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THEO201-GODS-PLAN-
Lecture
Theology Survey I (Liberty University)
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THEO201
Lecture 10/18/2019
God’s Plan
Models of Divine Sovereignty (cf. oord)
1.) God is the Omni Cause (Determinism)
2.) God overpowers and empowers (Calviminianism)
3.) God is voluntarily self-limited (Free-will theism)
4.) God is essentially kenotic (love constrains sovereignty; open theism)
5.) God sustains as impersonal force (panentheism)
6.) God creates and observer (deism)
7.) God’s ways are not our ways (fideism)
What frames our view of God?
1.) Sovereignty
2.) Love
3.) Relationality
4.) Glory
Questions to ask…
●If a human agent couldn’t act otherwise (ie, make a contrary choice), are they really free?
●Is God culpable for evil/human sin if he ordains it certain?
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●If God does not cause/control everything, is he sovereign?
●Is God still relational and loving if everything is predetermined?
The Bible presents a tension:
God is sovereign, but humans are free and responsible for their decisions.
●Tension in the canon
●Tension in Second Temple
●Judaism Augustinian/Pelagian controversy
●Protestant Reformation
A possible paradigm:
Good and evil in Genesis (tree -> Joseph)
Genesis 50:20 – “You resolved against me for evil purposes, but God resolved for me for
good things.”
Romans 8:28 – “We know that for those who love God, He is working all things together for
good, to those who are called in accordance with His purpose.”
●Not that God causes the evil, or the act itself is good, but that God will do a good thing
through it.
A contextual reading: Our questions v. theirs
God is love
God is relational
God is omniscient
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God is omnipotent
God’s relations with humans are non-coercive
Creation in ANE Context
There is unformed matter. There is water above and below. Light, the sun, moon, stars, land,
water, creatures, and humans are created.
Enuma Elish?
●The gods are born from two “high” gods
●The god-children are too noisy
●Eventually there is war among the gods, and the dead bodies of the gods
are the matter which constitutes creation
●Humans are made to do the work of the gods
Four major elements in Genesis
1) Assigning of function (bringing order to creation)
2) Ordering of temple (making a place of God’s presence to dwell)
3) Polemic against other ANE creation stories (God not capricious or fighting
for supremacy)
4) Created as image bearers (humans reflect God and His work)
Creation vs. Evolution/Science?
Thinking apologetically…
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●Naturalism the problem
●Can’t account for: consciousness, truth, physical constancy,
intentionality, fine-tuning, trust in cognitive faculties, morality, evil, love,
beauty, etc.
Approaches to Creation:
Major Christian views on Creation:
Young earth (7 literal days)
Problem: Scientific data
Progressive
Problem: Not the face-value of Genesis
Theistic evolution
Problem: Death was not introduced because of sin
Elements of a doctrine of creation
Ex nihilo (Gen 1:1? Eph 1:4, Heb. 1:10)
Everything distinct from God was made (demons, Satan, etc.?)
God’s creation was (and is, and will be) GOOD
The Trinitarian persons each played a part (1 Cor 8:6; John 1:3; Heb. 1:10)
The Problem of evil
Perhaps God is not omnipotent (cf. Process theology)?
Our God is not good (cf. determinism)?
Or God does not exist (cf. atheism/skepticism)?
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Or evil does not exist (cf. pantheism and some eastern religions)?
What is the theist to do?
Two Branches of the problem: Natural evil and Moral evil
The Fall…
What about the snake?
Canonical approaches to evil (cf. D. Rishmawy):
●Retributive (what goes around comes around; Deuteronomistic lit.)
