...Nature of Divine Sovereignty 3. The Nature of Human Freedom Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views is a necessary and timely book. Although, church history bears witness to a diversity of opinions regarding the nature and content of God’s divine foreknowledge, the need for careful and scholarly examination remains as relevant and important as any point in church history. An encroaching, imperious secularism demands that we are able to cogently articulate our understanding of the divine as well as counter those objections proffered by those hostile to the historic, orthodox Christian faith. All four views will be examined and summarized. They include: 1. The Open Theism View 2. The Simple Foreknowledge View 3. The Middle Knowledge View 4. The Augustinian-Calvinist View...
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...Free will in Oedipus Rex In terms of their fate, characters in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles have very little control over their lives and can do little to prevent major events in the story to influence the fulfilment of prophecies. The play itself follows the king of Thebes, Oedipus, who realizes in his quest to save the city that he has fulfilled a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother, a fate he had been trying to escape his whole life. One important theme in this story is the theme of free will, or in this case the absence of it. The significance of free will in Oedipus Rex is that Oedipus does not truly have the ability to exercise free will or to change his fate, but throughout the story he still tries to escape...
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...a human being are predetermined for you by a higher power, or you believe that you have the free will to pick and choose your life is an inevitable question. Life can be described as “free determinism” in a way that our destiny is predetermined: death, but, when we are living we have the freewill to choose as long as we accept the consequences, this is shown in the story The Garden of Eden, Free Will by John Perry, and in everyday life events. Freewill life has been shown ever since the beginning days of The Garden of Eden when the first people: Adam and Eve, were created. If their lives would have been predetermined, God would not of allowed them to sin against him and eat the fruit of knowledge, after they were obeyed to stay away from the fruit. Adam and Eve, although tempted by the Serpent, were not physically forced to eat or refuse the fruit of knowledge that then after doing so, changed history forever. Much less, there would have been no sense of God creating Adam and Eve as humans if they would have just been made to act like robots, we were created individually to act on our...
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...(Tiessen, 2000, p. 190). Boethius puts this nicely “as the complete and perfect possession at once of an endless life” (Tiessen, 2000, p. 190.) As creator, he established a set order of natural law in which the world operates (Jeremiah 31:35-36). As creator He is attributed ownership and lordship of His creation (Psalm 24:1-2). The Bible establishes a paradigm where God is distinct from creation in substance, knowledge, time and power. God’s nature outside of creation renders Him special knowledge. The various models differ in their descriptions and extent of this knowledge and link it inseparably to human freedom (Ariel, 2005). Process theology and the openness model would argue that God does not know with absolute certainly the future (Tiessen, 2000, pp. 32,362-363). The Semi-Deist position argues that God has established rules of order after which He does not further intervene (Tiessen, 2000, p. 32) and that we are agents of change (Tiessen, 2000, p. 38) Proponents of these models argue that although the past and present may be known the future acts of ‘libertarialy free people cannot be known until those people have decided on their action...
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...to meet national requirements and the needs of students and teachers. OCR is a not-for-profit organisation; any surplus made is invested back into the establishment to help towards the development of qualifications and support which keep pace with the changing needs of today’s society. This mark scheme is published as an aid to teachers and students, to indicate the requirements of the examination. It shows the basis on which marks were awarded by Examiners. It does not indicate the details of the discussions which took place at an Examiners’ meeting before marking commenced. All Examiners are instructed that alternative correct answers and unexpected approaches in candidates’ scripts must be given marks that fairly reflect the relevant knowledge and skills demonstrated. Mark schemes should be read in conjunction with the published question papers and the Report on the Examination. OCR will not enter into any discussion or correspondence in connection with this mark scheme. © OCR 2011 Any enquiries about publications should be addressed to: OCR Publications PO Box 5050 Annesley NOTTINGHAM NG15 0DL Telephone: Facsimile: E-mail: 0870 770 6622 01223 552610 publications@ocr.org.uk G582 Band 0 1 Mark /21 0 1-5 AO1 Mark Scheme Mark /14 0 1-3 AO2...
