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Awakenings:
Sacram
Scientiae[1]
Analysis
from Sin's Crucifixion of Love
to
Love's
Crucifixion of Sin
by
Dallas F. Bell, Jr.
Abstract: The well known
sermon by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) titled Sinners in the Hand of and Angry God debuted in Enfield, Connecticut,
on 8 July, 1741. As scholars are
aware, it is credited with influencing the United States' return to godly
behavior. The foundations of that
"Great Awakening" period are contained in Edward's theological and correlating
eschatological logic. This is a
Dantesque[2]
poetic tool[3]
to analyze the seminal meme of his undertaking. It is intended to present the guiding
principles in a unique perspective of parallelism[4]
for future individual and thusly societal awakenings that shift political
beliefs/ethics. Its freeform often
employs Christo-Socratic didacticism[5]
within its six divisions that meld tenets of Calvinism[6]
and Arminianism.[7]
Keywords:
Jonathan Edwards, eschatology, meme, poetic analysis, parallelism,
Christo-Socratic didacticism.
Canto I
Commonality
Before we diverge along
opposing azimuths
To epistēmē fortresses of existentialism,
Is it absurd to first soberly
inventory
That squib which binds
humanity
From birth
cannels at the shoulders?
Do not our infant
recollections involve pain
Of losing a
cherished bauble?
And later the treachery of
being lied to
By someone we gave our
innocent hand?
It takes no magical leap of
blind faith[8]
To agree we each innately
value[9]
using creativity[10]
Consciously turning the
inanimate into our own,[11]
And accept the opportunity to
love.
Likewise, we each feel the
anger of injustice
When our creations are stolen
and love betrayed.
All things come form eternal
ideas.[12]
There is no new thing under
the sun.[13]
Nothing can be hid from
eternal wisdom.[14]
Man's intellect has been
clearly programmed[15]
With basic values[16]
which allow cooperation
Necessarily to form efficient
societies[17]
Where people can pursue
happiness.[18]
The information encoded in
our DNA helix[19]
Is shaped to take us from
life to death
With all the data needed for
decision-making.
That information has purpose
and design
Which comes from the
Creator's intellect.
The heavens declare the glory
of God.
His handiwork is spoken every
day[20]
In streams
flowing from forested mountains.
In this cold, uncaring, and
dying universe,
Invisible things and His
power are seen[21]
The Creator has shown us what
is good and evil,
Loving and
unloving, just and unjust—no excuses.[22]
His testimonies and law are
better than gold.[23]
The first Causer[24]
of all effects is holy[25]
And finite beings all do
punitive evil[26]
Needing grace extended to us
for redemption.[27]
Atonement can only come from
holy standards
Without which we are in a
state of wickedness.[28]
Man shall not live by bread
alone,
But by
every word from God's mouth.[29]
Only God could give the explicit
nature of forgiveness.
His revelation would share
His attributes
And be in the form of
immutable Scriptures.
Our brains are mediated by
our souls[30]
That either decide to follow Scriptures
or not[31]
From the
existing dimension of eternity.
This makes our souls eternal
subjects
Of the
creator's perfectly just holiness.[32]
Atoned people are by grace
with God forever in heaven.
The unatoned are separated
from God forever in hell.[33]
Things in eternity are not
subject to entropy
So souls
nor their destinations are temporal.[34]
No man steps into the same
river twice,
It is not the same river or
the same man.[35]
We will all go from this life,
Forward in time's succession
of moments,
To the next life after our
bodies die
At the appointed time and
receive our rewards.[36]
Canto II
Argument from Commonality
Avoid opposition and debate
of false science.[37]
The only historical Scriptures
qualified to be
Revelation of God[38]
would be the Holy Bible.[39]
It says the vengeance of God
against the unrepentant
Waits in due time until their
foot slides.[40]
They are void of counsel[41]
and understanding
Cultivating bitter and
poisonous fruit under heaven.[42]
The motion of sin crucifies
love[43]
The inertia of this
destructive passion[44]
will be stopped
From the
work of their fruits which is death.[45]
Not choosing God's good is to
choose evil.[46]
He that hardens his heart
falls into mischief.[47]
Punishment and destruction of
the wicked will come.
They are always exposed to
destruction.
Surely He sets them in
slippery places
And casts them down into
destruction.[48]
That destruction is sudden
and unexpected.[49]
Every moment falling is
possible with no warning.
One moment he stands and
another he falls
Unstoppably
into desolation as in a moment.[50]
They need nothing but their
own weight.
Not the hand of another, they
fall of themselves.
If they have not as yet
fallen away
Their appointed time has not
yet arrived[51]
Where God no longer will hold
them up
In grace as they are lost
into the pit
For which they have long been
on its slippery edge
As if sleep walking along a
cliff's precipice.
Canto III
Doctrine from Argument
We are compelled to observe
as doctrine[52]
That nothing keeps the wicked
from hell
But God's
pleasure in that very moment.[53]
The time is coming when they
will not
Endue sound doctrine. They will heap
To themselves teachers,
having itching ears.[54]
Everyone doing what is right
in their own eyes.[55]
His pleasure is sovereign and
His will is as Arbiter[56]
Unhindered by difficulty, not
restrained by obligation.
He has the least degree of
preservation
Of the
wicked from moment to moment.
God's power to cast the
wicked into hell
Can't be resisted or evaded
by the strongest.[57]
He alone can do this to
rebels[58]
Whose efforts are easily broken chaff
In a
whirlwind or burned as stubble.
Their blossom will go up as
dust.[59]
His carnal minded enemies[60]
fall into hell
As a singed thread drops
whatever it has held up.
What is man to stand before Him
At whose rebuke the earth
trembles.
Who is comparable to Him?[61]
His judgments are
unsearchable.
His ways are past finding
out.[62]
Sinners deserving hell and
divine justice
Does not prevent God's power
to destroy.
At any
moment justice calls for punishment.
Divine justice says cut it
down.[63]
Only God's mere will and
arbitration of mercy[64]
Holds back the brandished
sword over their heads.[65]
They are already justly
sentenced to hell.
God's immutable rule of
righteousness[66]
That is fixed between Him and
man
Stands against them that do
not believe.
They are already condemned
and belong in hell.[67]
They are beneath[68]
as His unchanging law assigns.
Now objects of the same anger
and wrath
For those
already in hell's torment.
He is not less angry with
them than on earth.
Moreover, He should be more angry with those
In quite
and ease than those properly in hell's flames.
God is not unmindful of the
wicked.[69]
His wrath burns against them
without slumber.[70]
The pit is prepared. The fire is ready.
The furnace is hot as the
fires rage.
The glittering sword is whet
and over them.[71]
The pit is open under them.
The devil stands ready to
seize them.[72]
In that moment, they belong
to him.
Their souls are under his
dominion.
Their souls are his
possessions and goods.[73]
Devils watch for them and
stand waiting
Like greedy
hungry lions that see their prey.[74]
They are prevented only for
the moment.
Should God withdraw His
restrained hand,
The serpent will hastily
swallow up the lost.
Hellish principles reign in
wicked souls
That kindle the flame of hell fire
Momentarily restrained by
God.
The nature of the carnal
man's foundations
Are corrupt principles for
hell's torment.
They are seeds of hell fire,
active and powerful,
An exceedingly violent nature
restrained by God
Or they would flame out as
the hearts of damned souls.
They are a troubled sea[75]
whose wicked waves
Are restrained by God's
mighty power.
Here to shall they come and
no further[76]
Unless God
should withdraw his restraining power.
Sin[77]
is the ruin and misery of the soul.
If God left off restraint the
following destruction
Needs nothing else to make
souls miserable.
Vanity of vanity, all is
vanity, the Preacher said.[78]
There is futile emptiness
seeking happiness
Apart from
the Creator who made man.[79]
The heart's corruption is
boundless in fury.
It is like a fire pent up by
God's restraints.
If freed it would set fire
the course of nature.
The heart is now a sinkhole
of sin.
If not restrained would
immediately turn into
A fiery
oven or furnace of fire and brimstone.
Though there are no visible
means of death,
This should not be thought
security by the wicked.
If the natural man seems in
good health,
And sees no looming accident
or danger ahead,
The manifold experiences of
all ages show no evidence
That the next step doesn't
lead to another eternal world.
Unconceived ways of sudden
departure are innumerable.
