The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ provides a guaranteed, objective salvation that does not depend on human belief or effort, unlike traditional Christian messages that emphasize uncertainty and conditions for salvation. God's sovereign causality ensures that His work in the cross fully accomplished the remission of humanity's death penalty, making salvation a settled matter rather than a possibility dependent on human response.
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Deep Dive
"IS MY SON IN HELL?" -- THE WILL POWELL LETTERS. Part 12Added:
Good morning. It's uh May 27th, 29 minutes past the top of the hour.
8:29 here in the Salt Lake Valley. I'm going to check the weather on KSL and it says 71 now, 85 later. No rain.
Tomorrow, no rain. Friday, no 25% chance of rain, but looks like on Saturday we'll have a little bit of precipitation.
Figure this morning we'll take up a couple of more willpow letters. Might even finish today because we're almost done with the project.
If you remember Will Powell uh he has passed on but uh back in the late 80s early 90s Will Powell's son they were all Christians going to the Christian and missionary alliance church the whole family and uh his son believed the narrative of that Christian and Missionary Alliance Church that God is in a really bad mood and his son, his teenage son got depressed over the matter that he could not please God. And Will Powell says that his son was a good kid.
Didn't do drugs, didn't didn't get in trouble in any way as a teenager. and but he just got really depressed over the Christian message and committed suicide over the matter.
And I'm sure that Will Powell's son is not that unique because by and large the Christian message is depressing that God is pissed at you and at the whole world and he just can't wait to burn people in hell.
Yeah, there we go.
And so the Christian minister will give you a list of things that you must and must not do in order to make God happy. But then uh one of Will Powell's uh favorite words is certainty and the word uncertainty in his letters to all these ministers.
The word certainty and uncertainty comes up, right?
Because the Christian minister will give you a list of things that you must do and a list of things that you must do. But that doesn't guarantee certainty. They will not tell you that this guarantees your happiness, your eternal happiness. They won't commit to it because you still might go to hell.
They won't commit.
Anyway, listen. Uh, you know, on this uh this channel, this channel, we affectionately call ourselves the First Timothy 4:10 Club.
And I don't up until now I haven't used the words certainty and uncertainty very much that I know of. But I will I do say on a regular basis that the death and resurrection of Christ is our guarantee of an eternity of happiness.
And it's such a guarantee. There's no strings attached.
Unlike the Christian boys and every brand of of Christianity out there, including the OSAS boys. OSAS stands for once-s saved, always saved. You listen to those once saved, always saved boys and they won't even guarantee their OSAS [ __ ] They are fighting. I mean, there's branches of the OSAS.
And the one OSAS outfit will say to the other OSAs outfit, you suck. You're going to hell. You're not truly OSAS.
And the problem with osas once saved always saved is always the once because according to them once is this list of rules and regulations and conditions that you must meet.
If you meet these conditions, then once you are saved, you're always saved.
And those conditions are always very contingent on you.
Thus, there's no certainty.
But if God can take the whole matter out of our hands, the whole matter of our every existence, every moment of our life, if he can take that out of our hands and control it with his own divine causality, then we can understand that the once is what Christ did on the cross. Once Christ died for your sins, then your sins have been died for.
It's a settled matter and your salvation is guaranteed.
It's not once you believe it. It's not once you stop sinning. It's not once you meet these conditions and contingencies.
No, it has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with the design, plan and uh purpose and operation between God and Christ.
So we can say in a figure of speech in a metaphoric kind of way we can say just as a matter of conversation because all conversation we're doing the best we can with the verbs we have we can say that this is a deal between God and Christ.
God the Father says to his son, "If you go to the cross, I will reward you with all.
I will reward you with all."
So once Christ met the conditions, then the conditions have been met.
And he is the only one who can meet the conditions.
Christ had faith that God would be true and God had faith that Christ would do it.
Cool.
Your salvation is certain.
Your salvation is guaranteed by the death, intunement, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now, uh, yesterday I was screwing around with my little icon and I had an icon available in the in my little back office that I had forgotten about. I I put it up uh some time ago. I'd forgotten all about this, but check this out.
It says, "Adam's story begins and ends in Christ."
Adam's story begins and ends in Christ.
Cool. Think about this.
Colossians 1:16 says that all are created in Christ. Therefore, we can say that Adam was created in Christ.
All was created in Christ. And Adam's story also ends in Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:22, "For even as in Adam all are dying, thus also in Christ shall all be really made alive."
Really made alive. The word there in 1 Corinthians 15:22 is zapoo.
So Pooo, if you stopped by the channel last night, uh I played a a song video that one of the brothers made of from one of the essays I made and and uh and Wolf Freeman stopped by to play a couple of songs that he put together using the tools on the internet.
And I didn't say anything at the time, but I don't know if you guys know this, but when you whatever you do, you know, in this life, there's a I mean, if you actually accomplish something that you can see that it is an accomplishment, you're kind of proud about the accomplishment, right?
If you're a poet, you're kind of proud of that poem.
You reached inside of you and pulled out these words and this rhyme scheme and and that communication back. You're just kind of proud of that poem. You know, I'm quite sure that Shakespeare was proud of his stories and plays and his poetry.
If you build a garage on the side of your house, it's so satisfying every day to look at the project and see, ah, there's a wall there now that wasn't there yesterday.
It just creates a sense of pride in us, right?
We kind of love our accomplishment if it's an accomplishment of accomplishment. And and one of the things about modern day life here in the USA is a lot of people have a job as a paper pusher. They have to wear a necktie and they shuffle papers.
like uh real estate agents are just paper shufflers and mortgage brokers are paper shufflers and um when I was in the advertising business I was kind of a paper shuffler but I created the paper to shuffle right bankers are paper shufflers and at the end of the day it's not so satisfying because to see that the paper got shuffled over to this side of the desk from that side of the desk, that's not terribly satisfying.