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...GOLDEN GATE BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CAMPUS DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN FREE WILL IN REFORMED THEOLOGY, OPEN THEISM AND MOLINISM AN EXAMINATION OF THE VIEWS OF PAUL KJOSS HELSETH, GREGORY BOYD AND WILLIAM LANE CRAIG A RESEARCH PAPER PRESENTED TO PROFESSOR RODRICK K. DURST IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY II, L-1212-11 BY ROBERT MCNAIR BOX # 685 MILL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA MAY 9, 2014 Contents Introduction 1 Paul Kjoss Helseth and the Reformed (Calvinist) Position 3 Gregory Boyd and the Open Theism Position 7 William Lane Craig and the Molinist Position 12 Conclusion 17 Bibliography 22 DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN FREE WILL Introduction Scripture presents two seemingly irreconcilable concepts that are both expressly affirmed in the Bible as co-existent and true: divine sovereignty and human free will. That Scripture teaches the doctrine of divine providence cannot be denied. The very act of creation was the result of God’s providence, as the created order resulted solely from His will and power. Simply, the world did not have to be; it came to be as a matter of divine choice. As a result, our world is contingent; it has no independent existence, but exists “moment to moment only in and through and unto God (Neh. 9:6; Ps. 104:30; Rom. 11:36; Heb. 1:3; Rev. 4:11).”1 In other words, the world and everything in it is entirely dependent on God for its being as God actively “works all things according to the counsel...
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...LIBERTY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY THEODICY/ THE PROBLEM OF EVIL: A RESULT OF GOD’S DIVINE PLAN OR AN ACT OF MAN’S FREE WILL A PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. TODD S. BUCK IN PARTIAL FULFILLLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CLASS SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY I THEO 525 BY JOHN S. POPE JR LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA May 11, 2013 Table of Contents Introduction Definition of Theodicy……………………………………………………………………….2 Divine Providence..............…………………………………………………………………..3 God’s Sovereignty/Man’s Free Will………………………………………………………...5 Conclusion…...………………......……………………………………………………….....10 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………...12 The human race is afflicted by kidnappings, poverty, murder and oppression. The question men have struggled with is how can a good God allow such evil to continue? On a moral level, an even better question would be is the evil man experiences at the hands of other men, a result of God’s divine plan or the effect of man’s free will? Answering these questions is important because uncovering the reason for ongoing evil has challenged some to the point, they have denied their faith and joined a corps of atheists who promote the idea that the presence of suffering, pain and evil are the best testament to a non-existent God. When arguing against the existence of God, one might be presented with attempts to use His divine attributes of omnipotence (all powerful), omniscience (all knowing) and omnibenevolence (all good) against Him....
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...Leslie Jordan April 19, 2010 Paper 5 Does Free Will Exist? The idea of free will has always been a very interesting topic for me to discuss, because there really is no wrong answer of if free will exist or not. No one can provide proof of us having free or not unless they can talk with God and we all know that being able to actually talk to God and he actually respond is considered “crazy”. I believe that if you believe you have free will than you have free will. As children were always told that you can do and be whatever you want as long as you believe so I figure the same rule applies to free will. I am discussing the idea of free will with in the character Billy Pilgrim. The Tralfamadorians live with the knowledge of the fourth dimension, they believe that all moments of time are happening and taking place simultaneously. Because the Tralfamadorians believe that all moments of time have already taken place; they also believe their life path has been predetermined and they have no control over it, therefore causing the aliens not to believe in free will and finding it strange that humans do. According to the Tralfamadorians earthlings are the only species that believe they have free will, humans for some reason think of time as a linear progression. Most humans believe they have control over their lives and their destiny. Billy seems to have no control in his life or any free will at all throughout this novel, his free will is constantly being challenged. In one instance...
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...evolution and not because it was created by God. The world consist of objects that has no purpose of why it exist and seems to be non compatible with anything in the physical matter that could have caused it to exist, so therefore the only explanation is the existing of a contingent being which would make it necessary for the existence of a necessary being; which is God. Indisputable means undeniable true, valid, or accurate and examples of design and purpose are not needed for proof for the existence of God because we are humans who are not always correct, because we were created to make mistakes. “The natural bodies which lack knowledge but yet act for an end, is evidence a higher power exist.”(Evan & Mains pg.77) The higher power is God the creator of all things, including the universe and everything that is in it. It is evident that whatever lacks knowledge cannot move to an end without someone in control; like a car cannot move forward without someone in it to operate it. God is behind the scenes as the operator of this world we live in....
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...Are we really free? Free will - the idea that we, as intelligent beings, is able to choose a certain course of action, and not another, is one of the most important concepts of humanity, from its creation, to the Bible to this day. This allows us to take responsibility for our own actions and to hold others accountable for their own responsibilities. It makes us build ourselves - and sometimes down. Obviously, free will can only be applied in accordance with the laws of physics and chemistry that govern everything that exists, or, if you believe in God, it must correspond to the parameters that God has laid out. Given this, how much of these limitations really play in our ideal of Enlightenment free will? To begin to formulate the answer, we must first determine free will. There are many different degrees of free will, the most "free" being, that people, and sometimes even more intelligent animals, have complete free knowledge within the laws of physics and the least free ones that we only exist, because God or some the supernatural being allows us to. The latter is quickly debunked - if the almighty being "lets" you free will, you obviously are not really free; free will is now seen as a privilege that can be abolished, not an innate ability or an inalienable right. And...