Unrepentant man stands on a
rotten cloth,
With places so weak they
can't bear weight.
Those places can't be seen
from above them.
Arrows of death fly unseen at
noonday.
The sharpest sight can't
discern them.
God has so many unsearchable
ways
Of taking
man to the next hellish world.
There is nothing next to
appear,
At the expense of a miracle,
That departs from the
ordinary providence
To destroy
the wicked at any moment.
These means are so
universally absolute subject
To His power and
determination, they depend less
On the mere will of God
whether sinners go to hell
At any moment, than if means
were never made use of.
The prudence and care to
preserve their own lives
Or the care of others to
preserve them,
Doesn't secure them for even
a moment.
Universal experience bears
testimony to evidence
That men's own wisdom does not prevent death.
Otherwise it should be seen a
difference
Between the wise and politic
of the world,
And others with regard to early unexpected death.
In fact wise men die as does the fool.[80]
God makes the sun to rise on
the good and the evil,
And He sends rain on the just
and the unjust.[81]
The pains and contrivance of
wicked men
To escape hell as they
continue to reject Christ,
Does not secure them from
hell for a moment.
Almost every natural man
hears of hell
Flatters himself[82]
that he can escape it.
Pride goes before destruction.[83]
His pride flatters him in
what he has done,[84]
Or is doing, or what he
intends to do.
Everyone lays out matters in
their own mind,
How to
avoid damnation and flatters himself.
They contrive well that their
schemes won't fail.
They hear but few are saved.
The bigger part
of men go to hell.
But each imagine that he lays
out matters
Better for his
own escape than others
Who went to torment. He says
within himself,
He will take effectual care
and to order matters
Not to fail. The foolish children delude themselves[85]
In their own schemes,
confidence and wisdom.
They are entrusting all to a
shadow.
The bigger part of past lives
were under the same grace
And died and without doubt
went to hell.
Not because they lacked the
wisdom
Of those now alive or did not
lay out matters
As well to
secure their own escape.
If we could speak to them one
by one
We could inquire if when they
heard of hell
They expected to be subjects
of that misery.
Doubtless we should hear the
answer of "No."
They never intended to be there,
they laid out matters.
Otherwise in their minds they
contrived and schemed well.
Their intended care was
interrupted by the unexpected.
Their death came as a thief
and outwitted them.
God's wrath was too quick.
They curse their foolishness.
They flatter themselves in
vain dreams,
Saying peace and safety, then
sudden destruction.[86]
God has no obligation or any
promise
To keep the
unrepentant out of hell a single moment.
He made no promise of eternal
life or preservation
From
eternal death, except the covenant of grace.
The promise of Christ in whom all promises
Are yea and amen.[87] Surely they have no interest
In that
promise of the covenant of grace.
They are not children of the
covenant.
They don't believe in any
promise of the covenant.
They have no interest in the
Mediator of the covenant.[88]
So whatever some have
imagined and pretended
About promises made to
natural man's earnestly seeking
And knocking, it is manifest
that whatever pains
A natural man takes in
religion or prayers he makes,
Until he believes in Christ,
God is not obligated
To keep him
a moment from eternal destruction.
Thus, it is that natural men are held by God
Over the fiery pit of hell
they have deserved
And are sentenced to for
provoking God.[89]
His anger is towards them as
those already in hell.
They have done nothing to
abate the wrath.
God need not hold them from
the devil's waiting hand.
Hell is gaping for them as
the flames gather
To swallow
them up in flashes about them.
The fire is pent up in their
own hearts.
It
struggles to break out, they are disinterested
In any mediator and have no
refuge.
All that preserves them each
moment
Is the Arbiter's will and
uncovenanted forbearance
Of an
incensed God.
Canto IV
Applications from Doctrine
The unconverted can be
awakened[90]
by doctrine.[91]
Awake! Awake and utter a song of deliverance.[92]
Everyone that is out of
salvation of Christ,
The world of misery and
brimstone is under you.
The dreadful pit of flames of
God's wrath is under you.
Hell's gaping mouth is wide
open under you.
You have nothing to stand on
or hold to.
Only air separates you from
hell.
The power and pleasure of God
holds you up.
You may not sense this and
hell below,
Not seeing God's hand but
look elsewhere
As to your good health and
cares of life
And your
means for your preservation.
Those things are nothing
should God withdraw
His hand.[93] Nothing keeps you from falling
Except the thin air that
suspends you.
Your wickedness weighs you
like lead
Tending downward with
pressure toward hell.
If God lets you go you would
instantly sink,
Swiftly descending into the
bottomless gulf.
Your health, prudence,
contrivances, and
Self-righteousness
cease to hold you from hell.[94]
Self-righteousness is as
filthy rags.[95]
They have less strength than
a spider's web
Stopping a boulder. Without the sovereign pleasure of God,
This earth would not bear you
a moment.
You are a burden to it;
creation groans with you.[96]
The creature is made
unwilling slave to your corruption.
The sun doesn't willingly
shine on you
To give you more light to
serve sin and Satan.
The earth doesn't willingly
yield to satisfying lusts
Nor is it a willing stage for
your wickedness.
The air doesn't willingly
serve you for breath
That maintains the flame of
life in your vitals
While you spend your life serving God's enemies.[97]
God's creatures are good,
made to serve Him,
Not willing to subserve any
other purpose.
They groan when they are
abused
By purposes
contrary to their nature and end.
The world would spew you out
Were it not for the sovereign
hand of Him
That has subjected it in
hope.
Black clouds of God's wrath
hang over you
Full of
dreadful storms, full of thunder.
Without God's restraining
hand, it would burst on you.
God's sovereign hand stays
the rough wind
Or fury would come and your
destruction
As a
whirlwind. You are like chaff on a threshing floor.[98]
God's wrath is like dammed up
waters.
They increase and rise higher
till they overflow.
The longer the stream is
stopped, the greater its force.
Judgment against your evil
works has not been executed.
The flood of God's vengeance
has been withheld.
In the meantime, your guilt
is always increasing.
Each day you are storing up
wrath.
The waters are rising and
growing mighty.
Only God's pleasure holds
them back.
They are unwilling to stop
and press forward.
If God withdraws His hand
from the floodgate,
It would immediately fly open
and God's wrath
Would rush forth in
inconceivable fury upon you
With omniscience power and
strength of ten thousand
Times the strength of the
strongest devil in hell.
You could do nothing to stop or
endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is
bent.
The arrow is ready on the
string.[99]
Justice bends the arrow at
your heart.
Justice strains the bow of
God's anger.
No obligation or promise
keeps the arrow
From being drunk on your
blood for one moment,[100]
Except the
mere pleasure of God.
This is the way of all
unchanged hearts,
Unredeemed by the powerful
Spirit of God,
Souls never born again as new
creatures,[101]
Raised from being dead to sin to a new state.
Despite how you reformed your
life
Or may have religious affections
And forms of religion in you
families or house of God,
You are still in the hands of
an angry God.
Nothing but His pleasure
prevents your eternal destruction.
However unconvinced of this
truth you are now,
Soon you will be convinced of
it.
Those gone before you were
like you.
Destruction came on them
suddenly and unexpected
While they were thinking and
saying
Peace and safety
which became empty shadows.
God holds you over the pit of
hell
Like a
spider or another loathsome insect.
Over the fire, He abhors you
for provoking Him.
His wrath burns like fire as
He looks on you.
You are worthy of nothing
else but being cast into fire.
His pure eyes cannot bear the
sight of you.
You are ten thousand times
more abominable
In His eyes than the most
hateful serpent is in ours.
You have offended Him
infinitely more than a rebel
Against his established
prince[102]
and nothing saves you
But His
hand, moment by moment.
Nothing else kept you from
hell last night.
You were suffered to wake
again in this world.
After you closed your eyes to
sleep,
There is no reason you didn't
wake up in hell.
God held you up and no other
reason.
You provoked His pure eyes
with wickedness.
You've seen His solemn
worship: no other reason
Why you don't drop into hell
this very moment.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you're in.
A great furnace of wrath, a
wide bottomless pit
Full of fire that you are
held over by God's hand
Whose wrath you provoked and
incensed against
As any people already damned
in hell.
You hang by a slender thread
with flames flashing
Ready at any moment to be
singed and burned.
You have no interest in any
mediator
To hold you
or save you from the flames.
Nothing you have ever done or
can do
Will induce God to spare you
a single moment.
