Anthony Miller

This is my defense of beauty as a transcendental according to Thomistic metaphysics #fn007-religions-15-01207" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/1…

If justification before God was by correctly understanding justification before God, chances are you're cooked

@Exodus15_11 @mikevlach zech 14 is the acid test

@mikevlach Zechariah 12-13 seems to agree with the Premillennial view of the Second Coming.

Premillennialists do have the best understanding of Psalm 2

@RevReads289 aesthetic superiority is aesthetic superiority

Aesthetic superiority isn't Christianity.

God’s attributes are not intrinsic determinations of his being, but rather they are just so many truths about the one indivisible and infinite existence and essence of God. — JD, God Without Parts, 163 Dolezal hard my friends, Dolezal hard.

@bajaturbo 😂

@amillaaaa I have all of Larkin's works he set the bar high with "cute and creative" LOL!

Imagine making fun of Christians who make charts that try to help explain major events in God's plan for the ages

@bajaturbo lol

@bajaturbo Very cute and creative

@kps2014 @PastorRyanA Do you know of specific theologians or theological views/traditions that would hold to your view on these things? What your describing is similar in some respects of what I've read in Sailhamer.

Well it is also prescriptive, but right, the law can neither be the cause nor the basis of eternal life, not least because Jesus elsewhere claims the exclusive Father-given authority to give it by His own volition (not as that which He earned from the law) and, as Gal 3:21 and 2 Cor 3:3-6 argue, stony laws don’t have the capacity to give life. That said, I also think Jesus gave an incomplete answer to the self-righteous lawyer who tried to test him, but a complete answer to the sincere ruler: “Come, follow me.” As for Rom 2:13-15, yes, but I think Paul was previewing Rom 8 and alluding to Jer 31:33. The doers of the law will be declared righteous before God, but not on the basis of the law (which pre-condemns everyone as sinners). The righteousness that God will certify on the day of judgment precedes and enables their Spirit-led fulfillment of the law’s requirements. The law was imposed on condemned sinners who are already cut off from God’s life, so it’s not a path from unrighteousness to righteousness or death to life. But, the law is a genuine shadow outlining the path of righteousness and life for those whom God has justified as His children. The actual object of that path is Jesus, the righteous Son who leads us to God by the Spirit. So yes, those who love God and keep His commands and fulfill the law’s requirements will inherit eternal life, but the only ones for whom that is true are those whom God has justified and brought to life by grace.

There are two ways to heaven: Absolute perfection in keeping the law and faith in Christ for salvation from sin. T/F

@kps2014 @PastorRyanA Thanks! So in Lk. 10 & 18, would you say Jesus is saying obedience to the law is descriptive of someone who will inherit eternal life, but obedience isn't the cause? Also, for those who obey the Law in Romans 2: would you say this a description of sinful yet justified believers?

I’d say living that accords with God is a natural, necessary, and inseparable condition of life with and from God, so while it takes the form of obedience and reward in this age, obedience is not properly a pre-condition for life. Two sets of Scriptures to back this up: 1) John 17:3; Rom 6; Phil 3:8-11: eternal life is experiential knowledge of God that culminates in eternal glory and immortality. Obedience leads to holiness and eternal life, yet eternal life is a free gift, the result of righteousness given by God apart from works of the law. How do those things fit together? God gives the life that we are to live, including its eternal culmination. 2) John 1:12-17, 3:3-16; Rom 8:14-29; Gal 3:24-4:7; 1 Peter 1:3-25; 1 John 3:1-3: The proper precondition for eternal life is Spirit-wrought birth as holy children of the living God. The love and purity that characterize obedience are themselves characteristics of God’s children, for whom eternal life will constitute perfection in maturity. These aren’t gracious exceptions to a covenant of works owing to Christ’s completion of the law’s requirements: Jesus himself characterized His obedience as the love of the incarnate Son for the Father. Such love and purity aren’t preconditions for the love of God. They flow from God’s love. So there is no invisible level that obedience in love must reach before eternal life is granted. The only threshold that exists is human corruption (physical and moral) and the fixed judgment of this creation, both consequences of the Fall. And it’s because this corrupted age will terminate in judgment that eternal life will be received as the reward for endurance in living according to God’s incorruptible ways.

@kps2014 @PastorRyanA Since you don't believe obedience is a precondition for life (if I understand you correctly), how do you interpret Jesus in Luke 10:28 and 10:18-28?

I think he had a right to it, based on Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:9-16. Nothing in chs 1-3 indicates that Adam’s gardening or his naming or any other work were preconditions to taking the fruit of life. Nevertheless, Gen 3:22 suggests that they simply never ate of that tree (though it doesn’t seem like God told them about the tree of life).

@kps2014 @PastorRyanA Prior to the fall, do you think Adam could've received the life of God, hypothetically?

F. The law is predicated on estrangement from the life of God. There is no path by which sinners can restore themselves to life with God by perfect obedience. Perfect obedience is the overflow of life with God that comes from the life of God, which is the hereditary trait of the children of God, who have their life from God. So the only way to attain to life with God is to receive the life of God from God through faith in the Son of God, who is the Word of life.

@_P3te_Belcher We celebrate the Lord's Supper weekly too

One of my favourite things about being part of a brethren assembly is that we remember & reflect on the death of Jesus every week, not just once a year

@MarkMacdonald75 @MitchellSheten1 Yes.

@amillaaaa @MitchellSheten1 I should clarify: when HUs speak of Christ as Saviour of everyone who ever lived, other than the elect: then Saviour is referring not to salvation, but to mere salvability?

Reformed brethren can hold the following without contradicting reason, the Scriptures, or confessional standards: God loves the world. He desires each human to be saved, antecedently. Jesus died for all in such a way that if any person were to believe, they could be saved. 1/2

@MarkMacdonald75 @MitchellSheten1 Both

@amillaaaa @MitchellSheten1 Yes, that’s the text I had in mind. “Savior” here has reference, not to salvation, but to mere salvability?

@MarkMacdonald75 @MitchellSheten1 He's the Savior of all men, especially to those who believe.

@amillaaaa @MitchellSheten1 Savior doesn’t only mean one who saves, but also one who renders men salvable?

@MarkMacdonald75 @MitchellSheten1 Yes. See OP

@amillaaaa @MitchellSheten1 “isn’t only mere salvability.” You think that this is part of Christ’s mission?

@WoodsReflection @MarkMacdonald75 @MitchellSheten1 Is there only one sense of God's love in the Bible or do we make distinctions as all orthodox theologians do?

@amillaaaa @MarkMacdonald75 @MitchellSheten1 "Because God loves the world... Yet it still magnifies His love and justice to make salvation possible for His image bearers" And yet Christ only prayed for some of them. According to your understanding of love, where is the love in Christ's prayer?

@MitchellSheten1 @MarkMacdonald75 oh boy haha

@amillaaaa @MarkMacdonald75 Christ’s ULTIMATE mission is to die for sinners. That’s it. Biblical fact. Keach and Owen don’t draw from Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin? New to me. Love you brother :).

@MitchellSheten1 @MarkMacdonald75 He never gave him the gospel. What are you talking about?

@amillaaaa @MarkMacdonald75 So why didn't Jesus run back and get the Young Rich Ruler's number so he can talk to him about the gospel again?