Did Sin Never Enter God's Mind?

Does Jeremiah 19:5 count as a substantive critique of Reformed theology? Did sin really never enter the mind of God?

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For more on Reformed Theology, click HERE.

Sovereignty and Conversational Confusion

This is a corrective and a challenge for both Reformed/Calvinists and non-Calvinists to be clearer when we talk about sovereignty with each other. I’m not going to here be arguing that Reformed theology/Calvinism is true or non-Calvinism is false. Rather I’m going to try to untie part of the Gordian knot that exists between us in how we understand each other.

Often the Reformed/Calvinist will accuse (sometimes rightly) the non-Calvinist have having a deficient view of sovereignty while the non-Calvinist will hear the Reformed/Calvinist talk about the implications of sovereignty as being some form of Compatiblism (which entails determinism) and then fail to make the necessary disambiguation in Reformed/Calvinistic thought between Sovereignty, Predestination, and Determinism.

Sovereignty on the Reformed view is rather mundane. Sovereignty simply has to do with God’s RIGHT to rule over all of his creation. God is the sovereign over all things, not most things. God is ALL-mighty, not MOSTLY-mighty. He has the right as king over all things. This is why in the WCF talks of sovereignty as:

“he hath most sovereign dominion over (all things), to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever himself pleaseth.”

Sovereignty then has to do with his RIGHT as Sovereign over all. However, this is where the disambiguation in Reformed theology comes in and starts to cause confusion for those who do not properly draw appropriate distinctions. Sovereignty means that God is the sovereign over ALL of his creation. This is why the Bible can talk about God working all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Notice that ALL things are worked out and are under the oversight and purpose of God. Not most things. Not some things. Not the things that he can control but not the freewill decisions that we do that go against his plan. All things. Nothing happens in his kingdom that is not permitted by him and all things are under the direction and control of his plan and purpose – his sovereign right as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, plan and purpose. The confusion arises at this point for many Reformed/Calvinists and non-Calvinists alike. Because, on the Reformed view, we believe that God has predestined and predetermined all things BECAUSE God is sovereign, we will often state God’s predestining of all things just AS, definitionally, God’s sovereignty. God sovereignly predestines all things but his predestination is not synonymous with his sovereignty. His sovereignty is dispositional – he has a right to rule over all. His predestination is active – he acts, because he IS sovereign, over all. God can predestine rightly, at least in part, because he is sovereign. Not vice versa.

This is further compounded because of how Reformed Christians will often critique non-Reformed positions. For example, when a misinformed Arminian (misinformed because Arminianism does not historically affirm Libertarian freedom) or an SBC Provisionist affirm Libertarian freedom and say that IF God predestined the person or acted irresistibly on the will that God would then be “controlling” (in the directly causal sense) or the “author of sin” or in some way that God is not permitted to do so, the Reformed person will see this person as saying that there is an area of God’s own creation that he is NOT sovereign over – that he does not have the absolute right as King over to do by, for, and upon it whatever he desires to do. So while the Libertarian may think that they are attacking Predestination or Determinism, the Reformed/Calvinist hears the objection as assuming some area that is not under God’s sovereign kingship. Thus, an objection against Determinism is given a rejoinder that the person is actually objecting to Sovereignty. This then fuels the confusion. The non-Calvinist will then hear that Reformed theology just defines Sovereignty AS Determinism.

This is further fueled by how each person understands the word “control.” Think of how I can say “nothing at my work is out of my control” and “I control the character in the video game with the joystick.” In the first, I may mean that there is nothing that goes on in my office that is without my notice or permission or power to direct, fix, act upon, anticipate, etc. It may even mean everything that happens is planned and directed by me. However, no one would understand that to mean that I am the primary causal agent meticulously and directly causing everything to happen. I am not the efficient cause of every last thing. And yet when I am controlling a character I am just such a cause. When the Reformed/Calvinist talks about nothing being out of God’s control, we mean it as an analog to the first kind of use of the term because we are Compatiblists. We understand that God, though the first mover, works in sovereign administration through the means of secondary causal conditions and agents. He determines whatsoever comes to pass, but that is providentially worked out via means.

However, because our critics in this discussion are Incompatiblists of the Libertarian variety, and often fail to disambiguate between external criticisms and internal ones, they will take an externalist critique of Compatiblism’s Soft Determinism which thinks it unavoidably and definitionally entails Incompatiblism’s Hard Determinism, and then use that as if that is what Reformed/Calvinism AFFIRMS, and move into an internal criticism of saying that on Reformed/Calvinism God controls all things in the SECOND sense of the term. This however, because it moved from an external critique to an internal critique not only begs the question of Incompatiblistic Libertarian Freedom, but it also sets up a strawman of Reformed/Calvinism that is different from what we actually affirm.

Notice then what a simple definitional usage of a term like sovereignty can do and how the role it plays in dialogue can so quickly make communication derail. We need to be far more self-aware of how we use and understand terms and how other people, from within their own systems, use and understand those same terms. Without it, we will simply be in a grand narrative of talking past each other.

SERMON: Better than the Blood of Abel

Text: 1 Timothy 2:5-6
Title: Better than the Blood of Abel
Topic: Solus Christus/Christ Alone

SERMON: Scripture Alone - More Sure Than the Mountain Top

Here I present a sermon preached at my home church during a series on the Five Solas of the Protestant Reformation. In this sermon on 2 Peter 1:16-21, I present Sola Scriptura and it's importance to the Biblical witness and the history of the church following the Reformation.

