Michael Desmond

Bible-Believer, Jesus-Follower, Husband, Father by Adoption, Cancer Survivor, Enjoyer of: Theology, Games, Star Wars (pre-Disney), Tolkien, Lewis & Marvel.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@1984_nate Calvinists were the first transhumanists.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@CherylSchatz @FrankLets78822 Job did not write Job. Job is literature. Its genre is an epic poem, like Beowulf. It's not an autobiography or a historical narrative. In this type of literature the narrator is omniscient, the characters within it aren't. Linguistic data suggests it was written in the 7C-2C BC.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @JCBibleInsights 💯. All (or nearly all) of our societal ills today are rooted in Nominalism. Wokeness, Transgenderism, Alphabet soup, BLM, Marxism, they can only exist under Nominalism and can't operate or even get traction to start moving under the better competing framework of Realism.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JPGolfandTaxes @J17apologetics I'm not a Calvinist, bro. I was agreeing with Nick. And my point, or translation, is evidence against Calvinism's misuse of that passage, not support of it.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @cbankston7 Yes Nominalism is the inconsistency because it is basically an entire system built on shifting the goalposts. I hate it. So much.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @cbankston7 I don't have a problem with a properly qualified view, but the Reformed with whom I tend to interact have a hyper view of this that they inconsistently apply.

I also tend to like the EO view better which makes a distinction between God's essence and His energies.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @1984_nate Yes. Do you see that "unqualifiedly immutable" claim based on verses that have an ignored contextual qualification?

That's the headache-generating dog water theology I'm hating on.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@cbankston7 @JonKismetCalvin Yes, everything is eternal in this system. It's just that CTs are inconsistent in applying them, IMO.
Simplicity: God has no parts. Everything that comprises God is identical to God.
God's knowledge is inseparable from God.
Everything is known by God.
Everything is God.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @1984_nate I know we already discussed this, but I just want to show you an example of the kind of claims about CT that just make this topic unnavigable.
https://t.co/y6hZtJEeIq

[Duff @dgh5391]

Mal 3:6; Js 1:17 — God is unqualifiedly immutable.

Kenoticist christology:
"Except for the Son in Incarnation. He changed, of course."

Classical theism:

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @cbankston7 💯. When you combine Simplicity with the Omnis and Ims you end up with a fatally closed system that can contain no variables or potentiality, only eternal certainty. What IS is all there is and ever will or can be, by divine fiat (fate). Even God can't do anything differently.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @Soteriology101 Yes, we're pretty much on the same page there.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @Soteriology101 But I can see instances where it appears that God planned redemption from death and Satan by means of a self-sacrificial loss that also defeats Satan in the "Fall" narrative, but again, that seems to me to be a responsive action on God's part.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @Soteriology101 The title of the book they are written in is "the book of the life of the slain lamb." This is clear from 17:8 where the book is summarized as "the lamb's book of life" and the names are what are being written from the foundation of the world.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @Soteriology101 None of this requires eternal (pre-creation) knowledge of all non-existent persons and things, as far as I can tell.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @Soteriology101 God often tells people His intentions for what He plans to do in the future, but He is the guarantor of making that event happen or not. God obviously knows Himself and what He intends and is capable of accomplishing what He sets out to do.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @Soteriology101 That's kind of a different thing than knowing, with specificity, exactly what is going to happen in all instances ad infinitum without any relational referent existing to ground the knowledge of its actions in the real world.

[Michael Desmond @mpdesmond]

@JonKismetCalvin @Soteriology101 I think that generally suffers from the lack of grounding I've been talking about.

I do think God knew what He was doing when He created and the range of available options the creature would be capable of, like any good designer.