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Revision as of 21:19, 21 October 2013

This page is under Construction. These are just notes which will be filled out.

God ineffable?

Augustine speaks about God being unspeakable, but he has created a God of his own imagination. If it were impossible to speak of God, then it would not be proper for him to command us to do so.

1Ch 16:24 Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations.

Ps 96:3 Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.

Ps 145:6 And [men] shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.

Isa 66:19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, [to] Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, [to] Tubal, and Javan, [to] the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.

The very purpose of Christ was to make God known:

Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

God a dead stone

Augustine philosophically declared God to be unchangeable. There is grave danger in declaring a doctrine then holding God to your declaration. Did God intend to say that he was effectively dead because he is unchangeable? When Christ became incarnate, wasn't that a change? Did he say it was impossible for the incarnation because he was unchangeable? Of course not! When Jesus moved from Galilee to Jerusalem did he change position? Did he cease to be God because he moved from place to place? Did he cease to be God because he grew from a baby into a man? Of course not.

Could God learn something?

Heb 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

Could God forget something?

Heb 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Since the heaven of heavens cannot contain God, that is, nothing is larger than God. Where did God create the universe? He could not create it outside of himself, since there is nothing outside of God. All things exist "in him". He must have made room for us inside of himself. Is that not a change?

Augustine's unchangeable God is more of a slave to predestination than we are. He just exists in a stagnant eternal reality. Augustine's God is dead.

Augustine may not have intended to foist such a false God upon Christendom, and there is room to interpret his writings to limit his intention to speak only of God's unchangeable wisdom. However, his philosophy has been used to limit God's sovereignty to unimaginable extremes.

The God of the Bible changes in the ways that he chooses to change. He declared that his moral intent and his will does not change.

Mal 3:5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in [his] wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger [from his right], and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

Mal 3:6 For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Augustine's wild philosophical/doctrinal imagination does not obligate God.

Augustine's sick bride

Augustine (ch 16) imagines that the bride of Christ is ill and needs to be purged of her afflictions. The bride of Christ is a prostitute which he makes into a virgin bride by bearing her iniquity and giving her new life. Perhaps our differences are semantic on this point.

The wrong keys

Augustine supposes that the keys to the Kingdom of heaven are the keys to membership in the church. The Kingdom of heaven is the New Jerusalem; the 'new teaching of peace', which Jesus ushered in with the sermon the mount. The keys to the new teaching are the prophecies of the cross in the Old Testament scriptures. see Keys of the kingdom Peter was given the keys (understanding) to unlock the mystery of the cross that was hidden from the beginning.

The wrong love

Augustine (ch 26) argues that love of ourselves is commanded in "love your neighbor as yourself". This comes from a misunderstanding of love. Love = 1, hate = 2 or more. The thing that is first is loved. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated". It has nothing to do with affection, but pre-eminence. Since we are to love even our enemy, then our self can never legitimately be first.

Augustine's God uses man rather than enjoys him

Ch 31. Once again his philosophy appears to be willing ignorance of the scriptures:

Nu 14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

De 10:15 Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, [even] you above all people, as [it is] this day.

2Sa 22:20 He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

2Sa 1:24 Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with [other] delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.

Ps 18:19 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Pr 3:12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son [in whom] he delighteth.

Pr 15:8 ¶ The sacrifice of the wicked [is] an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright [is] his delight.

It is likely that his invented doctrine of an unchanging God prohibited him from seeing that life and personality of God which takes delight in men. .... yep Ch 32

Love devoid of knowledge

Ch 35 "The purpose of the scriptures is that we love God" The purpose according to scripture is to acknowledge God as God and then to love him. It is placing him first because He is Holy/Separate.

Teeth are holy men??

Augustine uses pure free-for-all allegory.

Teeth are the equivalent of the two-edged sword. They are white/holy. Add an alef and it becomes 'hate' the sharp two-edged sword judges... places one second. Teeth are associated with the mouth and the word ... the same as the sword.

Among versions preference given to Septuagint

V2 ch15. Ouch... a translation preferable to the original.

Outside authority

Ch 18 Augustine uses profane sources. Scriptures are self-contained. The interpretation of the prophets is subject to the spirit of the prophets, not pagans.

THe spiritual meaning

v3 ch5 He seems to get it right: "Now it is surely a miserable slavery of the soul to take signs for things, and to be unable to lift the eye of the mind above what is corporeal and created, that it may drink in eternal light."

Spiritual freedom in signs

Ch 9 baptism and communion ... body and blood a sign.. not the reality.

How to determine if a phrase is figurative

"Whatever there is in the word of God that cannot, when taken literally, be referred either to purity of life or soundness of doctrine, you may set down as figurative."

Massive error. All the Old testament is two to four layers.

Error of practice

Ch 12 better to eat fish like the Lord than lentils like Esau...

Error of interpretation

Ch 12 -20 Excuses polygamy based on necessity of procreation. Rather than on the symbol of marriage and the picture of the church as the prostitute-virgin bride.

Inconsistent meaning

Ch 25 Specifically uses leaven wrongly. Says it doesn't have to mean the same thing everywhere.

Ch 31

Rules of Tichonius

Good. Christ and his body are interchangeable

32

Good. Prostitute bride theme of the church without mentioning it.

33

good. Grace vs. law

34

good species vs. genus.... part vs. whole

35

of times part of a day is a day, etc.

special numbers are figurative: 7, 10, 12 etc

36

recapitualation

Teaches rhetoric

V4

Don't teach all scripture

Ch 9