Enjoy!

Reformed Theology Collection

Here are the collected resources of mine dealing with Reformed Theology and Calvinism. If you want resources specifically on Molinism, please go HERE. For my YouTube channel playlist of my debates or guest appearances on topics related to Reformed Theology, Molinism, Open Theism and the like, see HERE. 

1. The Doctrines of Grace - Full Text Study

2. Doctrines of Grace - Total Depravity

3. Doctrines of Grace - Unconditional Election

4. Doctrines of Grace - The Atonement

5. Doctrines of Grace - Limited Atonement

6. Doctrines of Grace - Irresistible Grace

7. Doctrines of Grace - Perseverance of Grace

8. Calvinism as an Apologetic

9. Theonomy - Part 1 (with Lee Irons)

10. Theonomy - Part 2 - (with Lee Irons)

11. What is Calvinism According to Soteriology101?

12. Is Calvinism Really Semi-Gnosticism? (TEXT / AUDIO) - audio has some minor updates and edits that text does not.

13. Does Calvinism Make God the "Author of Sin"?

14. Does Baptizo Always Mean Full Immersion? (Click HERE for audio version)

15. What Did Paul Really Mean in Romans 9?

16. SERMON: A Plan For Suffering

17. Freewill and Divine Hiddenness

18. The Ability to be Able?

19. An Argument from Orthodoxy for Soft Determinism

20. Sovereignty and Conversational Confusion

21. Can a Calvinist be Certain of Their Salvation? Click HERE FOR EXPANDED AUDIO VERSION

22. Is Calvinism Biblical? (Discussion on Cracking Christianity YouTube)

23. Is Calvinism True? (Debate on The Gospel Truth YouTube)

24. DEBATE: Covenantal Baptism - Tyler Vela vs. Josh Smith

25. Infant vs. Believers Baptism - Discussion with Tyler Vela and J.D. Martin

26. The Problem of Apostasy in Hebrews for Particular Baptists

27. Is Pelagianism the Gospel?

28. Why I Can't Be A Dispensationalist (AUDIO / TEXT)

29. Various Calvinist Musings (Part 1)

30. Various Calvinist Musings (Part 2)

31. Syllogistic Objections to Libertarian Freewill and Open Theism from Isaiah 41 and 46

32. A Warranted Case for Biblical Compatibilism

33. Is Jeremiah 18 the OT Text Behind Paul's use of the Potter / Clay Motif in Romans 9?

34. Problems with Provisionism - Sean Cole, Chris Date and Tyler Vela

35. Guest Appearance on Revealed Apologetics on Calvinism / Molinism

36. Guest Appearance on the Unapologetic Apologists on Compatibilism

37. Guest Appearance on the Gospel Truth with Marlon Wilson and Eli Ayala on Calvinism

38. The Fragility of Libertarian Incompatibilism

39. A Calvinist Cornucopia 

40. Plain and Simple: Calvinism is Romans 9 and Ephesians 1

41. Leighton Flowers: A Response to a Response

42. Tim Stratton and Robots with Colton Carlson

43. Response to Tim Stratton on the Free Thinking Argument

44. Calvinism, Atonement, and Assurance

45. Did Sin Never Enter God's Mind?

46. Molinism and Open Theism Are False (Guest Appearance)

47. Responding to Christian Huls on Calvinism - Part 1

48. Provisionism with Colin from The Consistent Calvinism Podcast

49. Molinism's Olive Branch Becomes Its Scourge

50. A Response to John Cranman on 1 Corinthians 10:13

51. Who Hardened Pharaoh's Heart First?

52. Incompatibilism, Compatibilism and Begging the Question (Text version HERE)

53. Debate with Dan Chapa on Libertarian Freedom: 

        Part 1

        Part 2

        Part 3

54. Review of Stratton White Debate: PART 1, PART 2

55. Responding to the Braxton Hunter and the "Best Argument Against Calvinism"

56. Freewill - Folk Views, Intuition and Properly Basic Beliefs

57. Does Creation Entail Determinism?

58.  Is God a "Deity of Deception"?

59. Discussion with Matt Salih on Determinism and Freewill

60. Freewill, Free Thinking, and Hiddenness Live Discussion

61. Does God Determine Evil and Does Foreknowledge Entail Determinism? Live Discussion

The Noetic Affects and Effects of Sin and Grace

In this episode I present my paper dealing with the Noetic Affects and Effects of Sin and Grace and explore the ramifications of sin for the breakdown of what Brunner called the “I-Thou” paradigm. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Listen in and you will!

Enjoy the show! 

For the full text of this paper including footnotes, citations, and bibliography please visit:

http://rts.academia.edu/TylerVela

I Got 144,000 Problems But Revelation Aint One

In this episode I review an article by Clint Archer dealing with the issue of the 144,000 found in the book in the Revelation. This article is a good case study in the differences of hermeneutics between Reformed and Dispensational Christians.

You can find the text of this article here: https://www.academia.edu/32930724/144_000_Cattle_on_144_000_Hills_A_response_to_Clint_Archer_on_the_meaning_of_the_144_000_Sealed_in_Revelation_7_and_14

You can find Archer's artlce here: http://thecripplegate.com/why-144000-means-144000/

Enjoy the show!