But, uh, if you create a garage, it's wonderfully satisfying. If you build a house, it's wonderfully sat. If you build a an underground shelter and can see the work, it's kind of satisfying, right? Somehow way, some way, you know, you see the work of your hands. you're kind of proud of it. So this word zapo zo is the word from which we get our English word zoo and poio is a strange and wonderful Greek word that it's a big kind of word used uh we can almost say universally throughout the New Testament. Poio could be translated Poima. Uh it could be translated um do, put, made.
See how you know we use the word do when we use the word put and we use the word made so universally we don't even pay attention. But in the Greek of the New Testament, the word is is po or poa or variations on a theme and uh so it's a big bigly used word not not that the word itself is big but it's just so common and in English when translating po pima uh you know we have to use according to English grammar or English idiom we would say do puh put made you know just some active verb it's you know there's some energy in that so zo poio is a compound word and uh oh my god found in in Ephesians 2:10 Ephesians 2:10 it says his craftsmanship ship are we?
Guess what that word craftsmanship is?
It's puma.
The concordan version says his achievement are we. So there the the pima is translated achievement.
King James says craftsmanship.
So we could say his pudding are we his manufacturing are we? And so I was thinking about that word when Will Freeman was playing his poetry and his music and I can imagine that he was quite proud of his song. It's something that he created.
And dude, we are God's creation.
All of us in the Christian universe. They imagine that they themselves are God's creation and the devil made everyone else. You know, and they they are too quick to run to that passage where Jesus says, "Ye are of your father the devil." And they make [ __ ] out of that.
What?
As if God is not God. As if God is not the creator of all.
As if God is not create the creator of the whole story.
We are God's poetry.
Ephesians 2:10 is it says we are his poeima.
Get it? Poimo. You can hear the word poem in poa.
We are his poem. We are his workmanship.
We are his achievement.
And guess what?
Guess what? If we can apply these old human emotions to God and in our conversation as we go along, we do that. The Bible does that. Assigns human emotion to the deity. It's not technically right to assign mere human emotion to the deity. So we call it a figure of speech. It's it's called anthropomorphizing to assign human things to the deity.
So we can say that God is emotionally super duper excited about what he has created like you know like a poet who is so proud of his poem.
I mean I've known poets over the years. cuz I remember this one brother in Santa Barbara who wrote a poem and to me it was a stupid poem because every word rhymed with the next word and you had to put it in your mind. I mean it had like constitution, restitution, abolution. I mean all those words that rhymed with evolution, constitution.
He thought it was such a great poem and I personally thought it was stupid. I didn't say anything to him about it.
Just because you can string words together like that doesn't mean that I'm impressed by it, but he was impressed.
He was happy that he had strung those words together and they had some meaning to him and and some other people thought that it was really clever.
But I'm telling you, God is looking at his own work. And if we can't see the cleverness in God's work, that doesn't mean anything. It's God's work and he thinks it's clever. And thus, Ephesians 2:10 says his pawima are we.
We are his achievement.
Even Satan is God's achievement. Even the unbelievers are God's achievement.
Even Judas is God's achievement.
Everything comes out of God.
He's got a big scheme going.
He's got a divine purpose going.
Ephesians 3:11, the purpose of the eons, dude.
So, you know, Will Powell was grieving over his son for years.
And Will Powell wrote dozens upon dozens upon dozens of letters to Christian ministers all around the country basically asking the Christian minister, "Is my son in hell?" What a perfect question to ask a Christian minister.
Challenging, incredibly challenging question.
And some of those jackass Christian ministers said, "Yes, your son is in hell and you're going to hell, too, because you are dare asked the question.
But if I may, if I may look at the good that has come out of this event in Will Powell's life.
Look at the good.
We are on this channel with these series of letters reading them and discussing the reality and the possibilities of God's zeonian purpose.
We are being blessed and I am quite confident that one day in the day of the Lord or the day of God we will go up to Will Powell and Will Powell's son and say, "Oh my God, thank you so much for going through what you went through." It blessed us.
Will Powell and his son do not know that they are blessing us right now with the continuation of the conversation.
John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the conversation."
And we are having a wonderful conversation about the doings of God.
God is operating all things according to the council of his will. How wonderful that will pal son got depressed and took his own life just to bless us with the conversation.
How wonderful that Will Powell was so grieved over the matter. How wonderful that he wrote these letters we have read and we'll pick up reading later in that day when God opens our eyes and unplugs our ears and we all come into a realization of the truth.
God, we will all have so many wonderful stories to share with each other and we will all want to hear each other's stories and we will be blessed by each other's stories.
I can't wait to meet Will Pal and his son. I can't wait to meet Judas.
Can't wait to meet Pharaoh.
I can't wait to meet all of the people that we are taught to hate.
Benedict Arnold, Jefferson Davis.
It's going to be wonderful to meet Adolf Hitler in that day.
And the thing is we won't recognize him as Adolf Hitler because he too will be changed.
He his story begins and ends in Christ. Just like Adam, Adam's story begins and ends in Christ.
Jefferson Davis story begins and ends in Christ. And I'm using Jefferson Davis because most people don't even know who Jefferson Davis is.
He was the president of the Confederate States of America.
And of course, since the Yankees won that war, they got they turned everyone into hating him. And you know the after the war uh as I recall Jefferson Davis was on the run hiding for his life and of course demonized by the victors of that terrible conflict.
But all of our stories, brothers and sisters, from Adam and all of the descendants of Adam, our stories begin in Christ and they end in Christ.
All are created in Christ before they ever found themselves in Adam.
Colossians 1:16.
All are created in Christ.
Adam was created in Christ. All of Adam's descendants are created in Christ.
And then uh of course for most of our experience thus far with emphasis on thus far because we are stuck in these lives and we are stuck in this wicked eon as Paul calls it in Galatians 1:4. this wicked in.