●Sapiential (evil teaches us; Proverbs)
●Eschatological (God will deal with it; prophets, Paul, Revelation)
Major Christian theistic approaches:
●A theodicy -> philosophical frameworks with biblical correspondence
●Soul-making defense
●Augustinian Theory
●Free Will Theodicy
●The cross and resurrection
The Unseen Realm
The Divine Counsel
●Job 38:4
●The ‘sons of God’ are created “divine”
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The “Nephilim/Rephaim”
●Genesis 6:2
●This the Flood…
●Genesis 11:1
●Deut 2:9
●1 Samuel 17:4
●1 Samuel 9:2
The Sons of God and the Nations
●Deut 32:8
●Daniel 10:12
●Isaiah 66:18
The Fallen One(s)/Kings
●Isaiah 14:12
●Ezekiel 28:14
Jesus and the Demons
●Mark 1:34
●Matthew 12:28
●Matthew 4:8
●Colossians 1:13
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●Revelation 1:15
The Powers
●Romans 5:12
●2 Corinthians 4:4
●Ephesians 1:20
The Fallen Sons of God Revisited
●1 Peter 3:18
●2 Peter 2:4
●Jude 6
The Punishment of the Heavenly Powers
●Isaiah 24:21
●Revelation 4:4
●Revelation 20:10
The Reign of God through the People of God
●Gen 3:15 Rom 4:13
Summary
●God created heavenly beings to partner in his plan for creation
●Some of them rebelled, some fathered Nephilim/rephaim, and corrupted humanity
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●God gave over the nations to the fallen sons of God, but chose Israel as his covenant
people/
●The conquest sought to purge the land of the Nep
●2 Cor. 10:3-6 & Ephesians 6:10-13
Jesus Identity
●The “quests” for the historical Jesus have complicated the question of
Jesus’ divinity.
●First Quest: Sensationalized and selective (NT not reliable – Jesus
failed revolutionary)
●No Quest: Jesus of history v. Christ of faith (cf. Bultmann – NT
about church)
●Second Quest: Criteria of authenticity and emphasis on dissimilarity
(skeptical)
●Third Quest: Rooted in history and culture
Jesus, the Jew
●Jesus came as a human, as an Israelite:
o Fulfills the divine plan
o Completes the covenantal promises
o Restores and transforms humanity
o Inaugurates the kingdom of God as the divine-human
●Davidic king
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Jesus’ Identity
●The Gospels present a complex and variegated portrait of Jesus.
●The “Gospel” message is bigger than Jesus’ death for personal salvation.
●2 facets of Old Testament “gospel”:
- kingdom victory and Isaiah 61
- Creation
o Fall (heavenly and earthly)
o Covenants (Abrahamic/Mosaic/Davidic/New)
o Jesus and the Kingdom
o New Creation Jesus inaugurates the kingdom of God (cf.
●McKnight: king, rule, people, law, and place) and disarms the rebellious
heavenly powers, signaling their ultimate defeat.
●Jesus inaugurates the work of restoring all of creation to
God’s original intent, also restoring humanity to its
vocation to worship and serve God by governing His good
world.
●This good news creates an invitation to humanity to see
Jesus as the rightful king of creation, and to swear faithful
allegiance to him as ruler of creation.
●Faith is “the initial and ongoing response of trust in, and
obedience to, Christ” (McKnight)
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Divine Identity
●Strongest indicators are:
o Forgiving sins (Mark 2:5)
o Jesus sent “from God”
o Jesus as “Lord of Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28)
o Son of Man coming on the clouds (Mark 14:61-64; cf. Psalm
110 and Daniel 7)
o Jesus is “Lord” (e.g., Romans 10:9)
o Christ Hymn of Phil 2:6-10
o Jesus worshiped (Mark 5:1-20; Luke 24:52; cf. Hurtado)
Strongest Indicators
●Prayer to Jesus (Romans 10:13; cf. Hurtado)
●Praise to Jesus (Ephesians 5:19; cf. Hurtado)
●Christianized Shema in 1
●Corinthians 8:4-6
●Nearly 100 passages in NT where OT text about YHWH is applied
to Jesus (cf. Bauckham)
The Christological Heresies
●Adoptionism: Jesus was a man who was adopted as “Son of God”
●Apollinaris: Jesus had a human body but a divine mind (i.e., not two natures in
one, unified person).
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●Arianism: “there was a time when the Son was not”
●Docetism: Jesus’ body was an allusion (denial of two natures)
●Monophysitism: At the incarnation, Jesus’ two natures were made one
(either divine overriding the human, or a fusion of the two)
●Monothelitism: Jesus had two natures, but only one will (not two natures with
two wills)
●Nestorianism: Jesus existed as two connected persons (not two natures in one
person)