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...Throughout the history of philosophy almost all philosophers have argued whether God’s infallible foreknowledge determines human deeds in the future. In answering this question, theological fatalists have claimed that infallible foreknowledge and free will are incompatible, thus God’s infallible foreknowledge determines all future events, including all human deeds. In contrast to this, in his book On Free Will, Augustine asserts that God’s infallible foreknowledge of what we will do in the future is compatible with free will. Consequently, Augustine is regarded as one of the leading compatibilists as far as divine foreknowledge and free will are concerned. In my opinion, he also alludes to the difference between the concepts of “freedom...
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..."Free will is an illusion. People always choose the perceived path of greatest pleasure." -Scott Adams. No words, thoughts or actions come from thin air. They are all forced on us from the day we were born, and will always be until the day we die. So with that being said, yes, I feel that free will is just an illusion. It's an illusion that is brought upon us so we don't ever realize the slaves we have become in our own world and society. We are formed by the people around us, people that portray themselves as being above us. We obey and follow rules that our society has brought to us. We agree and respect its values because they made us feel as if we do have the free will to vote and make the decisions they're actually making, In reality we...
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...Student: Instructor: Class: Date: Do we have Free Will? Yes. The issue of whether we have a free will or not is disputable. For the purpose of this study, I will look into what others have said about this topic. First, I will consider the opinions of three writers who have written contrary to my opinion supporting their argument with the reasons they have given. Secondly, I will analyze the opinions of those writers who believe that we have free will. This will of course be followed by supportive argument behind their opinions. On the last section of this study, I will rebut on the two different opinions. It seems that we do not have free will. For as (Merrill 293), the idea of free will is invalid because conditions of free will are not succinctly stated. There exists a problem of stating the conditions due to a foggy idea of the meaning in the cause effect relationships. The notion between the cause effect relationships is based on experience. In other words, this relationship is based on a succession of time. Although the succession in time can be proved in the laboratory, it cannot be consciously proved because a human being can do the same thing twice but with different consciousness. It seems that we do not have free will. For as (Clement Dore 500-501) free will is associated with making choices out of consciousness. Free will knows no coercion and one accepts responsibility for his actions. People engage in logical reasoning in making their day-to-day choices, they...
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...existence. In this essay I shall summarize the setting of the dialogue between the two main characters, then delve into the arguments that are presented. I shall first highlight Athea’s argument against the presence of God, explaining the structure and conclusion of the problem of evil argument, as this lays the foundation for the whole dialogue. I shall then focus on Bea’s reaction to Athea’s argument, clarifying her perceived weakness of the argument and furthermore pointing out her theories on why the presence of evil exists despite Gods existence. Finally I shall present my opinion on the Problem of evil, illustrating the weakness in the premises and its inadequate consideration of the ways in which God might prevent evil without our knowledge while letting certain evils to exist that lead to a greater good than evil. Focusing on the above, my explication relies on The “Inductive” Argument from...
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...Revision - Philosopher’s and their views A.J Ayer weak verification, “mountains on the other side of the moon” Hick -eschatological verification “we’ll know at the end” -epistemic distance between us and God -Universal salvation -Replica theory -traducianism (soul inherited from parents) -Price’s mental world= consistent Price -“mental world” in which we live Karl Popper -falsification principle, true until proven otherwise Antony Flew -parable of the two gardeners, death of a thousand qualifications - historical evidence, tested experience -God could have made us free, but do the right thing R.M Hare -bliks, lunatics Basil Mitchell -resistance leader, rel people may accept points, but view won’t change Maimonedes -via negative avoids anthropomorphism of God! Scotus -analogy as a means of describing God= vague Aquinas -Analogy of attribution(good bread=good baker)/ analogy of proportion (it’s all relative) -God cant do “non actions” like 2+2=5 - God is timeless, REASON, we get his nature via revelation Tillich - symbols unlock things from God Bultmann -demythologising stories Wittgenstein -picture theory of language, language games James -physcology, empiricism,pluralism, pragmatism -passive, ineffable, noetic, transient -Philosopher/ Phychologist -rel exp has mental dimension, not just this -truth is in the results! Otto -Wholly Other Schliemacher -emotional experiences Buber -I thou relationship Feuerbach - God is man...
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