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Thread: Does God Make Men Spiritually Blind?

  1. #1

    Does God Make Men Spiritually Blind?

    Does God Make Men Spiritually Blind?

    http://cvbibleteachingcenter.blogspo...lly-blind.html

    My latest "theological" paper refuting a tenet of Calvinism while examining a passage that appears to support that tenet. I heartily and delightfully welcome debate and discussion if you get an opportunity to read it. It is 9 pages long and many people don't have that "attention" span these days to read that much I completely understand that. But don't waste my time trying to debate me or fuss with me if you CANNOT or WILL NOT read it.
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  3. #2
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    The article is good but there is more to say about it. Jesus himself shoots down the notion that God blinds men for perdition in the following passage :

    John 5:35 He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. 36 But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. 37 And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. 38 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
    41 “I do not receive honor from men. 42 But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. 44 How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?

    The passage is often interpreted in terms of people whom God have blinded so that they will not hear and then they end up in hell. Now notice the verse previous to the passage :

    34 Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved

    There is no change in audience from 34 to 41, he is talking to and about the very same people throughout. In other words, he is telling them that they are blind to the truth so that they will be enabled to embrace the truth. One way of seeing this is that Satan has blinded everyone's mind who doesn't already believe (only the followers of Abraham's faith at that time) and their flesh and fleshly wisdom doesn't lead them to Christ, to the contrary it is blind to God's wisdom and cannot embrace it. Therefore they have to embrace God's wisdom instead of their own as the Holy Spirit illuminates and convicts them of the truth, they have to turn away from their own blindedness as God makes them see. If they continue to rely on their own carnally based wisdom then they will remain blind and will perish.

    John 9:39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind

    If they claim to see then they remain blind which is what they really are. If they admit that they are blind then God is able to make them see. God's grace and mercy is in the fact that they are allowed to admit that they are blind while God is making them see, by transferring their allegience from their own carnal vision to God's vision.

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  5. #3
    Senior Member Tehilah Ba'Aretz's Avatar
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    Actually, God make men to be distracted by women. We need all the help we can get to focus on God. Otherwise we will waste our time being distracted and the women will get all the good stuff. Fortunately, God knows this and helps us with cool gifts like visions and dreams. He might have to knock us out though to keep us focused.

  6. #4
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tehilah Ba'Aretz View Post
    Actually, God make men to be distracted by women. We need all the help we can get to focus on God. Otherwise we will waste our time being distracted and the women will get all the good stuff. Fortunately, God knows this and helps us with cool gifts like visions and dreams. He might have to knock us out though to keep us focused.
    I bet you didn't read the entire article. Just kidding.

  7. #5
    Thanks Colonel.

    Uh, Tom, we need to work on that issue you are having there
    Christ's Victory Bible Teaching Center
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    Vindicating God Ministries
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  8. #6
    the Calvinist/Reformed folks I know believe that it's satan who blinds people.

  9. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Femme* View Post
    the Calvinist/Reformed folks I know believe that it's satan who blinds people.
    I am sure, as I have discovered, that there are a variety of people that wear the label "Calvinist" and "reformed". I can easily read books by representatives of the Calvinist persuasion who say that Calvinists believe __________ while talking to someone else (primarily over the web) who will say, "Huh? We don't believe that."

    Now, it may be that many of today's reformed are inconsistent in their positions (believing that God decrees all that happens while denying that He actually is involved in certain things) but there was never anyone more consistent in this position than the founder of Calvinism, John Calvin himself:

    “And it at once adds that they are not able to believe, for it is written again, ‘Blind the heart of this people’ (Isa. 6:10). Christ has the same purpose when He attributes it to the secret counsel of God that the truth of the Gospel is not revealed indiscriminately to all but is put forward under enigmas and remotely so that thicker darkness will cover the minds of the people. I agree it is always true that those whom God blinds deserve this punishment.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. II, pp.66-67)

    “‘He has…deadened their hearts.’ Through these words he intends his Word to be a punishment to the reprobates, that it may make their blindness worse and plunge them into deeper darkness.” (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.311, emphasis mine)
    Christ's Victory Bible Teaching Center
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    Vindicating God Ministries
    (A Unique New Bible Teaching Ministry)
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  10. #8
    Senior Member Tehilah Ba'Aretz's Avatar
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    Opps, sorry, I think I was distracted while reading the article. Oh, nevermind...

  11. #9
    Senior Member Colonel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tehilah Ba'Aretz View Post
    Opps, sorry, I think I was distracted while reading the article. Oh, nevermind...
    You know who should send you some of his homebrewed wine so you have something else to distract you.

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Tehilah Ba'Aretz View Post
    Opps, sorry, I think I was distracted while reading the article. Oh, nevermind...
    LOL
    Christ's Victory Bible Teaching Center
    Web site: http://www.cvbibleteachingcenter.org


    Vindicating God Ministries
    (A Unique New Bible Teaching Ministry)
    Web site: http://www.vindicatinggod.org
    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vindicatinggod
    Gab: https://gab.com/victoriousword
    Minds: https://www.minds.com/victoriousword/
    MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/troyedwards15

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