Introduction to Statal Calvinism
Dec 21, 2013 10:13:00 GMT
Post by Colossians on Dec 21, 2013 10:13:00 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
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INTRODUCTION TO STATAL CALVINISM
Theological arguments to do with eternal matters and causality, remain almost invariably unresolved because the combatants insist on thinking in terms of time and the (supposed) activity of God.
The problem is that all the ‘activity’ of God is internal to God, not external to Him, for ”in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). On the ‘outside’, God actually doesn’t ‘move’ at all: He simply is. Thus He has referred to Himself as “I AM”.
And thus we read (and note in particular the section we have underlined):
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” James 1:17.
___
Statal Calvinism therefore begins with two premises:
1. Because man is in God’s image, then just as man has a spirit and flesh, so too does God, only because God is a spirit, both ‘components’ with Him are necessarily spirit.
2. God cannot improve on Himself, and so needs not to ‘move’ or ‘do things’ in order to complete Himself. There is (therefore) no ‘net movement’ with God: all ‘movement’ is necessarily internal to His being.
___
Statal Calvinism therefore also begins with the following quasi-mathematical equation:
God’s being = God’s spirit + God’s flesh.
This is the structure by which we understand things.
All three components, “God’s being”, “God’s spirit”, and “God’s flesh”, are spirit. It is important to keep this in mind.
1. “God’s being” is general and spiritually-indiscriminate, and may be thought of as the unqualified and opaque “I AM”.
2. “God’s spirit” is analogous to the spirit of a human being, and is that ‘part’ of God which we refer to as “God” and which is the object of our worship. It is in this ‘part’ of God that the elect eternally reside.
3. “God’s flesh” is analogous to the flesh of a human being. It is in this ‘part’ of God that the non-elect eternally reside.
___
Just as the believer is taught to live not for the flesh but for eternal things (which accords also with our being told that “the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63)), the ‘part’ of God that is “God’s spirit” shuns and indeed has eternally conquered the ‘part’ of God that is “God’s flesh”. In fact such victory (of the Cross) is so overwhelming, that those who exist in God’s flesh, are said to be in (the perpetuity that is) “everlasting destruction” (2 Thes 1:9).
Accordingly, the interface/dividing line between “God’s flesh” and “God’s spirit” appears as the law to those of “God’s flesh”, for when one is not joined to Christ, God appears necessarily as condemnation, for no-one but God is holy and no-one but God is righteous (Mt 19:17). Those of “God’s flesh” then burn at that interface, for that interface is “God’s spirit” which is the Lamb Himself (see Rev 14:10, Heb 12:29). That is ‘what’ and ‘where’ hell is.
___
What also follows from our structural paradigm, is that although God’s being (“I AM”) reveals nothing about God except for the fact that it (God's being) would appear to be subsumed by existence1 – God’s being reveals nothing about the character of God but for such we must rather look to the contrast between “God’s spirit” and “God’s flesh” – because it (God’s being) (nevertheless) contains two components, “God’s spirit” and “God’s flesh”, the former aligning with good and the latter with evil, we understand that it is only God’s being which contains the knowledge of good and evil and that those who eternally reside in “God’s spirit” have no such knowledge, it being of no value in the context of their (consummated) marriage to the Lamb.
1 That is, God's being is required for existence but not vice versa.
Accordingly, Paul declares at 1 Cor 13:8,10 that when that which is perfect is come, knowledge shall vanish, and which is indeed what we should expect from the redemptive work of Calvary. For Adam’s having entered into the knowledge of good and evil and thus having become, as God declared, “as one of us”, and so also (as Satan declared) “as gods”, was symptomatic of his being unrighteous from the very beginning: the righteous shall in their consummated state no longer be “as gods”, but (solely) as He to whom they are joined ... He whose love for the Father is simply too great to ever allow Himself to consider what the flesh might have to offer.
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” Phil 3:10.
Concluding
All theological issues are to be resolved not in reference to time and place and distance and motion, but the structure, the ‘spiritual anatomy’, the eternal state, of the I AM.
And they must give Jesus Christ the preeminence in all things.
Amen.
(See also postscript below.)
________
Postscript
Note that an alternative to the equation
God’s being = God’s spirit + God’s flesh
is
God’s being = God’s person + God’s flesh
which highlights the fact that the two components on the right hand side of the equation are the private and public domains of God respectively.
