timfost
Puritan Board Senior
As my head starts to spin when I consider time and eternity, I couldn't help but read Bavinck's article on supra and infralapsarianism. Bavinck clearly shows how each position is one-sided and doesn't take all of scripture into account.
Effectively, the supra scheme is:
1. Decree of election
2. Decree of the Fall
Infra:
1. Decree of Fall
2. Decree of election
How can we order what happened in eternity? It would seem necessary to impose time on eternity, a losing proposition in my estimation.
The Amyraldian also tries to order God's decrees and places a decree to redeem all men before a later decree to elect.
1. Decree to redeem
2. Decree to elect
Granted, a double decree amounts to nothing but fiction and is not even remotely biblical, but it seems to me that at bottom it suffers from the same problem: ordering God's decrees.
It seems that we should take Bavinck's advice:
"Because of the limited character of our reasoning powers we must needs proceed from the one or from the other viewpoint; hence, the advocates of a causal world and life-view and the defenders of a teleological philosophy are engaged in continual warfare. But this disharmony does not exist in the mind of God. He sees the whole, and surveys all things in their relations. All things are eternally present in his consciousness. His decree is a unity: it is a single conception."
Effectively, the supra scheme is:
1. Decree of election
2. Decree of the Fall
Infra:
1. Decree of Fall
2. Decree of election
How can we order what happened in eternity? It would seem necessary to impose time on eternity, a losing proposition in my estimation.
The Amyraldian also tries to order God's decrees and places a decree to redeem all men before a later decree to elect.
1. Decree to redeem
2. Decree to elect
Granted, a double decree amounts to nothing but fiction and is not even remotely biblical, but it seems to me that at bottom it suffers from the same problem: ordering God's decrees.
It seems that we should take Bavinck's advice:
"Because of the limited character of our reasoning powers we must needs proceed from the one or from the other viewpoint; hence, the advocates of a causal world and life-view and the defenders of a teleological philosophy are engaged in continual warfare. But this disharmony does not exist in the mind of God. He sees the whole, and surveys all things in their relations. All things are eternally present in his consciousness. His decree is a unity: it is a single conception."