Canto V
Considerations from
Applications
Let us consider things
concerning wrath.
You are endangered by whose
wrath it is.
It is wrath of the infinite God who molded the world,[103]
Not the wrath of man or
potent prince.
Those would be of
comparatively little regard.
The wrath of kings and
monarchs are dreaded.
They have possessions and
subjects' lives in their power,
Disposing of at their mere
will.
The fear of a king is as a
roaring lion,
Whoever provokes him to anger
sins.[104]
The subject that enrages an
arbitrary prince
Is liable to suffer the most
extreme torments
That human art can invent or
humans will inflict.
The greatest of earthy
potentates[105]
in their majesty,
When clothed in their
greatest terror are feeble worms,[106]
Compared to the almighty
Creator
And the
heaven and earth's King.
It is but little they could
do when enraged.
When they exert their utmost
fury,
Earthy kings are as
grasshoppers before God.[107]
They are less than nothing:
both their love and hate
Is to be despised before the
wrath of the King of kings.[108]
His majesty is greater. Be not afraid of them
That can kill the body and
after that can do no more.
Fear Him after which has
killed you has power
To cast you into hell; I say to you fear Him.[109]
You are also exposed to the
fierceness of wrath.
According to their deeds, He
will repay fury.[110]
The Lord will come with fire
and chariots,
Like a whirlwind, to render
His anger and fury,
And He rebukes with flames of
fire.[111]
The scriptures tell of God's
winepress of fierceness
And
terrible words of wrath.[112] If only
they said wrath.
But they said fierceness of
wrath of God almighty.
The fury of God! The fierceness of Jehovah![113]
Oh how dreadful that must be!
Who can utter or conceive
what that means!
It is said as though this is
a great manifestation
Of His almighty power in what
His fierceness inflicts,
As though omnipotence is
enraged and exerted,
As men exert their strength
in fierceness of wrath.
What then will be the
consequence?
What of the worm that suffers
it?
Whose hands can be strong or heart endure?
To what a dreadful depth must
poor creatures sink,
Who are subject to this
reality!
Presently, you remain in an
unregenerate state.
God's will to execute the
fierceness of His anger,
Implies He will inflict wrath
without pity.[114]
When God beholds the
ineffability of your case,
Seeing your relentless
torment as vastly
Disproportionate to your
relenting strength,[115]
And sees how your poor soul
is crushed and sunken,
As in an infinite gloom, He
will have no compassion.
He will
not forebear the execution of wrath
Or lighten His hand in the
least.
There shall be no moderation
or mercy
Nor will God stay His rough
wind.
He will have no regard for
your welfare,
Not being careful at all lest
you suffer too much.
You shall not suffer beyond
what strict justice requires.
Nothing shall be withheld because
it is hard for you.
He said, I deal in fury and My eyes shall not spare
Neither will they have pity
when your cry
In My ears. I will
not hear them.[116]
Today God stands ready to
pity you.
This is a day of mercy; you
may cry now
Being encouraged of obtaining
mercy.
But when the day of mercy is
past,
Your most lamentable and
dolorous cries and shrieks
Will be in vain; you will be
wholly lost
And thrown
away of God to regard your welfare.
God will have no other use to
put you to
Except only to suffer misery;
you shall be discontinued
To any other end; for you are a vessel of wrath
Fitted for destruction, there
will be no other use
Of this
vessel but only to be filled with wrath.
God will be so far from
pitying you when you cry
That He will only laugh and mock.[117]
How awful are those words of
the great God.
I will tread them in My anger, He says,
And I will trample them in My fury.
Their blood shall be
sprinkled on My garments
And I will stain all My raiment.[118]
Those are great
manifestations of contempt and hatred,
And
fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God
To pity you, He will be far
from pitying your case
Or showing you favor, instead
He will tread you under foot.
Though He knows you can't
bear His omnipotent[119]
treading,
He will crush you under His
feet without mercy.
He will crush out your blood
and make it fly.
It shall be sprinkled on His
garments and stain them.
He will hate you and hold you
in contempt.
No place shall be fit for you
under His feet.
You will be trodden down as
mire in the streets.[120]
The misery you are exposed to
is for God's end
That He might show angels and
men His excellent love
And how terrible His wrath
is.
Sometimes earthy kings try to
show wrath
With
extreme punishments on those that provoke execution.
Nebuchadnezzar, a Chaldean monarch,
Willing to show his wrath to
Shadrach, Meshach,
And Abednego, ordered his
furnace
To be heated seven times
hotter than before.[121]
This was the highest degree
humans could raise it.
The great God is also willing
to show His wrath
Magnifying His majesty and
power in His enemies suffering.[122]
Seeing this in His design and
what He determined
To show how terrible
unrestrained wrath and fury[123]
Of Jehovah is, He will in effect do.
This will come to pass and be
dreadful to witness.
Why the great and angry God
has risen up
And executed His vengeance on
the poor sinner.
The wretch will suffer the
infinite weight and power of indignation.
God will call the whole
universe to behold His majesty.
The people shall be as
burning lime,
As thorns cut up and burnt in
fire.
Hear a far off what I have
done.
Those that are near
acknowledge My might.
The sinners of Zion are
afraid.
Fearfulness has surprised the
hypocrites.
Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire?
Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings?[124]
Thus it will be with you in
an unconverted state.
If you continue in it, the
infinite might and majesty
Of the omnipotent God shall
be magnified upon you.
You shall be tormented in the
presence of angels
And in the
presence of the Lamb.[125]
While you are in this state
of suffering,
The glorious inhabitants of
heaven will look at the spectacle
That they
may see the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty.
When they see it they will
fall down and adore it.
It shall come to pass from
one new moon to another,
From one Sabbath to another,
shall all flesh
Come to worship Me, says the Lord.
They shall look at the
carcasses of them
That transgressed against Me; for their worm doesn't die
Neither shall the fire be
quenched.
They shall be abhorrent to
all flesh.[126]
The everlasting wrath will be
dreadful to suffer
For a
moment, but you must suffer it for all eternity.
There will be no end to this
horrible misery.
When you look forward, you
will see a long forever.
This boundless duration will
swallow up your thoughts
And amaze your soul in
despairing of any deliverance.
No end. No mitigating. No rest at all.
You must wear out long ages,
millions of ages,
Wrestling in conflict with
this merciless vengeance.[127]
When you have this for many
ages,
You will know this was but a
point of what remains.
Your punishment will be
infinite:[128]
who can express
The state
of a soul in a circumstance like this?
We can express feeble words
like inconceivable,
But who knows the power of
God's anger?[129]
How dreadful is the hourly
and daily danger of this state
Of great wrath and infinite
misery!
This is the dismal case of
every soul not born again,
However
moral, strict, sober, and religious they maybe.
Oh that you would consider
this whether you be old or young.
There is a reason to think
that men
Will be subjects of this
misery for all eternity.
We don't know who they are or
their thoughts.
It may be they are now at
ease, not disturbed,
Flattering themselves that
they will escape.
If there was but one person
so well deceived
And subject to this misery,
it would be an awful thing.
How we might lift up a
lamentable and bitter cry.[130]
Alas! Instead of one how many will remember
this in hell?
It would be a wonder if some are not in hell by year's end,
Now having health,
is quite and secure, in hell by morning.
If you have a natural
condition that keeps you on earth
And from hell longest, that
will be very little time!
Your damnation won't slumber.[131] It will come swiftly,
In all
probability very suddenly upon many of you.
You have reason to wonder
that you're not already in hell.
Doubtless you've seen people,
less deserving of hell than you,
That have passed and their
case is without hope.
They are crying in extreme
misery and perfect despair.
Here you are in the land of
the living
And have an opportunity to
obtain salvation.
What would not those poor
people, damned, hopeless souls
Give for one day's
opportunity you now enjoy?
Canto VI
Appeal
You have an extraordinary
opportunity today.
A day that Christ's door of
mercy is wide open,
He stands in the door crying
to poor sinners.
It is appointed for man once
to die and then the judgment.[132]
Ever knee will bow and
confess to God.[133]
Each of us will give an
account to God.[134]
Many are flocking to Him and
His kingdom.
He is the good Sheppard that
died for His sheep.[135]
Daily many are coming from
the east, west, north, and south.
Many that were in the
miserable state you are in,
They are happy now and their
hearts are filled with love
For Him that loved them and
washed their sins away
In His
blood.[136] They
rejoice in hope of God's glory.