We find ourselves in Adam and with all the treachery that our greatgrandfather Adam gave to us, we are we find ourselves in condemnation, sin and death. A thorough acquaintance with condemnation and and sin and death.
Thank you, Adam. Do you mind if I call you Adam or do I have to call you dad or granddad?
We find ourselves in Adam, but that won't last.
We will find ourselves as Adam in Christ.
And even now by faith we can understand Colossians 3:3.
Your life is hid together with Christ in God.
Sweet.
How deep do we take that one?
You think your life is all about this frustration?
By all appearances, yes. My life is all about this frustration.
And everybody and his brother seems to be addicted to frustration.
If a computer game doesn't frustrate that 17-year-old boy, he gets bored with it and he moves on to another frustrating game. We all want the challenge. If this woman doesn't frustrate you boys and young boys, well then she's boring.
If that man doesn't frustrate you girls, well then he's boring.
I have heard a lot of women in my life who were married to a real decent man and you know what they said?
I'm bored.
and they went about destroying their marriage by chasing after some bad boy.
We're all addicted to frustration and this seems to be the plan of God for now.
Sin, condemnation, and death. We just love it.
We need a savior and we have a savior and the savior saves and he doesn't need he doesn't need any help from us.
The only thing we contribute to the big fat program is to find ourselves in trouble.
That's what we contribute to the matter.
We find ourselves in trouble because we are in Adam.
But in the grandest scheme of things, we are already in Christ. And we were made in Christ before even Adam was made. And then we were made in Adam. I mean, it's a time progression thing according to our view of the matter.
Even though we could discuss that God himself is timeless and God has already accomplished everything, but we just don't see it yet because we are stuck in the eons.
And it's difficult to imagine, but it's mildly possible to say that we're already there. And by faith we can tag into it that we are already there in God's timeless reality if that is a concept to hold you know so the certainty of God is a certain conversation that we're going to have on this channel and isn't it lovely you know uh few years ago when I met uh our old pal JG. His channel name at the time was Certainty Exist.
I met him and I said, "Excuse me, sir."
My very first interaction with him over on Praise I am channel. I just saw his his YouTube channel name Certainty Exists. I said, "May I ask you a question about your name?"
Because I love the topic of the certainty of God.
And the regular old Christian ministers, they know nothing of the certainty of God. They preach a me one message after another about the uncertainty of everything.
They know that life itself is uncertain because we're all headed to death just as hard as we can get there.
And then beyond death, they're not certain.
and their so-called plan of salvation is not a certain plan of salvation. Even though the once-s saved, always saved guys pretend that they have some amount of certainty. But then they blow the a hole through their once- saved always saved message and show that that once is so sketchy.
Did you do the right thing to once? Did you believe at the right time? Did you believe in the right kind of way with enough sincerity?
Everything is uncertain with these guys.
But if God is God, then our future is certain. And it is certain because God is certain.
And God is certainly operating all things according to the council of his will. And the outcome will be certain.
And we will all find ourselves magnificently in Christ in that day.
Even though you know our major experience at the moment is a life in Adam with frustration on the left and aggravation on the right and vanity in front of us and aggra Oh my god. You turn around and it's the same thing.
Anyways, so let's pull out my Will Powell collection of letters and pick up where we left off.
Are you ready, boys and girls?
This letter is dated December 10th, 1993. It's addressed to Dave Enlo, his old pal Dave Enlow. Most of these letters are addressed to Dave or back and forth maybe to Dave and from Dave.
So Dave Enlow was also a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. And Dave Enllo wanted to save Will Powell from from being a universalist.
He wanted him to get back into the doctrine of uncertainty and the doctrine of doubt, which is the Christian doctrine. They doubt. They doubt that God is the savior. They doubt that God is operating all things according to the counsel of his will. They doubt that God knows exactly what he's doing. And they all have advice for God. If I were God, I wouldn't do it that way. I would do it this way, they say. Okay. So, December 10th, 1993, Dave Enlow, and at the time he lived in Orlando, Florida.
Dear Dave, responding to yours of December 4th, 1993.
So, this is a this is from Will Powell.
Okay. responding to your letter. Okay.
Two, the two the two the two most cru crucial issues are number one, how the relationship between the creator and the created is established.
Yeah. Ain't that cool? And number two, the meaning of the cross of Jesus. Man, this guy gets right to the point, right?
Dear Dave, responding to to yours of December 4th, 1993, the two most crucial issues are number one, how the relationship between creator and created is established. Number two, the meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 4:10, "For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe."
These things command teach. Number one, is God the savior of all men who believe he is the savior of all men?
Or number two, is God the savior of all men who believe he is not the savior of all men?
Let me read it again. Make sure I got it right here.
Is God the savior of all men who believe he is the savior of all men? Or is God the savior of all men who believe he is not the savior of all men? Dude, 1 Corinthians 2:2, for I have determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 1:18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:17, for Christ sent me to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Philippians 3:3, we rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
Get it? No confidence in the flesh.
Verse nine, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Jesus. Verse 10, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection.
How can you suppose that the power of the cross must depend upon man's will?
Write that one down and ask every preacher you know that question.
How can you suppose that the power of the cross must depend upon man's will?
This to me is foolishness.
How can you fail to see that in denying the saving power of the cross, you are making your will more powerful than God's will?
I believe in the cross. You do not.
A personal note, the one most distressing thing I've encountered in life is the contention that Jesus work on the cross did not did not actually save anyone.
The obvious conclusion if this contention is true is that it is every man for himself.
Right?
The obvious conclusion if this contention is true is that it's every man for himself. Like Jamie Russell says and his his crew, God has done all he can do. The rest is up to you.
But at no time in my entire life have I ever felt able to go along and determine my relationship with God by my own efforts as you do.