___________________________________
INTRODUCTION TO STATAL CALVINISM
Theological arguments to do with eternal matters and causality, remain almost invariably unresolved because the combatants insist on thinking in terms of time and the (supposed) activity of God.
The problem is that all the ‘activity’ of God is internal to God, not external to Him, for ”in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). On the ‘outside’, God actually doesn’t ‘move’ at all: He simply is. Thus He has referred to Himself as “I AM”.
And thus we read (and note in particular the section we have underlined):
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” James 1:17.
___
Statal Calvinism therefore begins with two premises:
1. Because man is in God’s image, then just as man has a spirit and flesh, so too does God, only because God is a spirit, both ‘components’ with Him are necessarily spirit.
2. God cannot improve on Himself, and so needs not to ‘move’ or ‘do things’ in order to complete Himself. There is (therefore) no ‘net movement’ with God: all ‘movement’ is necessarily internal to His being.
___
Statal Calvinism therefore also begins with the following quasi-mathematical equation:
God’s being = God’s spirit + God’s flesh.
This is the structure by which we understand things.
All three components, “God’s being”, “God’s spirit”, and “God’s flesh”, are spirit. It is important to keep this in mind.
1. “God’s being” is general and spiritually-indiscriminate, and may be thought of as the unqualified and opaque “I AM”.
2. “God’s spirit” is analogous to the spirit of a human being, and is that ‘part’ of God which we refer to as “God” and which is the object of our worship. It is in this ‘part’ of God that the elect eternally reside.
3. “God’s flesh” is analogous to the flesh of a human being. It is in this ‘part’ of God that the non-elect eternally reside.
___
Just as the believer is taught to live not for the flesh but for eternal things (which accords also with our being told that “the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63)), the ‘part’ of God that is “God’s spirit” shuns and indeed has eternally conquered the ‘part’ of God that is “God’s flesh”. In fact such victory (of the Cross) is so overwhelming, that those who exist in God’s flesh, are said to be in (the perpetuity that is) “everlasting destruction” (2 Thes 1:9).
Accordingly, the interface/dividing line between “God’s flesh” and “God’s spirit” appears as the law to those of “God’s flesh”, for when one is not joined to Christ, God appears necessarily as condemnation, for no-one but God is holy and no-one but God is righteous (Mt 19:17). Those of “God’s flesh” then burn at that interface, for that interface is “God’s spirit” which is the Lamb Himself (see Rev 14:10, Heb 12:29). That is ‘what’ and ‘where’ hell is.
___
What also follows from our structural paradigm, is that although God’s being (“I AM”) reveals nothing about God except for the fact that it (God's being) would appear to be subsumed by existence1 – God’s being reveals nothing about the character of God but for such we must rather look to the contrast between “God’s spirit” and “God’s flesh” – because it (God’s being) (nevertheless) contains two components, “God’s spirit” and “God’s flesh”, the former aligning with good and the latter with evil, we understand that it is only God’s being which contains the knowledge of good and evil and that those who eternally reside in “God’s spirit” have no such knowledge, it being of no value in the context of their (consummated) marriage to the Lamb.
1 That is, God's being is required for existence but not vice versa.
Accordingly, Paul declares at 1 Cor 13:8,10 that when that which is perfect is come, knowledge shall vanish, and which is indeed what we should expect from the redemptive work of Calvary. For Adam’s having entered into the knowledge of good and evil and thus having become, as God declared, “as one of us”, and so also (as Satan declared) “as gods”, was symptomatic of his being unrighteous from the very beginning: the righteous shall in their consummated state no longer be “as gods”, but (solely) as He to whom they are joined ... He whose love for the Father is simply too great to ever allow Himself to consider what the flesh might have to offer.
“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death” Phil 3:10.
Concluding
All theological issues are to be resolved not in reference to time and place and distance and motion, but the structure, the ‘spiritual anatomy’, the eternal state, of the I AM.
And they must give Jesus Christ the preeminence in all things.
Amen.
(See also postscript below.)
________
Postscript
Note that an alternative to the equation
God’s being = God’s spirit + God’s flesh
is
God’s being = God’s person + God’s flesh
which highlights the fact that the two components on the right hand side of the equation are the private and public domains of God respectively.