How awful it is to be left
behind on such a day!
Others are feasting while you
pine and perish![137]
So many are rejoicing and
singing for joy of heart,
While you have cause to mourn
for sorrow of heart.
Howl for vexation of spirit![138] How can you rest?
Are your souls not as
precious as souls flocking to Christ?
Are there not many that have
lived long in this world?
They are not to this day born
again and are aliens.
They have not did anything
since they have lived
Except
treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.[139]
Oh sirs, your case is an
extremely dangerous special matter.
Your guilt and hardness of
heart is extremely great.
Don't you see how generally
people of your years
Have passed over and left the
present
Dispensation
of God's mercy?[140] You have
need
To consider
yourselves and wake out of sleep.
You cannot bear the
fierceness and wrath of infinite God.[141]
You that are young men and
young women,
Will you neglect this present
season you enjoy
When so many others of your
age are renouncing vanities
And
flocking to Christ? You especially have opportunity.
But if you neglect it, it
will be with you
As it is
with persons that spent all their youth in sin.
They have now come to a pass
of blindness[142]
and hardness.
Unconverted children, don't
you know
You are going to hell to bear
the wrath of God
Who is angry with you every
day and every night?
Will you be content to be
devil's children[143]
When so many other children
are converted
And have become holy happy
children of the King of kings?
Let everyone without Christ,
hanging over the pit of hell,
Whether they be old men and
women, or middle aged,
Or little children, now
hearken to the loud calls of God's Word.
His providence is the
acceptable year of the Lord.
This is a day of great favor
to some but doubtless
This is a day of remarkable
vengeance to others.
Men's hearts are hardened and
their guilt increases.
If they neglect their souls,
never was there a greater danger
Being given up to hardness of
heart and blindness of mind.
God seems now to be hastily
gathering His elect.[144]
A remnant
according to the election of grace.[145]
Probably the bigger part of
persons ever to be saved
Will be brought in now in a
little time.
It will be as the great
outpouring of the Spirit
In the apostle's day, the
election will obtain,
The rest will be
blinded. They deny the authority of
scripture.[146]
They do not like God.[147] They are temple merchandisers.[148]
Those reprobates reject the
rationality of commonality.[149]
There is a generation pure in
their own eyes
But are unwashed from their
filthiness.[150]
A fool has said in his heart
there is no God.[151]
Braying fools in a mortar
among wheat with a pestle,
Will not drive out his
foolishness.[152]
They have ears and cannot
hear,
They have eyes and cannot
see.[153]
If this is the case with you,
you will curse today,
You will curse the day you
were born.
To see the season of
outpouring of God's Spirit,
You will wish you had died
and gone to hell
Before you had seen this
rejected opportunity.
As in the day of John the
Baptist,
The ax is laid at the root of
trees.
Every tree that does not
bring good fruit
May be hewed down and cast
into the fire.[154]
Therefore, let everyone out
of Christ
Now awake and fly from the
wrath to come.
The inertia of love crucifies
sin.[155]
All the elect are born
crucified.[156]
The wrath of almighty God is
hanging
Over you
today. Fly out of Sodom.[157]
Sodom and Gomorrah will be
destroyed.
Flee from the coming wrath.[158]
Haste and escape for your
lives.
Confess your sins in prayer
this moment.
He will forgive and cleanse
from unrighteousness.[159]
See the heavens open and
Jesus at God's right hand[160]
And you can sing it is well
with my soul![161]
Do not harden your hearts
today.[162]
Today is the accepted time
for salvation.[163]
Confess with your mouth Jesus
is Lord.
Believe in your heart God
raised Him from the dead.
This is all it takes to be
saved.[164]
Then no man can pluck you out
of God's hand.[165]
The natural man's heart
rebels
Against the
simplicity of salvation.[166]
This is Jesus' last quarter
moon.[167]
Don't look behind.[168] Escape to the mountain
Lest you be consumed.[169] Today you could be
With God in paradise[170]--entheos[171]--or
Separated from God in hell
forever.
[1]
The term (L. Sacred Science) for theology was used by Thomas
Aquinas (c. 1224 to 1225-1274) in 2. Summa
Theologiae: Part One (Prima Pars), 2.1. On Sacred Doctrine (De
sacra doctrina). See
www.sacred-texts.com/chr/aquinas/summa/index.htm
[2]
Durante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321) is known as Dante. His sentences tend to be long, contain
many prepositional phrases, and use many pronouns, adjectives and adverbs to
describe serious topics and circumstances.
This Dantean style was influenced by Marcus Cicero
(106 B.C.-43 B.C.), Publius Vergilius (70B.C.-19 B.C.), Thomas Aquinas, and
others. This style
influenced Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400), John Milton (1608-1674), William
Blake (1757-1827), Lord George Byron (1788-1824), Thomas Stearns (T.S.) Eliot
(1888-1965), etc.
[3]
In the Old Testament's Septuagint, the Liber
Psalmorum (L. Book of Psalms) was titled Psalmoi (Gr. Poems Sung to the Accompaniment of Musical Instruments). Ronald Stuart (R.S.) Thomas (1913-2000)
wrote The Echoes Return Slow. He said poetry is religion, religion is poetry. The message of the New Testament is poetry. Jesus the Christ was a poet. When poetry is preached, Christianity is
preached.
[4]
The Bible contains many examples of chiasmus
(Gr. to shape like the letter x).
This occurs when two or more clauses are related to each other and
structured to make a larger point (Is. 6:10; Matt 7:6). It is estimated that 75% of the Old
Testament (Tanakh) is poetry. All
of the Psalms, Proverbs, and much of Genesis is
considered to be poetry. This
method makes songs from poetry so that they can be easily memorized. Robert Lowth's (1710-1787) lecture, On the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews,
said there are three types of Hebrew parallelism; synonymous (the clauses say
much the same thing, See Gen. 4:23; Matt. 7:6.), antithetic (clauses give a
contrasting view, See Ps. 6:1; Matt. 8:20.), and synthetic or constructive (the
structure does not have either of the first two qualities, See John
6:32-33.). Since that time more
types of parallelism have been discussed, such as formal (a clause for clause
balance, See Ps. 14:2; Matt. 1:3 and 5, 4 and 6, 7 and 8, 9 and 10), climatic
(one line completes a previous line, Ps. 29:1; Luke 1:5 with Luke 1:26-27
concerning the order of birth discussion.), and external (a balance of ideas is
reached across multiple clauses, See Is. 1:27-28.). The New Testament's four gospels parallel
each other. The complete New
Testament parallels the Old Testament's history, law, eschatology etc. Of course, parallelism is not to be
confused with tautology which uses needless repetition
of an idea with redundant words and phrases. See the poem I am That I am by Louis MacNeice (1907-1963)
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/56/2#20582121
[5]
Didactism of Jesus the Christ, the only Mediator
between God and man (I Tim. 2:5; Heb. 12:24), can be seen in the Old Testament
(as the theophany, had authority and identity with Yahweh [Gen. 31:11-13],
called the angel of the Lord, [Zech. 1:7-19]) and in the New Testament (Matt. 6
25-31). Socrates'
(469 B.C.-399 B.C.) methods are demonstrated by many works, such as Crito written by Plato (c. 428
B.C.-348 B.C.). The apostle Paul
employed the rhetorical tool in Acts 26:1-29 and the book of Romans etc. The polish poet, Cyprian K. Norwid (c.
1821/23-1883) wrote Vade-mecum
(L. Go with me). Published in 1886,
it also demonstrates this mode of discourse. Jonathan Edwards' classic rhetorical
style in his sermons are discussed by Wilson H. Kimnach's "Jonathan Edwards'
Pursuit of Reality" in Nathan O. Hatch and Harry S. Stout's Jonathan Edwards and the American Experience,
New York, 1988, page 115. Also see Political Sermons of the American Founding
Era: 1730-1805, 2 vols, Foreword by Ellis Sandoz (2nd ed. Indianapolis,
1998), Vol, for the Calvinist views of the awakening and revolutionary
period. Alan Heimert (1966) argued
that Calvinism and Jonathan Edwards provided the ideology for the American
Revolution. Prior to that time, Roger
Williams (c. 1603-1683) established the first Baptist Church in America in March, 1639. He
insisted on freedom of religion, separation of the state from the church,
abolition of slavery, equal treatment of Native Americans. (Appreciation is extended to Martha
Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and
Ethics at the University of Chicago Law School, for her assistance in an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. in August, 2012). Many
people began to express legal views opposing the concept of infanticide,
sometimes called abortion. James Wilson (1742-1798) was elected to the U.S.
