
whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. The substitute sacrifice of
Jesus Christ was already completely planned before the fall of the human being,
that is, already before creation, actually part of the creation plan itself and
not a repair in course.
Is there any conceivable bolder, more
perfect or haugthier plan than this?
This sheds some light, as well, on Isaiah 45:7 I
form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I
the LORD do all these things.
Waldemar Janzen, September 9th 2004