Dave, I don't think you realize exactly what you are saying, nor how terribly devastating your denial of the objective saving power of the cross is to many people.
You leave us with no hope since we know that we can do nothing to merit the application of the power of the cross to our lives if God demands such a thing.
One more thing, we cannot by believing give the cross the power to save us. If it has not saved everyone as you contend, then no amount of believing on man's part can change this.
If the cross cannot save us, then we cannot believe in it.
Right? If the cross cannot I'll add in and does not. If the cross cannot and does not save us, then we cannot believe in it. How many ways must I say it? A man's quote unquote belief is either number one given to him by God or number two generated by the man. But Ephesians 2:8, which is freely quoted by everyone, states that the faith is the gift of God and by implication not the work of man.
But by your construction, a man must have the faith to believe in Christ's work before God can give him the faith to believe in Christ's work, which is illogical. If I ever saw an il illogicality impossible.
In other words, a man must generate his own belief that his self-generated belief has qualified him for the application of God's work, saving work.
By this, you exclude God entirely from the determination of his own saving process.
Page two.
I know that you reject the thought of God's causality, his sovereign control, his authority over his creations, his irresistible love. These things are foolishness to you, but to me they are everything.
Again restating my position, I believe with no conditions whatsoever in the objective saving power of God's work in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That is, I believe that the cross fully accomplished God's intention to save all men.
Recating your position, you believe that the saving power of the cross is conditional and that it depends upon the sinner's response prior to the application of God's grace.
When Jesus said, "It is finished," you believe that the cross had accomplished salvation for no man.
You reproach me and call me a heretic simply because I believe that the word of God clearly states that God is the savior of all men. You consider yourself to be orthodox because you deny that God is the savior of all men. Very strange Dave.
It is you who have the burden of providing scripturally of the making of making a work of God less than an objective truth. That's a good sentence. Let me read that one again.
Dave, it is you who have the burden of proving the script proving the scripturality of making a work of God less than an objective truth. H a very difficult task indeed. You don't realize what a can of theological worms you open when you deny the efficacy of the cross.
A God without objective works and absolute causality is no God at all.
No certain conclusions can be derived with the uncertainty, non-objectivity, conditionality, contingency, and inconsistency which your position entails.
The word of God must convey objective and absolute truths or it is meaningless.
You view everything in the Bible as upholding the power of your will instead of proclaiming the power of God's will.
To you, the Bible is merely a set of instructions on how man can get to heaven by his own works. Ain't that the truth?
So Dave Enllo is to us the every Christian Conversely, I view the Bible as God's proclamation of his causitive and loving operation of all things hidden behind the appearance of change, conditionality, contingency, and uncertainty.
The appearance of change, conditionality, contingency, and uncertainty.
No argument which you or the Alliance or Billy Graham or anyone else may present can logically establish God's relationship with his creatures as depended upon men.
I'm sure that none of you realize that your position is similar to that of no god evolutionist in that you all propose uncertainty as the dominate as the dominating factor in reality.
You all propose uncertainty as the dominating factor in reality.
But no argument is based upon the principle of uncertainty.
But no argument based on the principle of uncertainty can possibly present certain truths or objective truth or absolutes. In other words, if the work of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ achieve nothing more than a possibility or in scientific terms a probability which depends upon the uncertainty of man's will then all of God's works are necessarily uncertain, unreliable, untrustworthy.
The outcome of uncertainty within God's operations would necessarily be perpetual sin and evil.
God could not be holy within such a reality.
Actual and perpetual sin and evil would destroy the holiness of God. When you cite God's wrath, you ignore Isaiah 45:7, which states that I create evil.
But by no logical extension would wrath or evil be necessarily perpetuated forever when God also states that they will end.
Your God is much too small, Dave.
Come on, Dave.
An endless perpetuation of sin and evil in hell may tend to flatter your ego, but it would destroy God. You mistake God's means with his You mistake God's means with his end.
You mistake God's means with his end. He uses the pain and uncertainty of life to bring us to the cross, not to make its efficacy subjected.
You must stop believing in your belief in Christ's work.
Your belief will avail you nothing. It is the work of Jesus which saves, not your belief in his work.
No amount of scripture can change this.
We must believe that his work has saved us. And God will see that all men believe in his time and in his way.
Stop leaning on the broken reed of your belief. It won't work. Signed Willow.
Well, boys and girls, the next letter is dated January 15th, 1994.
January 15, 1994.
Dear Dave, in your letter of January 10th, you cited John 3:16 and Romans 10:9 and 10 as defining what you believe. But these verses in themselves do not clearly spell out precisely what we are called upon to believe and receive.
Believing in Jesus, quote unquote, believing in Jesus and quote unquote receiving Jesus and quote unquote confessing Jesus can mean many things to different people. We must focus on the one overriding issue Dave.
Did God in his work in the cross of Jesus remmit the death penalty which he had imposed upon sinners?
This is the one crucial question.
All else is secondary.
We cannot believe in, receive or accept something which never happened. That's for sure. Huh?
This should be self-evident.
We should not have to continually argue about it. If God in Christ did not abolish the death sentence of sin, the death penalty of sin, then our belief or disbelief cannot change this fact.
But if God did eliminate man's death sentence, then it is a done. It is a done thing that has objective existence externally before any man lived.
We are dealing with an absolute timeless work of God here. Are we not one or the other? No equivocating.
Although your own mentors and religious spokesman agree that God's sovereign causality is clearly taught in the scriptures along with what they see as man's free will. The issue in the cross actually goes beyond this paradox or dichotomy into the very heart of man's relationship with his creator. Did God deliver mankind from the be death penalty or did he not?
If you say he did, then this deliverance must be an absolute objective timeless fact which exists totally beyond man's affirmation or rejection.