Continental Congress, signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and was one of the first people appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by
U.S. President George Washington.
He promoted the ideas that the president and senators
be elected by the populace and that slaves be counted as at least
three-fifths of a person in the count for allocating state representatives in
the House and Electoral College.
Wilson, known for his Lectures on
Law (chapt.12, page 597), said "With consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human
life from its commencement to its close, is protected by the common law. In the
contemplation of law, life begins when the infant is first able to stir in the
womb. By the law, life is protected not only from immediate destruction, but
from every degree of actual violence, and in some cases, from every degree of
danger." See
www.constitution.org/jwilson/jwilson2.htm
Sir William Blackstone's (1723-1780) widely
read Commentaries on the Laws of England
observed "Life is the immediate gift of
God, a right inherent by nature in every individual; and it begins in
contemplation of law as soon as an infant is able to stir in the mother's womb.
For if a woman is quick with child, and by a potion, or otherwise, killeth it
in her womb: this, though not murder, was by the ancient law homicide or
manslaughter. But at present it is not looked upon in quite so atrocious a
light, though it remains a very heinous misdemeanor:" See
avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/blackstone.asp
Their views of quickening were around the end of the first
trimester. Today, technology shows
human life begins at conception and brain waves occur long before three months
of pregnancy. The Bible says God
knew us in the womb (Job 31:15; Is 44:2,24, 49:1; Jere 1:5; Gal. 1:15). If people fail to deliver the innocent
from being murdered, this is a sin (Prov. 24:11-12). Failing to do righteousness is a "sin of
omission" and is as grievous to God as performed "sins
of commission" (Heb. 10:25-31). The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions drafted in 1798
and 1799 pointed out that each U.S. state has the power to declare federal law
void. In 1803, Marbury verses
Madison determined that law that is repugnant does not have to be obeyed.
[6]
A reference to the beliefs held by John Calvin (1509-1564).
[7]
A reference to the beliefs held by Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609).
[8]
See Jude 3. Edwards agreed with John
Locke (1632-1704) that knowledge (Gr. epistēmē) must be augmented by faith in that ideas come
from the senses. In 1674, Thomas
Vincent (1634-1678) wrote The Shorter Catechisms of the Westminster Assembly
Explained and Proved from Scripture.
In LXXXV, he addresses the question of how faith in Jesus Christ is
required to escape deserved Divine wrath.
[9]
John Locke said the minds of men are a blank slate (L. tabula rasa) and that knowledge comes from experience. Cartesian beliefs, named for René Descartes (1596-1650), opposed Locke's view. Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) held
Cartesian beliefs. He stated that
God does it all and is the only true cause. This would make it impossible for our
minds to act on our bodies. Our
ideas would be in God. Ideas are
only available to us as God wills them.
Edwards agreed with this view of Divine sovereignty. In his Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (see note 135), Edwards
said Locke's sensations as the source of knowledge is
the lowest kind. The body is below
the intellect of the soul. Today,
Lockean blank slate beliefs have been proven false. Steven Pinker, cognitive scientist, has
shown that babies at birth recognize and distinguish the difference between
nouns and verbs. This means humans
are born with a common skillset for acquiring knowledge from experience and
storing that data for learning.
This process is stimulated by the question of "why?" Loren Eiseley (1907-1977) wrote in his
1974 Encyclopedia Britannica article
on the cosmic orphan that the question of why makes man a cosmic orphan. This implies that the orphan of humanity
has a parent to which they individually need and wish to be reconciled in order
to be whole—Father God.
[11]
Awareness from consciousness is required in mens
rea (L. guilty mind). A guilty
mind recognizes right and wrong and this is necessary a fortiori (L. by a stronger argument; so much the more) to form
societal justice systems. See
www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/criminology.html
[12]
Plato's theory of Ideas maintains that all ideas have always existed. This means a consciousness held them and
must have preexisted them and thusly all His creation. George Berkeley (1685-1753) insisted
that even physical objects cannot exist unless they
are perceived (L. esse est percipi)
by an intellect. Without these
notions of the eternal existence of truth, pursuit of science and knowledge
would be in vain.
[14]
See Prov. 8:12-13; Acts 15:18.
[15]
See Jere. 31:33-34; Heb. 10:16. God's laws are written in the hearts of
man.
[16]
See Ex. 20, 32:16. The commandments
are to not lie, not steal, not kill etc.
[17]
See The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek (1899–1992), Atlas Shrugged by
Ayn Rand (1905-1982), Alexis de Tocqueville's (1805-1859) Democracy in America, and Capitalism and
Freedom by Milton
Friedman (1912-2006) who said that governments spend most of their time trying
to repair problems from their own actions. Also see Deut. 8:18;
II Chr. 1:12 for God giving the power to get wealth.
[18]
Godly happiness comes from fear of God (Ps. 128:1-2), trust in God (Prov.
16:20), obedience to God (John 13:15-17), wisdom from God (Prov. 3:13-18),
keeping God's law (Prov. 29:18), being corrected by God (Job 5:17), and
enduring (Jam. 5:11). The U.S.
Declaration of Independence set forth the biblical principles for human freedom
to pursue godly happiness. An
analysis of this can be found at
www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/independence.html
In contrast to biblical beliefs, Alexandre Kojève (1902-1968) integrated Hegelian concepts in helping to
create the European Union.
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama wrote the 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man. His thesis was that liberal democracies
may be signaling the end of humanity's sociocultural development and may become
the final form of government.
Critics of that idea indicate that Fukuyama did not adequately consider
religious beliefs as strong behavioral influences. Dallas F. Bell Jr. thanks the following
people for their email exchanges on the subject of libertarian core behavioral
beliefs in July, 2012; Christine Peterson, co-founder
of the Foresight Foundation, Robert Poole, co-founder of the Reason Foundation,
and David Nott, President of the Reason Foundation. Islamic jihadists use their theology that
teaches human freedom is an idol that must be destroyed with deception and
terrorism to justify cultural wars against free societies.
[19]
See the following links for more information.
www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/axiom.html
www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/entropy.html
www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/genetics.html
[21]
See Job 12:7-9; Jere. 5:22; Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:19-32.
[22]
See Ps. 119:151, 172. God and His
laws are the only legitimate authority for societal law. His laws have objective morality without
which man's laws have subjective morality guided by zeitgeist. Societal law
can only be compliant with (are good and just) or not be compliant with (evil
and unjust) God's law. In
Aristotle's (384 B.C.-322 B.C.) On
Interpretation, he acknowledged the law of the excluded middle (also called
the law of the excluded third, L. principium
tertii exclusi, and no third possibility is given, L. tertium non datur).
This means either a proposition is true or it is not true. See
classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/interpretation.html
The theorem
of propositional logic was stated by Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead in Principia
Mathematica, page 105, (first
published 1910) as formula/proposition *2∙11.
├ . p v ~ p See
quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=umhistmath;idno=AAT3201.0001.001
The
semantic law or principle of bivalence states that every declarative sentence
that expresses a proposition has one truth value
(either true or false). The Bible,
especially the Torah (L. textus receptus),
is written with implications of these laws. Indian (eastern) philosophy has often
tried to contradict the "either or" option by introducing the "both-and"
option. This means that either the
truth is "either-or" or "both-and" which is itself "either-or" and defeats the
reality of the "both-and" argument, 2+2=4 or "not 4." Obviously, there is no "both 4" and "not
4" answer to 2+2 in math.
[24]
See Gen. 1:1; John 1:1-5. The first Causer is one Being (Deut.
6:4; Mark 12:29). One Being (L. esse)
leads to monotheism and its subsequent ethics from His immutable laws. The Godhead is the Father, Son (Jesus)
and the Holy Spirit (Gen 1:26; Matt 28:19; Acts 17:29; Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:19,
2:9) which are one God. This unification established the law of
noncontradiction (something can't be both true and not true at the same time),
allowing for scientific discoveries.
