Bethlehem Baptist Church

September 17 – December 10 2014

January 14 – April 29 2015

Theologic Foundations

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and

a good conscience and a sincere faith.

(1 Timothy 1:5 ESV)

Our Goal in Theology

Theologic Foundations CurriculumIntroductionScripture: 2 lessonsThe TrinityGod’s Eternal

Purposes: 2God’s Creation: 2Man’s Sin and FallJesus Christ: 2The Saving Work of

Christ (Jan. 2015)

He Ordains and Governs All ThingsHe Foreknows All ThingsHe Never SinsHe Justly Holds Humans AccountableGrudem’s response to Process TheologyThe “Problem” of Evil and God’s Sovereignty

Week 5: God’s Sovereignty

Key VersesEph 1:11-12Job 42:2Deuteronomy 32:39Hebrews 1:1-3Isaiah 46:8-11 Psalm 139:16

Deuteronomy 32:4James 1:13-18Genesis 50:19-20Acts 2:23, 36-38;

4:27-28

3.1 We believe that God, from all eternity, in order to display the full extent of His glory for the eternal and ever-increasing enjoyment of all who love Him, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His will, freely and unchangeably ordain and foreknow whatever comes to pass.

The BBC AOF

3.2 We believe that God upholds and governs all things –

from galaxies to subatomic Particles, from the forces of nature to the movements of nations, and from the public plans of politicians to the secret acts of solitary persons –

all in accord with His eternal, all-wise purposes to glorify Himself,

yet in such a way that He never sins, nor ever condemns a person unjustly; but that His ordaining and governing all things is compatible with the moral accountability of all persons created in His image.

The BBC AOF

TF Day1: God Ordains and GovernsGen 1:1

In the beginning, God. . . Ephesians 1:11-12

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory

TF Day1: All ThingsWhat are the “All Things” mentioned in Eph

1?

TF Day1: All ThingsWhat are the “All Things” mentioned in Eph 1?

Cast of the lotSparrows, Hairs on our headPlans of peopleMind of KingsIn all natureAuthoritiesDisaster Light and Darkness; Well being and CalamityDelusions, Hardness of HeartDeath and HealingHis Purpose . . .

TF Day1: God Ordains and Governs(Psalms 33:8-11 ESV)

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!

For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations

TF Day1: God Ordains and GovernsDaniel 4 Nebuchadnezzar’s Praise:

for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,and his kingdom endures from generation to

generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as

nothing,and he does according to his will among the host

of heavenand among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his handor say to him, “What have you done?

TF Day1: God Ordains and GovernsJob 42:2

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Hebrews 1:3. . . And he upholds the universe by the word of his

power.Colossians 1:17

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Act 17:28For “in him we live and move and have our being”;

TF Day1: God Ordains and GovernsPractical Implications

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord.He is Sovereign over all authority

The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.He is Sovereign in our decisions

“I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.” He is Sovereign over life and health, and evil and

death.

TF Day1: God Ordains and Governs

TF Day2: God’s Foreknowledge of All Things(Isaiah 46:8-11 ESV)

“Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

TF Day2: God’s Foreknowledge of All ThingsPsalm 135: 5-6

For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

Isaiah’s taunt to the false godsTell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know

that you are gods.Isaiah’s assertion that God knows all things

Behold, the former things come to pass, and new things I now declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Have I not told you from of old and declared it?

TF Day2: God’s Foreknowledge of All ThingsHe knows the length our our days

Job 14:5Since his days are determined, and the number

of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass.

Psalm 136:16Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your

book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.

TF Day2: God’s Foreknowledge of All ThingsJesus knows the future

John 13:19 and John 14:29I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that

when it does take place you may believe that I am he.

And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.

TF Day2: God’s Foreknowledge of All Things

TF Day2: God’s Foreknowledge of All Things

TF Day3: God Never SinsThe story of Job

Job 1:1 – 2:10, and Job 42James 1:13-17

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

TF Day3: God Never SinsDeuteronomy 32:4

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

1 John 1:5This is the message we have heard from him

and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

TF Day3: God Never SinsAbraham’s argument to prevent God from

destroying Sodom and Gomorrah -- Gen 18:25Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the

righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just

(Romans 3:19 ESV)Now we know that whatever the law says it

speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God

TF Day3: God Never SinsTwo allegations:

If God ordains evil, isn’t he then guilty of committing that evil?

If God ordains evil, isn’t he unjust in punishing evildoers?

Biblical Responses:God foreknows and ordains everything that comes

to pass (including the willing, evil choices of the beings he has created).

God is not the source or author of evil, and he is not unjust to judge the wicked.

How do you reconcile these statements?

TF Day3: God Never Sins

TF Day3: God Never Sins

TF Day4: Human Moral AccountabilityExamples:

David’s numbering of Israel and Judah Joseph’s brothers treatment of Joseph The crucifixion of Jesus

Judas Chief Priests and elders Herod Pilate and Roman soldiers Gentiles and peoples of Israel (Everyone!)

What shall we do? Peter said, “Repent.’ Who foreknew and by his “definite plan” ordained the death of

Jesus?Conclusion: God can ordain that evil take place, and hold the

evildoers responsible since they acted out of their own wills and desires.

Our choices are real and made willingly. . .

TF Day4: Human Moral AccountabilityJonathan Edward’s argument re: Moral

AccountabilityOur Will is guided by our desires.As sinners we have the moral inability to change our

desiresWe have the natural ability to do good or not do evil,BUT

Our moral inability controls our natural ability to avoid evil.

Our moral inability comes from the curse of Adam imputed to all of us.

And God holds us accountable to that moral inability.

TF Day5:

Grudem’s Systematic TheologyProcess Theology:

Definition

Open Theism:Definition

The problem of evil in the world“How can a just God allow_________________?

Controversies and Challenges

Other Resourceshttp://www.desiringg

od.org/books/spectacular-sins

http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/by-series/spectacular-sins-and-their-global-purpose-in-the-glory-of-christ

God’s Lesser Glory, by Bruce Ware

Cp. With Open Theist Greg Boyd in Is God to Blame and Letters to a Skeptic

Questions