If you say he did not, no amount of believing or receiving on man's part can make this deliverance an absolute objective timeless fact.
Thus, you are in big trouble whichever way you answer. If you answer yes, he did, then you are a universalist, Dave.
If you answer no, he didn't, then your belief is invalid.
Your contention that God only offered quote unquote offered, see this is a really this is a the word offered. The way that Christians use the word offered, that's it. That's all they got.
All they got is a possibility. They don't have anything of certainty.
Your contention that God only offered a possible way to escape his wrath with those who can qualify by some meritorious action of their will is actually a denial of his work in the cross and a substitution. of man's work.
Did not all of the Old Testament sacrifices offer a possible salvation to lawkeepers?
You see, the scriptural teaching of God's sovereign causality as making mere robots out of men.
I'm sorry, let me get that sentence right. You see the scriptural teaching of God's sovereign causality as making mere robots out of men. But this supposition dishonors the omniscience, unchangeable, loving power of God as demonstrated in his causal work in remitting man's death sentence by the sacrifice of his son. You imply that freedom to sin, dude, check this out. Come closer. Got to hear this. You imply that the freedom to sin is morally superior to a sinless reality which is caused to exist by God's love.
Dude, ask those Christian boys this question or present this true or false.
You imply that the freedom to sin is morally superior to a sinless reality which is caused to exist by God's love.
You imply that a perfectly holy reality would be unloving and dictatorial.
How little you know of God's ways. How blind you are to his irresistible love.
You ignore the fact that God's causal power you ignore the fact that God's causal power to save is scriptural.
Wow.
Now, in my discussion with the Christian boys, you know, they do bring up this robot puppets. You're just saying we're a puppet. You're just saying we're all robots.
One of the things that I'm guessing would help them understand these matters is during the creative process, it all looks crazy.
Whether the creative process is the creation of a Thanksgiving dinner in the kitchen, it's a big mess everywhere, or the creation of a Michelangelo David statue during the creative process. I mean, there's crap all over the floor.
There's dust. There's debris. There's chip marks. I mean, there's tools.
And so, you're saying we're a robot?
No, I'm saying that we are in the middle of God's grand creative process. He has begun creation, but he's not finished with it yet, Jack. Of course you look like a robot and your actions are predictable.
When I was a young man, I thought everybody's fascinating because they were doing all these wild and crazy things. They were unpredictable.
But now that I'm an old fart, everybody to me is rather boring. They are predictable.
They all do the same thing. Every 12year-old acts the same way. Every 25year-old acts the same way. Every woman behaves the same way. Every man behaves the same way.
I am a free person.
Anyway, let me read this uh paragraph again because this is a really cool paragraph.
You see, the scriptural teaching of God's sovereign causality as making mere robots out of men. I'm sorry. I gotta get that paragraph right because he's addressing Dave Enlow, right? You see, Dave, this is what you see, Dave. You see the scriptural teaching of God's sovereign causality as making mere robots out of men.
And so, I'm conceding with my own little comments here that it sure looks like men are robots, but we haven't seen the completion of creation yet. Nobody's completed yet in Christ. We're still stuck in these eons of time and especially this wicked eon. Wait until you see the finished product, dude.
Wait until you see the finished product.
Stop screwing around. You see Dave, the scriptural teaching uh you see Dave, the scriptural teaching of God's sovereign causality as making mere robots out of men. But this supposition dishonors the omniscience, unchangeable, loving power of God as demonstrated in his causal work in remitting man's death sentence by the sacrifice of his son.
You imply that freedom to sin is morally superior to a sinous sinless reality which is caused to exist by God's love. You imply that a perfect holy reality would be unloving and dictatorial.
How little you know of God's ways, Dave.
how blind you are to his irresistible love. Dave, you ignore the fact that God's causal power, you ignore the fact that God's causal to God's causal power to save is scriptural.
A religious construction based upon man's free will and upon perpetual sin and evil can never include God's absolutes, objective truths, and certainty. Since free will in man necessarily entails nonabsolutes, nonobjectivity and uncertainty as moral.
By your use of the term non-roobotic, you imply that God's loving causal power to save is unscriptural, which is not true. As a student of the Bible, you must agree. You must agree that God's causality, which I espouse, is just as scriptural as free will, which you espouse. So back off.
Your bias toward man's free will is no more correct than my bias toward causality. You cannot prove your position is best any more than I can prove mine. Face it, Dave.
But if God's causality is scriptural, what becomes of all your dogmatic denunciations of this truth? No. The Bible does not clearly teach men's free will at the expense of God's loving causality.
This is not true. Your own teachers affirm this fact. Your position is no more scriptural than mine. Ouch.
For months, I have been trying to get you to clearly explain what you believe God did for sinners in his work of the cross. And for months, you have been stalling me.
So, I'll explain your position for you, and you can either agree or correct me.
Okay?
You do not believe.
He could stop right there, right? You do not believe that God remitted the the sinner sent death sentence in his work in the cross of Jesus.
And thus, you think that sinners are still subject to the death penalty despite the death and resurrection of Jesus by God's determinate causality.
Right?
When you attempt to lead a sinner to Christ, quote unquote, you first tell him that he needs to be saved. He needs to be fla saved, which flatly denies the power of the cross.
Then you insist that he must believe that he did, that the cross did remit his death sentence simply because he believes that it did to the exclusion of others. To the exclusion of others.
Right.
for no reason at all except his belief.
For no reason at all except his belief.
Strange.
Can't you see how contradictory and inconsistent this is, Dave?
On what possible basis would God remmit one person's death sentence while damning others? Sounds like an arbitrary damnation.
Okay, that paragraph is so good. I got to read it again.
Dave Dave Enlow uh Dave Enlow probably dead by now like like Mr. Powell is so you know one day we'll thank you for being a pain in the ass regarding whether or not God is a savior. Okay, Dave. Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave.