Rationalization is then defined as blocks of truth from binary logic which establish systems (e.g. computer codes
etc.). See
www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/logic.html
[25]
See Is. 6:3; Rev. 4:8. The book of Isaiah's
first thirty-nine chapters are like the thirty-nine books of the Old
Testament. They address the judgment
of the immoral. The final
twenty-seven chapters are like the twenty-seven books of the New Testament which speak of hope of the saving Messiah. Hebrew tradition (both the Babylonian Talmud and Jerusalem Talmud) indicates
that Isaiah was murdered (sawn in half) by the wicked Judah King Manasseh (c.
689-642 B.C.) who also murdered his own son (II Kings 21:2-7, 16) before later
repenting of his evil but could not reverse the destructive inertia he brought
to pass (II Chron. 33:15-17).
[26]
See Rom. 3:23. The first man, Adam,
did evil (the original human sin) with his wife, Eve, soon after they were
created. This caused a shift from
life to death for all creation in our universe (Gen. 2:17, 3:6, 19; Rom. 5:12;
I Cor. 15:21-22). Even animal
behavior, such as lions etc., shifted from that of a vegetarian diet (Gen.
1:29, 9:3) to a carnivorous diet which caused strife
and tension. It is prophesied that
there will be a shift back to the original peaceful vegetarian behavior when
Jesus returns (Is. 11, 65:25; Hos. 2:18).
[29]
See Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4.
[30]
Neuroanthropology studies the culture and the brain. Tanya Marie Luhrmann's recent
neuroanthropology book, Tuning in to the
Voice of God, and an article she co-authored in 2010 titled The Absorption Hypothesis: Learning to Hear
God in Evangelical Christianity argue against the prevailing tendency to
treat supernatural experience as breaks from reality. She implies that these experiences
require abilities not equally shared among all people. In an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell
Jr. in March, 2012, Luhmann recommended the blood flow
contrasts in brain regions of Christian's research by Uffe Schjødt,
University of Denmark. Schjødt has determined that prayers scanned
(fMRI) in the brains of twenty Christians is just another kind of
friendly conversation. The brain
region stimulated by improvised prayers matched those patterns in communication
with other people and not as seen in making mystic requests, as to Santa
Clause. In an email exchange with
Dallas F. Bell Jr. during March, 2012, Schjødt stated that he had not used monozygotic (mz) twins in
his research or yet developed a theory of brain mediation. Brain mediation is
addressed by Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis (1898-1963) in his Mere Christianity.
He says "Supposing you hear a cry for help from
a man in danger. You will probably feel two desires-one a desire to give help
(due to your herd instinct), the other a desire to keep out of danger (due to
the instinct for self-preservation). But you will find inside you, in addition
to these two impulses, a third thing which tells you that you ought to follow
the impulse to help, and suppress the impulse to run away. Now this thing that
judges between two instincts, that decides which should be encouraged, cannot itself be either of them. You might as well say that the
sheet of music which tells you, at a given moment, to
play one note on the piano and not another, is itself one of the notes on the
keyboard. The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are
merely the keys. Another way of
seeing that the Moral Law is not simply one of our instincts is this. If two
instincts are in conflict, and there is nothing in a creature's mind except
those two instincts, obviously the stronger of the two must win. But at those
moments when we are most conscious of the Moral Law, it usually seems to be
telling us to side with the weaker of the two impulses. You probably want to be
safe much more than you want to help the man who is drowning: but the Moral Law
tells you to help him all the same. And surely it often tells us to try to make
the right impulse stronger than it naturally is? I mean, we often feel it our
duty to stimulate the herd instinct, by waking up our imaginations and arousing
our pity and so on, so as to get up enough steam for doing the right thing. But
clearly we are not acting from instinct when we set about making an instinct
stronger than it is. The thing that says to you, "Your herd instinct is asleep.
Wake it up," cannot itself be the herd instinct. The thing that tells you
which note on the piano needs to be played louder cannot itself be that
note." For brain mediation studies
see Brain Mediators of Predictive Cue
Effects on Perceived Pain (2010) by Lauren Y. Atlas et al in the Journal of
Neuroscience; How Frontoparietal Brain
Regions Mediate Imitative and Complementary Actions: An fMRI Study by Ada
Kritikos et al; Cortical Mediators of
Social Threat by Tor D. Wager et al.
Sebastian Seung, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
believes our connectome (maps of all connections between neurons in our brain
and nervous system) are influenced by experiences. In an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell
Jr. during March, 2012, Seung stated he did not personally
do MRI research but works with microscopy (optic and electron microscopy uses
diffraction, reflection or refraction of electromagnetic electron beams to
create an image) to study the neuronal level of the brain. See this link for more on connectomes
www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/neuroscience.html
[31]
Decisions need binary logic to reason and choose one option over another with
intellect. Game theory or decision
theory uses this concept which also proves this
concept. Solomon demonstrated this
understanding with his famous determining of a baby's rightful mother (I Kings
3:16-28). See the decision matrix
at
www.SystematicPoliticalScience.org/monads.html
If course, without freewill there could be no reasoning
process or decisions to form a matrix.
Furthermore, it can be observed that monozygotic twins raised together
do not always choose the same behavior, such as verbal communication to
stimuli. Concordance should be
observed if there was no freewill due to neurological,
experiential or other behavioral restraints.
[32]
An example of theological logic.
[33]
An example of eschatological logic extended from theology. These views are developed early. Children commonly ask about the
afterlife when they become aware of the concept of death. Eccl. 3:11 says God created everything
beautiful in His time and He set the world in their heart so that no man can
find out the work that God made from the beginning to the end.
[34]
There could be no temporary place, as seen in purgatory beliefs (which also are
inconsistent with God's grace being made less effective for atonement than
works or punitive existence that pays the price in full for salvation).
[35]
This is a quote from Heraclitus (c. 535 B.C.- c. 475 B.B.) regarding the
philosophical argument of to eon (Gr.
what is) and aletheia (Gr. true
reality). See
plato.stanford.edu/entries/heraclitus/
For Bible passages concerning the unchanging nature of
God and the changing nature of man and this universe see Dan. 2:21; Ps.
102:25-27; Eccl. 3:1-22; Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8.
[37]
See I Tim. 6:20. The 2012 book, Free Radicals, by scientist Michael Brooks shows that science is
often advanced through creative, even poetic, states apart from reason and
research. The famous scientist,
Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was a devout Christian who believed the invisible things of Him (God) from the creation of the
world are clearly seen (Rom. 1:20).
There has been a rash of new research and also increasing allegations of
falsified data. T.S. Eliot
asked in his poem The Rock where is
the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information? The Bible addresses
ever learning without gaining wisdom (II Tim. 3:7). Peter N. Spotts
studied scientific scandals at the Veterans Administration, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, National Institute of Health (NIH), and the University of Vermont. In a survey of NIH-funded scientists,
released in 2005, only 1.5 percent of 3,000-plus respondents acknowledged
having falsified or plagiarized information. But 15.5 percent admitted to
altering their research approach under pressure from funding sources, and 12.5
percent admitted to looking the other way when colleagues used flawed data. Basically, this means one in seven scientists at NIH was complicit in a lie. The rational question arises as to how
we know when to believe a liar.
This suggests that the real number of liars is much greater than one in
seven. Then the statistics for
incorrect scientific thought, already high and suspect from being incorrect due
to ignorance, rises with the increasing unethical and intentional falsified
science. DNA is known now to only
change to lesser degrees of informational code when corrupted. DNA can't increase or evolve more
information than it originally had.
Species can emphasize more or less of an innate characteristic but can
never become another more advanced species (See Gen. 1. God is said to have created species
after their own kind nine times.).
A Christian approach is that sacram
scientiae (L. sacred science) comes from sacram doctrinam (L. sacred doctrine).
[38]
When there is a need for clarity doctrines are emphasized, such as inerrancy of
scripture in the 19th century by Charles Hodge (1797-1878), Benjamin
Breckinridge (B.B.) Warfield (1857-1921), etc. Prior to that time tradition and
experience (e.g. Augustine of Hippo's [354-430] writings etc.) was enough proof for influential theologians that God is not ignorant
nor a liar (Heb. 6:17-20).
Jesus was God and man (John 1:14) and He quoted Old Testament Scripture
(Mark 7:6, 10 etc.) and His words must be true (John 8:45 etc.). Then Scripture must be true (Ps.
119:160). In an email exchange with
Dallas F. Bell Jr. in August, 2012, John W. Montgomery
(author and distinguished research professor of philosophy and Christian
thought at Patrick Henry College) recommended his Tractatus Logico-Theologicus and book titled God's Inerrant Word.
