The Doctrine of God
Pages 169-562
2022-07-05 21:51 Pages 340-360
What I learned:
- Even animals and plants depend on God Job 12:10.
- Pantheism implies God has no distinct personality which means He is not holy. It also destroys the personal identity of humans as well.
- Dualism says God and the Universe have eternally co-existed.
Interesting:
- Belief that world was created in 4004 B.C. which was the major proponenet of Young Earth creationists was popularized by Irish archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656).
2022-07-06 21:14 Pages 360-380
What I learned:
- Proponents of theistic evolution propose Adam and Eve were just two humans chosen out of an original 10,000 original humans of the human species.
- Nature longs to be freed from its bondage of natural disasters, thorns and thistles, weeds, and such in much the same way we long to be freed from our physical bodies and obtain new resurrection bodies. (Romans 8:18-21)
- The evidence from creation for God’s existence is so overwhelming that God holds people morally accountable for denying it. (381)
Interesting:
- All sin is ultimately irrational at its root.
2022-07-07 21:19 Pages 380-400
What I learned:
- There is no gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Gap theory falls apart when we realize God will have looked at all the demonic beings and call His creation “very good.”
- Biblical genealogies have gaps in them which opens up the possibility of an older Earth.
- There is much debate over whether yom in Genesis 1 is a literal twenty-four hour day or a long period of time.
Interesting Quote:
- Humans are beneficiaries of the remains of millions of generations of plants and animals that preceded us. (395)
2022-07-08 21:50 Pages 400-420
What I learned:
- There is a possibiliy the sun, moon, and stars were made before the first day but were made visible or revealed on day four. This is good a response to Mr. Heaton’s argument of how plants can’t go without the sun for too long.
- Mature creationism falls short in explaining fossils. Did God originally create fossils within the earth to simply make people think the earth was older than it really was?
- Young earth proponents fail to distinguish scientific arguments for creation by design from scientific arguments differing on the age of the earth.
Interesting Quote:
- The material universe is good in itself, for God created it good and wants us to use it in ways pleasing to him. Therefore we should seek to be like the early Christians, who “received their food with glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2:46), always with thanksgiving to God for his provisions. (413)
2022-07-09 11:21 Pages 420-440
What I learned:
- God’s providence provides a basis for science: God has made an continues to sustain a universe that acts in predictable ways. (422)
- Natural events are fully caused by God and fully caused by creation.
- Scripturally, God has indirectly brought about some kind of evil.
Interesting Quote:
- But we are nonetheless free in the greatest sense that any creature of God could be free—we make willing choices, choices that have real effects. We are aware of no restraints on our will from God when we make decisions. We must insist that we have the power of willing choice; otherwise we will fall into the error fatalism or determinism and thus conclude that our choices do not matter or that we cannot really make willing choices. (page 438)
2022-07-10 22:09 Pages 440-460
What I learned:
- Grudem really breaks down a common strawman argument against Calvinism: To say that God does not react to our actions is to deny the whole history of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. (453)
- Calvinism asserts the mystery of the doctrine of God’s providence in light of the fact that God ordains that people do wrong yet continually places the blame for that wrong on the individual human beings who does wrong and never on God himself.
- A repeated rebuttal to Arminianism is their lack of explicit Scriptural to justify the paradoxical aspects of God’s providence. Grudem claims that to hold an Arminian position, one relies more on human experience and intuition rather than specific texts of Scripture.
Interesting Quote:
- This causes us to conclude that God has made us in such a way that (1) he ordains all that we do, and (2) we exercise our personal will and make real, voluntary choices. Because we cannot understand this, should we therefore reject it? (452)
2022-07-11 22:53 Pages 460-480
What I learned:
- If the Arminian God has to allow for a freedom to choose evil, it implies God will have to allow the possibility of sinful choices in heaven eternally.
- The two unanswered questions of Calvinism are “Exactly how can God not be blamed for evil when he ordains that we do evil willingly?” and “Exactly how can God cause us to choose something willingly?”
- The church in Galatia also had members working miracles as implied in Galatians 3:5.
Interesting Quote:
- Therefore, even if we understand the “signs of an apostle” to be miracles, we should recognize that those who use this passage to argue that miracles cannot be done through Christians today are taking the phrase “signs of an apostle” out of its context and using it in a way that Paul never intended. (478)
2022-07-12 17:15 Pages 480-500
What I learned:
- Claims that God can intend miracles to be worked in stages undermines claims that miracles must be always be successful, immediate, without relapse, and confirming of God’s messenger.
- After Pentecost, the early church prayed for boldness to preach the gospel AND for God to grant miracles to accompany its preaching (Acts 4:29-30).
- Praying in Jesus’ name is a prayer made on his authorization and in a way that is consistent with his character.
Interesting Quote:
- The identity of these workers of false miracles is always known through their denial of the gospel. There is no indication anywhere in Scripture that genuine Christians with the Holy Spirit in them will work false miracles. (485)
2022-07-14 21:40 Pages 500-540
What I learned:
- Grudem interprets the groans in Romans 8:26 coming from a person and not in tongues.
- Jesus encourages us to have his words within us as we pray (John 15:7)
- When God forgives us when we forgive others, this is to restore our day-to-day relationship with him—this is different from our initial experience of forgiveness when we are justified by faith.
- The early church practiced fasting as routine for seeking the Lord’s guidance for appointing church officers (Acts 14:23).
- Angels were created beings (possibly during the first day) and were not spared when they sinned (2 Peter 2:4).
- Knowing there are angelic witnesses present in our lives serve as an additional deterrence from disobeying the Lord (1 Tim 5:21; 1 Cor 4:9).
- Demons cannot read our minds or know our thoughts, but they can observe what goes on in the world and draw conclunsions from such observations (explaining fortune-tellers, witchcraft).
Interesting Quote:
- In many places in the Old Testament, the Lord shows himself to be the true God in distinction from the false (demonic) gods of the nations by the fact that he alone can know the future: “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isa. 46:9-10). (537)
2022-07-15 22:02 Pages 540-560
What I learned:
- Jesus explains that his power over demons is a distinguishing mark on his ministry to inaugurate the reign of the kingdom of God among mankind in a new and powerful way: Matthew 12:28-29 (540)
- Grudem pushes back on SAFA’s core vision: in no instance does anyone in the New Testament…teach by word or example that certain “demonic strongholds” over a city have to be broken before the gospel can be proclaimed with effectiveness. Rather, Christians just preach the gospel, and it comes with power to change lives! (542-543)
- The result of satanic or demonic activity is destroying parts of God’s creation and those made in the image of God.
- Phillip wasn’t an apostle.
- Rebukes against demons would have to be spoken audibly given that demons cannot read our minds—only God can.
Interesting Quote:
- [on Mark 9:29] He must have meant, rather, that a continual life of prayer and abiding in God will result in a spiritual preparedness and possession of a spiritual power through the anointing of the Holy Spirit that will be effective in conflict even over very severe demonic attack or influence. (555)