When you attempt to quote unquote lead a sinner to Christ, you first tell him that he needs to be saved, which flatly denies the power of the cross. You insist that he must believe that the cross did remit his death sentence.
Then you insist that he must believe that the cross did remit his death sentence simply because he believes. Now, hang on. All these words are flying by really fast. Let me slow it down. When you attempt to lead a sinner to Christ, you first tell him that he needs to be saved, which flatly denies the power of the cross. Then you insist that he must believe that the cross did remit his death sentence. Right? Two contradictory thoughts.
He needs to be saved, but the cross really did remit his death sentence.
Which is true because both cannot be true simply because he believes it did.
When you attempt to lead a sinner to Christ, you first tell him that he needs to be saved, which flatly denies the power of the cross. Then you tell then you insist that he must believe that the cross did remit his death sentence simply because he believes it did to the exclusion of others for no reason at all except that his belief except his belief. Strange. Can you see how contradictory and inconsistent this is?
On what possible basis could God remmit one person's death sentence while damning others?
Sounds like arbitrary damnation.
Constantly you exhort me to believe and receive the gift of God, which can only be the remission of my death sentence.
What else could this gift be? Or is this gift only an opportunity for me to determine my own eternal destiny by some indefinable acts of believing in my belief or of believing in the efficacy of some righteous work which I may attempt to perform which will qualify me for God's saving grace etc etc. What is new quote unquote new? What is new about the good news of the cross?
Your position sounds like the same Old Testament version of doing good works to be saved. You berate me for playing the same old record when you yourself can only say believe without ever telling me what I am to believe.
Please state flat out, Dave. Gird up your loins. Work up the courage. Bite the bullet. Tell me if I can believe that God's work in the cross of Jesus actually abolished the death sentence for man's sin. I'm betting you won't have the guts.
Paul Little in his book, The Answer to Life, on page 51, faith is no more valid than the object in which it is placed.
And believing something false does not make it true. Failing to believe something true, no matter how distasteful, does not make it false.
Page 83.
Christ died for us, but this doesn't mean a thing unless we have entered into a relationship with Jesus. Oh my god, this this Paul little guy sounds like Dave Enllo.
Assuming you agree with these statements, Dave, if the cross did not abolish man's death sentence, then the cross cannot be a valid object of our belief. We cannot receive this gift of remission if our death sentence was not remitted by the cross. Our belief cannot make it true, nor can our disbelief make it false.
But if the remission of our death sentence was actually accomplished by God's work in the cross of Jesus, then we can and must believe this fact with great joy and certainty. Amen. Why does this upset you so much, Dave?
Don't you want others to be saved?
Heaven too crowded.
If the power of God to causally remit man's death sentence doesn't mean a thing, then you and I are in big trouble. Our faith is in vain.
God cannot demand that we keep his law if his law does not exist as an unassalable fact.
Likewise, God cannot demand that we believe in his work in the cross if he actually did nothing but leave it all up to us.
Either he remitted our death sentence, either he remitted our sentence of death and demands we believe it or he did nothing for us and demands perfect lawkeeping.
Which Dave, which is it? Come on, Dave.
Many scriptures contradict your contentions, Dave. Face it. Your interpretation of the Bible is your interpretations of the Bible are not infallible.
I admit that I cannot prove my position and you should do the same.
Quoting scripture is easy, but understanding it is another thing. If you rely upon your understanding of God's word, you are a dead duck.
You can rely only on one thing, the fact that God remitted your death penalty in the cross of Jesus.
All else is so much window dressing. We must and will believe this one day. Will Powell Don't you feel better?
If you just got here, boys and girls, give me a thumbs up.
Subscribe and or resubscribe. Share this episode with somebody because these letters are really good letters.
Thoughtprovoking and faith encouraging.
hit the StreamYard link and come in.
Uh we'll read one more letter.
And uh let's see.
We've got after that letter, we've got an eightpage uh essay by Mr. Powell called Omnisient Order or Contingent Chaos.
How's that for a title? And then after that is a a six a six page essay called the efficacy of the cross.
And then after that is uh looks like one page essay called synergism dot dot dualism.
Man, that's going to be good for Agabus to read.
Then he's got a letter just not to any anyone personally. Just dear pastor, one page. No, it's two pages.
No, it's two letters addressed to dear pastor.
And then the final page is called what I believe. The list of what I believe.
We're close.
Okay, this one is addressed January 14th, 1994.
Dear Dave Enlow.
Okay. Most Christians agree that God's sovereign causality is taught throughout the scriptures.
Yet, despite their acknowledgment of this fact, they still reject and ignore the clear Bible texts which proclaim God's control over his creations.
to keep their supposed free will in violet. They diminish God's attributes to the point where his will is determined by man's will.
Christians say this, God doesn't will save mankind. He desires it. But God must submit his will to man's will according to the Christians who believe in man more than they do God.
Most Christians agree that God's sovereign causality is taught throughout the scriptures. Yet, despite their acknowledgment of this fact, they still reject and ignore clear Bible texts which proclaim God's control over his creations. This sounds like our old buddy JG.
This sounds like Predist and Jill and Eric.
Most Christians agree, regrettably agree, like grinding their teeth, nashing of teeth, to admit that God's sovereign control, sovereign causality is taught throughout the scriptures. Yet despite their acknowledgment of this fact, they still reject and ignore clear Bible texts which proclaim God's control over his creations.
To keep their supposed free will in violate, they diminish God's attributes to the point where his will is determined by man's will.
innumerable subtraes and obuscations are employed to degrade God's causality.
But if God allows his creation to operate by chance and contingency, then it follows that uh no certainty is possible regarding either this operation or man's freedom.
Thus, freewillers defeat their own arguments. Man, that sounds interesting. Let me read that one again.