Montgomery's book was also recommended, along with William Roach and
Norman Geisler's book Defending Inerrancy,
by Wayne Grudem's (former president of the Evangelical Theological Society and
research professor of theology and biblical studies at Phoenix Seminary) office
in an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. in August,
2012.
[40]
See Deut. 32:35. This passage
records the threatened vengeance of God toward the wicked unbelieving
Israelites. That Divine response is
generally applicable to all individuals in the same wicked circumstances.
[44]
Hebrew khillul ha-shem means any act
or behavior that casts shame on belief in God's laws. Conversely, Hebrew Kiddush Hashem means any act or behavior that glorifies God,
especially martyrdom.
[46]
A paraphrase of G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874-1936).
[52]
See II Tim. 3:16, 4:2. Liberal
theologians, such as Rudolf Karl Bultmann (1884-1976) called for the
discrediting of scriptural truth.
In June, 2012, Dallas F. Bell Jr. had an email
exchange with a prominent pastor and the head of theological doctrine at their
religious denomination's seminary.
They openly dismissed the clear teaching of some Scripture while
accepting other Scripture they approved of even when shown the incompatible
nature of their stance and clear scientific evidence that disproved their
beliefs. The totality of scriptural
text is needed for context. Without
context applications of Scriptures can't be made, rendering Scriptures to
useless collections of words from random ideas.
[55]
See Deut. 12:8; Judg. 17:6, 21:25; Mic. 4:5; Acts 14:15-17; I Peter 4:2-3.
[56]
The phrase Jonathan Edwards used was "His arbitrary will." In context of systematic theology, this
meant God acts with His attributes as an infinitely wise, just, and loving
Arbiter of righteousness. There
could be no credibility to the inconsistent meaning of arbitrary as being capricious. God is not indifferent to what He will
choose freely. See page 109 of
James P. Boyce's (1827-1888) Abstract of
Systematic Theology.
www.founders.org/library/boyce1/toc.html
[64]
The original phrase was "arbitrary mercy."
It has been linguistically updated for the same reasons as seen in note
56.
[72]
The writings of Lorenzo Scupoli (c. 1530-1610), John Downame (1571-1652),
William Ames (1576-1633), John Milton, Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705), Edward
Taylor (1642-1729) and others have written on the profile of the devil's
machinations. It seems that Satan
is used by God to elevate the intellectual level of wicked human lies and
behavior above the base human intellectual parameters of efficiency to commit
sin and depravity.
[77]
See I John 3:4. Sin is the transgress of God's law. Augustine of Hippo is credited with
saying sin is the state of
being incurvatus in se (L. curved or caved in on oneself). Paul wrote about this struggle of two
natures, Rom. 7:13-25. Martin
Luther (1483-1546) expounded on this in his Lectures
on Romans. Simul
justus et peccator (L.
simultaneous righteous and sinner) doctrine is not an excuse to sin or to be
lawless but acknowledges the struggle of the righteous nature of the redeemed
with the sinful nature (Rom 6).
[79]
See Eccl. 1-12 and note 18 for societal parameters for the pursuit of
happiness.
[85]
See Is. 66:4; II Thess. 2:8-12. God
will add to their delusions. To
transcend the stress from cognitive dissonance of reality, mind
altering drugs and non-redemptive fantasy entertainment, where evil
falsely triumphs, will be used or administered to by the foolish. Pharmakeia (Gr. pharmacy) is the use of or the administering of drugs,
poisoning, sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry, which
is demon worship (see Lev. 17:7; Ps. 106:37; I Cor. 10:19-21; Gal. 4:7; Rev.
9:20), and fostered by it. For more
on the sorcery (witchcraft where a human willingly works for Satan and becomes
the mediator between other live humans on earth and Satan) see Gal. 5:19-21 and
Rev. 18:23. An example of Greek
drug (sorcery and fantasy) culture can be found in Homer's (estimated b. 8th
to 9th century B.C.) The Odyssey (Book IV, beginning with line 220):
"Presently she cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to
lull all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow. Whoso should
drink a draught thereof, when it is mingled in the bowl, on that day he would
let no tear fall down his cheeks, not though his mother and his father died,
not though men slew his brother or dear son with the sword before his face, and
his own eyes beheld it. Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the daughter
of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had given her, a woman of Egypt,
where earth the grain-giver yields herbs in greatest plenty, many that are
healing in the cup, and many baneful. There each man is a leech skilled beyond
all human kind; yea, for they are of the race of Paeeon." See
classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.html
Drugs are to
temporarily escape reality while pornography perverts the imagination designed
for intellectual creativity with fantasies of coveting (Ex. 20:17) and lust
(Matt. 5:28). Pornography (Gr. pornē,
prostitute; graphein, to write or
record) creates an erotic fantasy to cause the
imagination of its target to be stimulated sexually. The media can range from photos and
paintings to words and sculptures.
All cultures have a history of this destructive medium. The Venus sculptures, cave paintings,
and papyrus paintings of the Ramesside period (c. 1292 B.C.- c. 1069 B.C.) are
a few examples. Creativity doesn't come
from the imagination per se (Gen. 6:5; Prov. 12:20; Jere. 3:17, 18:2; Rom.
1:21; II Cor 10:5), it comes from meditation on the
word (Ps. 119:148), law (Josh. 1:8), and instruction (I Tim. 4:15). Meditation all day (Ps. 119:97) leads to
understanding (Ps. 49:3) and knowledge (Ps. 119:99). In gambling, the participants agree to
risk possessions for the covetous (Ex.20:17; Luke
12:15; I Cor. 3:10; I Tim. 6:10) hope of gaining the risked possessions of each
other based on the outcome of an event's randomness. Each participant expects to take the
other's possessions without work.
This is delusional in that this envious act (Job 5:2; Rom. 1:29; Gal.
5:16-26; Titus 3:3; Jam. 3:16, 4:5) negates creating products and services
necessary for family and government economic stability and leads to poverty
(See note 16).
[88]
See Heb. 8:6, 9:15, 12:24.
[89]
See Ezra 5:12; Jere. 44:8.
[92]
See Judg. 5:12 for an example of the redeemed singing praises to God for
physical deliverance from harm.
[94]
See Phil. 3:4-9; Titus 3:5.
[97]
See Ps. 68:21. God will wound His
enemies.
[99]
See Ps. 11:2. Finite sinners employ
weapons against the righteous and likewise God aims such weapons at His enemies
except He has omnipotent abilities.
[103]
The poem by Edward Taylor titled Preface
to God's Determinations Touching His Elect dramatizes (Calvinistic) beliefs
regarding predestination, creation, God's nature, grace, salvation by faith in
Christ alone, redemption, the damned and elect positions of mankind, and
eternity etc. See
www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175402
[105]
See I Tim. 6:15. Jesus the Christ
is the only true Potentate.
[106]
See Job 7:5; Is. 14:11.
[108]
See Dan 2:47; I Tim. 6:15; Rev. 19:16.
[114]
This principle is seen in Jere. 13:14.
[127]
God's desire for holy justice requires this vengeful act to override His desire
for mercy.
[128]
This is because your iniquities are infinite. See Job 22:5.
[130]
See Jere. 31:15; Matt. 2:18. This is as weeping for lost children.
[135]
See John 10:11. In Jesus' death of
His human body on the cross, we can see that He submitted His station of
equality in the trinity of God (see note 24) to the freewill of His created
human creatures. His purpose was to
willingly be the perfect atonement for man's wickedness. We see that He suffered and cried out
before His body died (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; John 19:30, as prophesied in Ps.
22). Humans also are allowed to
suffer due the acts of other humans whose freewill is allowed by God for His
greater purposes (See note 31). At
this point, the divine doctrine of impassibility should be addressed. We know that God's compassion fails not
and is new each morning (Lam. 3:22-23), and that His heart is said to grieve
(Gen. 6:6-7), love (II Cor. 13:11), be angry (Ex. 32:10-11), etc. We also know God is immutable and does
not change. Since He cannot change,
He cannot be moved from lows and highs of passions or emotions as is common
with humans. Thus, we need to make
a distinction between impassibility, not subject to suffering, pain and other
involuntary emotions without rational control, and affections, which are
controlled by volition and are rational.
