A Sanctuary for Biblical Logic

Recently I recounted a certain of my painful past, not for the first time, to a kind and young pastor (same age as me) of a local church in his home after a lovely dinner with him, his wife and four young children. Thereafter, we also had a cordial and enjoyable eschatological debate and discussion over the most bitter Mao Shan Wang Black Gold durian I have ever tried. I am glad I have grown closer to this godly family for the past year or more. This re-sharing is for the purpose of informing him for the first time of my latest view of the situation. He asked in conclusion: how do you view God in all this suffering? Below is my short reflection of that question. God is the cause of salvation and damnation. He is the cause of righteousness and evil. He is the ultimate cause of all things without exception. Nothing exists and happens outside of Him. The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil (Proverbs 16:4).  I dare to say that God is the one

Providence is defined as that God’s sovereignty, pleasure, and omnipotent power to actively cause everything in this world to run by the means of nature (that can be empirically grasped and perceived by man) without His direct miraculous, supernatural intervention. [1] Providence, which follows upon the work of creation in the beginning, is divine power that keeps all things in existence and governs them, and the power of providence is directed by the counsel of providence, which is the wise plan of God decreeing that and how all things will glorify Him in the day of Jesus Christ. [2] Leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come to us not by chance but by His fatherly hand. [3] Double Predestination is God’s decree of election and Reprobation. There are the single predestinarians who accepts the doctrine of election without reprobation because they throw logic out of the window. Since

Introduction The Arminians often reason from John 3:16 that if God loves the world (everyone without exception including the people who are already in hell), then the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination must be wrong. Many Calvinists today would agree with the Arminians that God indeed loves sinful humanity in general or everyone without exception including the people who are already in hell, however they also think eternal predestination is still true. Arminians often find that both statements contradict one another, and I agree with them. Not only it is an actual contradiction, but it is also an unbiblical view of God’s love. They would defend that it is a logical paradox i.e., “a situation where an assertion (or two or three assertions) is self-contradictory, or at least seems to be so; one way or the other the assertion cannot possibly be reconciled before the bar of human reason.” [1]   Many theologians have a habit of categorizing theological statements that are clearly contr

Many Christians cringe at the topic of the origin of evil. Where did evil come from? Many Calvinists and non-Calvinists will answer with either “don’t know” or “evil comes from the devil and man”. For the Calvinists, they agree that God pre-ordained evil before the foundation of the world, but many will deny its logical consequence that  God is the ultimate cause of or the creator of evil. God is the one who created Satan and man with the potential to sin. It was so definite, according to God’s eternal decree, that they would sin. Hence, there is no way we can ever cut the link between the origin of evil and God.  Even for the doctrine of eternal reprobation, many will say that it is conditional on man’s foreseen sin. But it is God who hardens hearts as He is pleased. Most are afraid of making God “the author of sin”, hence they’d rather not talk about it. John Calvin and Gordon H. Clark proposed a certain biblical presupposition that would vindicate God in His sovereignty to decree ev

God has the absolute freedom to control man’s will exhaustively and without any exception. Proverbs 21:1 says: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Since God has totally determined how the history of man should go, He also must determine and control every part of man’s being, including his will. No part of man, physical or spiritual, moves without God’s causation. All of man’s thoughts and actions are determined by Him, including the evil thoughts and actions. Simple body movements like showing thumbs up and the habitual cracking of our knuckles and cervical spine, cannot happen without God first determining it in eternity. Even the involuntary movements of our body like sneezing and muscle cramps, cannot happen without the eternal predetermination of God. The context of Proverbs 21:1 is indeed about a king whose will God controls in any way He desires in order to fulfil His decretive purpose. However, by no means