Know Your Adversary

hummerpoo

Gone but not forgotten
Could you identify an adversary if he has disguised himself, or if he was in a crowd.

Why should anyone read a bunch of stuff, some of which is hard to understand and doesn't relate to anything that he really needs to know, or wants to know; like Process Theology, Open Theology, or Relational Theology? Actually, most people probably don't need to work that hard — unless they are going to participate in, or follow along with, religious discussions on internet forums, or talk about religion at the coffee shop, or at the bar, or over dinner with friends or relatives, or in a fishing boat, or in a duck blind, or at the gun club, or during break time at work, or across the back yard fence. If you are going to do any of those things it is well worth your time, because I have never heard anybody say, "Let me tell you about Process Theology", accept on youtube [in a conversational context]; so you need to be able to recognize it when you hear it, because they are not going to tell you some of the parts of the theological argument (to which they may or may not adhere or be aware), which might make you laugh, or maybe cry (Like God learns from His People, or there is no beginning or end to space-time).



Those two are not even a taste. Well, maybe a taste if you listen very hard.

The bad part is that you could end up asking "Who is Hegel and what did he preach?" or "Who is Heraclitus?"; but, of coarse, just because you started, doesn't mean you will end up in the 4th century BC.
 
Last edited:

hummerpoo

Gone but not forgotten
Men love to make Scripture testify of them. It's the only way they can tolerate it.

Not in the sense of probing the mind of God, but in sensible observation; is not that the way of the world? Do not men, absent The Spirit, glorify man, reflecting their self glorification?
 

gordon 2

Senior Member
Christ Jesus is absent where he is not.
 

formula1

Daily Bible Verse Organizer
Theologies don’t matter too much when you are walking with Jesus. The think we must know is Him!
 
Last edited:

hummerpoo

Gone but not forgotten
Theologies don’t matter too when you are walking with Jesus. The think we must know is Him!
While I do not disagree; is not the percieved nature of that relationship important?

[like I said, you don't need to know, unless ....]
 
Last edited:

formula1

Daily Bible Verse Organizer
I edited my post because I left out an important little word.

Walking with Jesus in the Spirit is a sure way of finding what you need. Yet admittedly, sometimes we humans can be a bit stubborn.
 

gordon 2

Senior Member
The different perceptions of "In the Spirit" are remarkable when you have even a faint look at all the different sects within Christianity.

The prophets say.
The bible says.
Paul said.
Peter said.
Aquinas said.
Luther said.
Christ said.
The Holy Spirit reveals Christ-- yet Christians try to get a "God" with every item on the list, and less often with this one last item. Or so it seems.

So yes the perceived nature of God is important and also where one is fixated onto the list. The perceptions will vary depending on where your feet are planted. The articulations and the spirits will vary--- and so the perceptions.

I need the prophets.
I need the bible.
I need Paul.
I need Peter.
I need Aquinas.
I need Luther.
I need Christ.


Strangely I had no idea what I needed when I searched this list. I knew I needed something, but did not know what it was until the Holy Spirit showed up and informed me with Jesus. My experience of God is simple. It requires, no prophets, no bible, no Paul, no Peter, no Aquinas, no Luther.

My definition of God requires no grand view of all the books of scripture. It required Christ only and was revealed through the Holy Spirit alone. That is how it came to be for me.
 
Last edited:

Artfuldodger

Senior Member
Could you identify an adversary if he has disguised himself, or if he was in a crowd.

Why should anyone read a bunch of stuff, some of which is hard to understand and doesn't relate to anything that he really needs to know, or wants to know; like Process Theology, Open Theology, or Relational Theology? Actually, most people probably don't need to work that hard — unless they are going to participate in, or follow along with, religious discussions on internet forums, or talk about religion at the coffee shop, or at the bar, or over dinner with friends or relatives, or in a fishing boat, or in a duck blind, or at the gun club, or during break time at work, or across the back yard fence. If you are going to do any of those things it is well worth your time, because I have never heard anybody say, "Let me tell you about Process Theology", accept on youtube [in a conversational context]; so you need to be able to recognize it when you hear it, because they are not going to tell you some of the parts of the theological argument (to which they may or may not adhere or be aware), which might make you laugh, or maybe cry (Like God learns from His People, or there is no beginning or end to space-time).



Those two are not even a taste. Well, maybe a taste if you listen very hard.

The bad part is that you could end up asking "Who is Hegel and what did he preach?" or "Who is Heraclitus?"; but, of coarse, just because you started, doesn't mean you will end up in the 4th century BC.
I would agree that most of that is unnecessary except for internet discussions but why would they be an adversary? I guess from the perspective of man making God fit man's ideal of whom God is.
 

hummerpoo

Gone but not forgotten
I initially deleted this from the OP, not knowing if there was any interest at all. I still don't know, but for what it's worth, here it is:

It is my opinion that Process Theology is Philosophy run-amuck then trying to press into Theology; and that Open Theology is Arminianism rum-amuck and desperately trying to hang onto it's Christian roots; and Relational Theology is an umbrella term covering the several variations that have come about.

Now the real reason for this post. While looking for something else I stumbled across an article about Process Theology that is not written in the esoteric language of academia.

On a personal note; I found no significant objection to the article until the last paragraph.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2013/12/why-i-am-not-a-process-theologian/

If anyone is aware of, or comes across, a good, and similarly accessible, article on Open Theology it might help someone to post a link.
 
Last edited:

gemcgrew

Senior Member
If anyone is aware of, or comes across, a good, and similarly accessible, article on Open Theology it might help someone to post a link.
"A better solution to the theodicy issue may be found in God's self-limitation in creation".

It appears that either theology is nothing more than an attempt to deny that God is God, and that He exercises complete control over all creation.
 

hummerpoo

Gone but not forgotten
"A better solution to the theodicy issue may be found in God's self-limitation in creation".

It appears that either theology is nothing more than an attempt to deny that God is God, and that He exercises complete control over all creation.

Yes, that's what I was getting at above in attempting to characterize the three titles. The two, Process and Open, end up at a very similar place, while starting from different locations. That results in each having distinctions although they stand side by side and can be covered by the same umbrella, Relational.

The defenses of "self-limitation" that I have seen reduce to "if men can choose not to know, so can God". Reversing the Anthropomorphism literary device just doesn't work; once again, God and Superman are 1st cousins. Anthropomorphism is necessary because of the limitations of man in experience, knowledge, cognition, etc. Reverse it and God has those limitations.
 

hummerpoo

Gone but not forgotten
Counterpoint to Relational Theology;
although RT is not mentioned, Molinism (middle knowledge), in my opinion, falls under that umbrella.

 

Israel

BANNED
"we speak not so much because we know so very great things but lest we be found saying nothing about this greatest of all themes, the very being of God Himself..."


or as I believe Paul understood...

"We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;..."


It is a very strait place this; but also only where true liberty is discovered.

Being made free...to speak. And such that will not condemn a man.

O! sweet repentance.
 
Top