God is not passively manipulated by His creation, but is active
regarding His immutable divine attributes, such as love, anger etc. The correctness of God's impassibility
is useful for doctrine and should not be confused with an anthropomorphic view
of human changing passiveness of emotion.
God is without fluctuating passions but is not without immutable
affections. See Edward's writings
on religious affections at
www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/works1.vii.html
In a letter to Benedetto Castelli around 1613, Galileo
Galilei (1564-1642) said the Holy Scriptures (Bible) cannot err and only its
interpreters are liable to err.
Descartes said we need
to start from a known point to reach a logical or mathematical conclusion,
while Locke paid more attention to physical observations than to logic and math
proofs. Like Locke, Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679) stated (in Leviathan)
true revelation can never be in disagreement with reason and experience (reason
and experience should then be applied to fallible human ideas and theories
especially those based on flawed foundational agendas, e.g. the flawed agenda
that there is no first Causer of all effects and so the idea that human life
evolved without purpose is logically but incorrectly theorized etc.). Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) warned against
the uncertainty reached from human reason and the senses. Sir Isaac Newton (c. 1642-1727) reasoned
that God created with logic and math and so we can understand with logic and
math. Gottfried W. Leibniz
(1646-1716) used deductive logic and math to explain God's creation and
will. Then beginning with immutable
inerrant scriptural doctrine, theological logic and math can be deduced back to
the immutable inerrant God and without immutable inerrant Scripture the
immutable inerrant God can be induced toward immutable inerrant scriptural
doctrine. To put it in a logical or
mathematical structure, the following could be generally said: God = what man
can know + what man cannot know; what man can know = reason + revelation;
reason = God's attributes from being the first causer of all effects + God's
superior relationship to man etc.; God's attributes = eternal infiniteness from
having had to have preexisted all creation and time + omniscience +
omnipresence + immutability + wisdom + holiness or righteousness etc.; God's
superior relationship to man = boundaries on man's freewill + man's need for
atonement + revelation etc.; revelation = God's appearance + God's words +
God's inspired written communication or Scripture; Scripture = God's appearance
+ God's words / God's attributes + God's affections / wisdom; God's affections
/ wisdom = grief + anger + love etc.; then, Scripture = immutable inerrant
theological doctrine; immutable inerrant theological doctrine = God's one being
in the essence of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost + creation account + God's laws +
boundaries on man's freewill + atoning salvation and repentance process from violations of God's law +
acceptable prayer communication with God + prophesied short term and long term
eschatology + man's purpose etc.
This is the limited framework for finite man "to know (God's) His
thoughts, the rest are details" as quoted by Albert Einstein (1879-1955) in Max
Jammer's 1999 book titled Einstein and
Religion: Physics and Theology taken from E. Salaman's 1955 A Talk with Einstein (The Listener),
54.
[137]
See Lev. 26:38-39; Eze. 24:23, 33:10.
[140]
See Eph. 1:10, 3:2.
[144]
See Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:29-33, 9:17-26. Arminian freedom is demonstrated in
context with Calvinism determinism.
[146]
See Deut. 4:2, 12:32; Prov. 30:5-6; Rev. 22:18-19.
[147]
See I John 2:18. John Bunyan's
(1628-1688) Visions of Heaven and Hell,
chapter 10: An Atheist in Hell, engages in a
conversation with Thomas Hobbes in hell.
Hobbes speaks of his not liking God and how his pride of wisdom betrayed
him into eternal existence in hell without mercy. Atheists deny the coherence of reality
that creation requires a first Causer Creator God. They say ethics is normative (relating
only to one culture and is relative).
On the other hand they say those ethics are absolute (meaning they are
immutable and could only be refuted by God). Their absolute argument means their
normative argument is false and their normative argument means their absolute
argument is false (See note 135 on the fallacy of relying on human reason with
agendas). Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
was an atheist and therefore reasonably a hedonist. In his 1937 writing of Ends and Means, page 316, he said people
with his beliefs objected to morality (God's laws) because they interfered with
their sexual freedom.
[148]
See Matt. 21:12; Mark 11:15.
[149]
See Rom. 1:25-32; II Tim. 3:8; Titus 1:16.
Reprobates (Heb. ma'ac to
spurn and reject, and Gr. adokimos,
unapproved and rejected) cannot be expected to behave wickedly in private or
abide a passive modus vivendi. Their total
lack of compliance with God's law make them a spectacle as they writhe in
maintaining and publically demanding conformity to their destructive behavioral
choices. They reject the societal
layers of rational privacy. The
deepest level is one's relationship with God, next is family and spouse, then
friends followed by acquaintances and coworkers, and last is strangers. Having a weak connection to reality and
under the guise of being honest, private details only rationally appropriate
for family and spouses may be stated or requested from coworkers or even
strangers. They will not have any
shame (Jere. 8:12; Phil. 3:19) or remorse (do not fear God, see Ps. 36:1; Rom.
3:18) for this lack of respect for necessary human subtlety. This inappropriate behavior is sometimes
seen in children that are mentally handicapped and are ignorant of social rules
of interaction. The next aggressive
behavioral step for forcing acceptance of their wickedness is violence. Richard Rhodes, 1986 Pulitzer Prize
winner for general non-fiction and National Book Award winner for non-fiction,
outlines Lonnie Athens' (former senior research criminologist at Georgetown
University's Law Center and now at Seton Hall University criminology
department) evidenced-based model of violent socialization as the criminally
violent take comfort, if not pleasure, in knowing that they are prepared to use
violence whenever it suits them.
(Rhodes made the preceding statement and recommended his book Why They Kill in an email exchange with
Dallas F. Bell Jr. in August, 2012). As enough people accept this way of
life, violence that requires defensive and even punitive action will become
socialized as normal accepted behavior.
The wicked desire wickedness (Prov. 21:10; Jam. 4:5), are cruel (Prov.
12:10), and have no peace (Is. 48:22, 57:20-21).
[150]
See Prov. 30:12; Is. 65:5; Luke 18:11; Titus 1:15-16.
[151]
See Ps. 10:4; 14:1; 53:1.
[153]
See Is. 6:9; Matt 13:13-17; Rom. 11:8.
[155]
See John 3:16; Gal. 5:24. God is love (I John 4:8, 16). Love covers all sins (Prov. 10:12).
[156]
Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire (1802-1861), a French theologian is credited
with this quote.
[157]
See Gen. 19:5-24; Lev. 18:22, 20:13; Judg. 19:22-25; Is. 3:9;
Lam. 4:6; Amos 4:11; Luke 17:29; Rom. 1:22-32; I Cor. 6:9-10; I Tim. 1:10; Jude
7. The effete argument for
support of sodomy has been that homosexual behavior is due to genetic
orientations and/or environment which do not allow
freewill to resist the behavior (See not 31). Studies, not later
proven fraudulent (see note 37), of monozygotic twins raised together indicates
there is nothing approaching 100% concordance of sexual behavior. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, Ph.D. in
(genetic) biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has pointed
out that the rate must be 100% in all cases if there was any credible genetic
and/or environmental link to sodomite behavior. See note 149.
[158]
See Matt. 3:7; Heb. 6:18. The 1881 sermon titled Flee From the Coming Wrath was
delivered by Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (1834-1892). He warned of the tendency to avoid
piercing men's and women's hearts with the sword of
the Spirit and never alluding to the terrors of the Lord. See
www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/2704.htm
[161]
The (1873) song lyrics, It
is Well with My Soul, were written by Horatio G. Spafford
(1828-1888). The music was written
(1876) by Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876) and named for the ship, Ville du Havre,
which sank taking many lives, including family members of Spafford.
[165]
See John 10:26-30. God's saving
power is from His omnipotent power to maintain the immutable salvation state of
redeemed man.
[166]
See I Cor. 1:18, 2:14. C.H.
Spurgeon's sermon titled Loving Advice
for Anxious Seekers uses this line of thought. See
www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0735.htm
[167]
This is a line from R.S. Thomas' poem The
Moon in Lleyn. It refers to the
two thousand years after Jesus' birth and death on the cross and the nearing of
His Second Coming to earth. William
Butler Yeats (1865-1939) wrote The Second
Coming which
also sees the end of the two thousand year period as a harbinger of Jesus'
return. See Amos 9:11-12; John
14:2-4; Acts 15:16. Also see
www.online-literature.com/donne/780/
[171]
Gr. for God within.
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