Innumerable subtrauses and obuscations are employed to degrade God's causality.
But if God allows his creation to operate by chance and contingency, if God allows, allows quote unquote allows because remember the word allow just doesn't show up in the scripture. God does not allow evil. God creates evil.
If God allows his creation to operate by chance and contingency, then it follows that no certainty is possible regarding either this operation or man's freedom.
Thus, free willers defeat their own arguments.
The content the contention that man possesses a free will may be refuted by quoting some of the many Bible passages that support God's causality.
Freewillers will doubtless scorn them and reproach us for listing them. But they cannot deny that these pass that these verses are in God's word and are as valid as verses which may appear appear to support man's free will. It is strange that when causes out causalists quote scripture, they are thought of as heretical and out of context.
But this dodge has been used ever since Moses wrote his books and phariseical interpreters distorted them. So we will quote scripture and suffer the reproach it will bring.
It should be noted, it should be noted that all the many prophecies in the Bible do nothing toward proving man's free will.
Since in prophecy, God is not foretelling the future because God has no future, only a timeless, instantaneous. Now, this is an interesting thought. Let me read this again. See if I really get it.
It should be noted that it that all of the many prophecies in the Bible do nothing proving no do nothing toward proving man's free will since in prophecy God is not foretelling the future because God has no future quote unquote future only a timeless instantaneous now.
Man, isn't that a hell of a thought?
It sounds like Mr. Will Powell is one of us mystics, if we can brag on being mystical.
God's exist in a timeless instantaneous now.
Okay. In prophecy, God is stating with omnisient precision only that which exists within his infinite comprehension.
There can be not the slightest possibility of anything happening in time which might conflict with what God is now experiencing together with their acknowledgment of God's causal control over all of his creations. Those who advocate man's free will also hold as biblical truth the concepts of God's omniscience and timelessness plus the fact that Jesus sacrificial death on the cross did away with the penalty of sin the penalty of death which God had imposed upon sinners. If quote unquote freewillers sincerely believe these truths, their doctrines of endless conscious punishment would be refuted.
There are so many who are blind to the efficacy of God's causal love that they failed to detect even a hint that God has established a loving relationship with all men to whom we dedicate this discussion. Please see the enclosed listing of Bible verses which teach God's sovereign causality.
And this Oh, so this is this is it, man. This is one two All right, just two pages. Not bad.
A case for causality.
Number one, no student of the Bible can deny that God's sovereign causal no God's sovereign controlling causality is clearly taught in God's word.
From this fact, we may cite that God's causality is a truth which must be accepted as valid. Those who ignore it and reproach causalists are actually denying scripture and in the ultimate sense denying God.
Number two, the Bible text which is most frequently ignored by free willers is Paul's statement in 1 Timothy 4:10 where God's causal love is most clearly displayed.
God could not be the quote unquote savior of all men unless he exercises his sovereign control over their hearts, minds, and wills.
But God has sworn that every knee will bow in Greek enreek.
God has sworn that every knee will bow in the name of Jesus to the glory of God, which would be impossible if man's free will can confuse can can refuse God's love. Number three, overlooked by those who major on man's free will and God's wrath is the fact that God himself sent his son to die substitutionary a substitutionary death upon the cross for sinners.
If God were truly filled with wrath, it would be impossible to reconcile his anger with his love he displayed in the cross.
God by his own determinate causality presented a magnificent and irresistible demonstration of his love, not his wrath, when he abolished the sinner's death penalty in the death of Jesus.
Number four, God's work in the death and resurrection of Jesus was not merely another ineffectual offering for sin which could not remit the sinner's death penalty.
Unless we view the cross as the one and only sacrifice which could remit man's death sentence, we deny its efficacy and relegate the cross to the level of just another powerless gesture that leaves the work of salvation unfinished.
Woo!
Okay, number five.
Although God's omnisient timelessness is reluctantly accepted by most theologians, they ignore the profound implications of this attribute. It requires no solommonic wisdom to see that the omnisient instantaneity of God must determine and fix the reality that is leaving no time or place for any alternative of that which exists as objectively as God himself exists.
Regardless of how God establishes a fixed unalterable reality, it follows it logically follows that this reality cannot change.
Whatever God's reality encompasses, it is unchangeable down to the basic atomic interreationships.
or if you prefer down to the spiritual inter relationships of hearts and minds.
The bedrock foundational truth is the absolute unchangeability of that reality which exists by God's causality. If we deny this truth, we deny all absolutes and objective truths.
Number six.
If God's love, God's holiness is accepted as unalterable and inviolate, then all which appears to our finite understanding is changeable and contingent.
Let's see, let me get that right. All which appears, if God's love and God's holiness is accepted as unalterable and inviolent, then all which appears to our finite understanding as changeable and contingent must be seen non-actual and non-objective must be seen as non-actual and non-objective.
man's supposed power to oppose God's will and alter his culpability of man's sinful nature. Let me get this right. Man's supposed power to oppose God's will and alter his reality must be seen as illusionary.
If God's love and holiness are inviolate, the infinite truth of God's causality cannot be reconciled with God's the man, I got this wrong here.
Man's supposed power to oppose God's will after here, let me use two fingers to follow it.
Man's supposed power to alter God's will after his reality.
Man's supposed power to oppose God's will and alter his reality must be seen as illusion or illusory.
If God's love and holiness are inviolet, okay, the infinite culpability of man's sinful nature which is preached by those who ignore the biblical truth of God's causality cannot be reconciled with God's God's he put God in here twice.
Big typo. Cannot be reconciled with God's unchangeable love and holiness.
Let me go ahead and remove one of them.
Block it out.
Okay. Um, if God's love and holiness are involved, uh, the infinite truth of God's causality cannot be reconciled with God's unchangeable love and holiness.
Man's supposed free will would necessarily destroy not only God's freedom to create his own reality, but it would destroy his love and holiness.
Number seven, if God's love is truly unchangeable and if his holiness is truly inviolate, then the dualistic reality which is preached by hellfire religious leaders is invalid.
It is unreasonable for them to produce the absolute holiness while at the same time insisting that he must not only tolerate sin but perpetuate it forever in a place of endless horror.
If God wills and causes all reality instantaneously with zero time progression, then the proposed element of necessary sin is inapplicable to God and cannot exist as a dualistic mixture of good and evil.
I didn't follow that number seven very well.
You could you can go back and listen to it if you want.
In the book of Hebrews number eight, the truth of one unfinished perfect sacrifice for sin is clearly taught.
The writer repeatedly states this wonderful fact unmistakably, namely that the death and resurrection of Jesus that in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God alone, I'm sorry, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God abolished the death sentence which had which man had incurred upon by his sins. Yet in the face of this incontrovertible scripture, scriptural evidence, we are told by synergistic preachers that the cross actually remitted no one's sins.
These misguided guides tell us that we must believe and receive something which never even occurred according to their own misrepresentations of God's word.
They tell us that God's work on the cross accomplish nothing more than a possible opportunity for men to determine their own salvation by performing some illdefined act of righteousness.
They teach the work of believing in one's own belief, whatever that means.
Number nine, the impossibility of reconciling the absolute law of a timeless and unchangeable lawgiver with the popular teaching that the creatures power to oppose God's law is a moral necessity should in itself raise serious doubts regarding the concept of man's free will.
God could not logically make sinners infinitely culpable and subject to endless conscious punishment for breaking his law if he considers nonconformity as being superior to conformity.
God's omniscience knows that man that free wills God omnisiently knows that free wills necessarily sin and what construction I got that wrong. Let me start over.
Number nine, the impossibility of reconciling the absolute law of a timeless and unchangeable lawgiver with the popular teaching that the creature's power to oppose God's law is a moral necessity would in itself raise serious doubts regarding the concept of man's free will.
God cannot logically make sinners infinitely culpable and subject to endless conscious punishment for breaking his law if he considers nonconformity as being superior to conformity.
God's omnisiently. God omnisiently knows that free wills necessarily sin and that they would thereby necessarily incur infinite punishment according to the popular construction. But God's timelessness goes further, much further, and would take him and would make him coexist with sinning creatures perpetually in a dualistic reality according to quote unquote orthodox teachings.
In other words, God's absolute law is impossible if he tolerates lawbreaking as good.
That's a cool line.
In other words, God's absolute law is impossible if he tolerates lawb breaking as good. Number 10.
Only one free being can exist.
Two opposing wills would necessarily clash and entail a duality of good and evil.
Assuming we could determine which was which.
In such a duality, we could not define sin since to one god it would be good and to the other god it would be bad. Those who unthinkingly demand free will in finite creatures as morally necessary never consider the extremely immoral consequences of such a power in man.
They would do well to do so. Signed Will Powell.
Okay.
How's that for a reading?
We might be able to finish up later on.
You guys want to come in as me and Sean quite often say, Data.
away.
all the way.
I Come on. This is your song, baby.
Sorry to interrupt the lovely music, but we have a damn fool who has just joined us. And it says, "Did your son repent of his sins and accept Christ as his Lord and personal savior?" You know, Jill, you are a damn fool.
You are a damn fool.
Keep it up, Bucky.
It's a good thing that God saves the foolish at the expense of the wise.
Your salvation is guaranteed, Jill. Not because you repent of your sins, but because Christ died, was intombed, and was roused the third day.
You're a jackass to challenge the efficacy of Christ's work on the cross and say there's nothing to see here. that all the power lies in you to repent of your sins and accept Jesus.
You're no different than all the Christians who don't believe God.
Thank you, Jill, for pointing out what a horse's ass you are.
Oh, you are you are Where are you?
You're You're la you're la you're You're not You're not Yeah.
Where are you?
Oh, hey.
dooat.
Hey Hey. Hey. Hey.
Heat. Heat.
Get it, Sean. Get it.
Woo! Woo!
You're You're You're not done. You're not.
You're all might Oh my goodness.
put you right to sleep, huh, Sean?
No.
I just got back from my walk.
Beautiful out there today.
>> What?
>> I said it was beautiful out there today in the park.
>> Oh, yeah.
Ah, okay, boys and girls. I'm gonna play one last song. The song written for us by the brother.
>> Oh, that's such a good song. I couldn't uh pull that off my email. Ace, that was kind of weird.
>> I don't know what to say about that.
>> It ain't no big deal. I like it.
I'll give it to you in the private chat.
Pride will stick to anything.
>> Let me start it over.
>> Okay, here we go.
Pride is an unimpressive emotion.
Pride will stick to anything.
Even the Nazis were proud of being Nazis.
So if a Christian is proud of being a Christian, do the rest of us have to be terribly impressed?
Now when it comes to praise and blame, credit and finding fault, the sinner cannot blame himself for going to hell any more than the Christian can praise himself for going to heaven.
God gets all the credit and all the blame for everything that happens in his universe. There is nothing else really.
There is just God.
God is creative. Very very creative. So creative that he chooses that which is not.
First Corinians 1 verse 28. God chooses that which is not >> so that he should be discarding that which is so that no flesh at all should be boasting in God's sight.
I have seen artists make some pretty cool art out of the most oddball things.
Scrap from a junk pile. Stuff they found on a beach.
Discarded items from a byone era. But God chooses that which is not.
>> God elects that which is not. Oh my brothers and sisters, this thing is big and getting bigger, bigger than anyone can imagine.
First Corinians 1 verse 28. God chooses that which is not so that he should be discarding that which is so that no flesh at all should be boasting in God's sight. ROMANS 4 verse 17. God is vivifying the dead and calling what is not as if it
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