ANTHROPOMORPHISM
Try that on for
size folks! Pronounced... an throw po MORE fizz imm...
accent on MORE. And all God's children said...
Whazzat?
"By this term is meant... as being in the form
or likeness of man, the attribution to God of human form, parts or
passions,...
Even that rich storehouse of apparently crude anthropomorphisms, the
OT,
when it ascribes to Deity physical characters, mental and moral
attributes,
like those of man, merely means to make the Divine nature and
operations
intelligible, not to transfer to Him the defects and limitations of
human
character and life." ISBE; ANTHROPOMORPHISM. May I suggest
reading
the whole article. Thus God in the OT presents himself to man in the
form
of a man in order that man may receive an intelligible impression of
the
knowledge of God. In so doing God takes on human qualities that in
reality
are NOT an essential part of His nature! Otherwise man, as he attempts
to behold God in His pure form, would die! Many passages of Scripture
are
designed to present God to us in this way and when we interpret them in
this light they make perfect sense. Let's take the opening verses in part
one...
Nu 23:19 God [is] not a man, that he should
lie;
neither the son of man, that
he should repent: hath he said, and shall he
not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Ge 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had
made
man on the earth, and it
grieved him at his heart.
The simple
explanation
of these two verses is that Genesis is speaking of God in
anthropomorphic
terms and ascribing to Him human qualities of grief and repentance in
order
that we may understand what's going on. But the Numbers passage speaks
of the Absolute Deity and is to be taken to mean exactly what it says.
It speaks of God, not in anthropomorphic terms, but as He truly is in
His
transcendent character. God is NOT a man and to take the Genesis verse
in a literal sense, as some do, is to wreak interpretational havoc! By
such
crass literalism we mangle not only the Scriptures but the character of
God too! We cannot nullify the fact that God decreed the wickedness
that
resulted in the flood by mutilating Genesis 6:6 and making God out to
be
a weakling like men whose plans were frustrated. Let me here quote from
Protestant Biblical Interpretation by Bernard Ramm. Ramm quotes
Seisenberger
who says...
"We must not be offended by anthropomorphic
expressions,
which seem to us out of keeping with our conception of God. It is with
a well-considered design that the holy Scripture speaks of God as of a
being resembling man, and ascribes to Him a face, eyes, ears, mouth,
hands,
feet and the sense of smell and hearing. This is done out of
consideration
of man's power of comprehension; and the same is the case when the
Bible
represents God as loving or hating, as jealous, angry, glad, or filled
with regret, dispositions which apply to God not per affectum but
per
effectum" Ramm then goes on to say... "The interpreter
who is aware of this anthropomorphic character of the Divine revelation
will not be guilty of grotesque forms of literal exegesis. More than
one
unlettered person and cultist has taken the anthropomorphisms of the
Scriptures
literally and has so thought of God as possessing a body."
chapter
3 section C.
We see then that when this concept is employed many passages make good sense that otherwise would contradict and land us in error. But now we may go one step further and apply this idea not only to the character of God but also to His activity in dealing with men. That is to say, many times when God interacts with man He assumes human qualities in this activity and interacts with man as though He himself were a man. The element of Theophany accords to this concept. A Theophany is the appearance of God to man in the form of some element found in the physical universe such as fire or a whirlwind and sometimes in the form of a man. See e.g. Genesis 18. The OT term "Angel of the Lord" is considered a Theophany. Theophanies and anthropomorphisms are all through the OT. So, In Genesis 3 Adam not only hears the voice of God as He walks in the garden but God calls out to Adam... "Where are you?" I say, didn't the omniscient one know what tree Adam was ducking behind in order to avoid detection? Why must God engage in a crude form of hide-n-seek with His creature? Because, by this anthropomorphic activity of God Adam would be able to understand what was happening within the framework of his God-given powers of intelligence! And so we are told that God "looked down" from heaven "to see what men were doing". Didn't He already know what they were up to? He not only knew but He decreed it. How then shall we make sense of this kind of language without ending up in error? The answer is the anthropomorphic activity of God. Now... whenever we come across such passages we must keep in mind the main idea of the Doctrine of Creation which is... that God maintains a completely objective relationship to His creation and His creatures. He is in no way like either His creation or His creatures. And don't confuse this with the Biblical doctrine of man being in the image of God! This is an entirely different issue. Though man is in the image of God yet it is said of God that He IS NOT a man! The explanation is, by right of God's transcendence He maintains that objectiveness that separates Him from the creation. Otherwise we flirt dangerously close to pantheism! In God's relationship and interaction with men it is necessary for Him to bridge this transcendent element of His being or else we would never understand who or what God is in a million eternities. The way this transcendent attribute is bridged is by way of the anthropomorphic activity of God! Without it man would be hopelessly doomed to total ignorance of the Deity. In this way many passages of Scripture make sense that otherwise appear contradictory.
So... how can it be said that the creature can resist the will of God who works all things according to His own will? Men "resist" God's Revealed will not His Secret will and they do so on the basis of God issuing His will to them anthropomorphically, on their own level of understanding, as though God Himself were a man (which He is not). In so doing the elements of contingency and condition are introduced between God and man and IF they continue to resist they will suffer the consequences! This in no way either denies or contradicts the Secret will of God in which He has decreed the actions of these men! His Secret will has no bearing on what's expected of them. They are required to adhere to God's Revealed will and it's on that basis that they will be judged! I know this is heavy folks but hold fast. Unless we understand this we will continue to scratch our heads over the doctrines of sovereignty and responsibility and the problem of evil. Can God command men to do what He has not decreed they should do? Yes! He not only can but He has. He commands all men to repent including many who will never repent... according to His Secret decree! But the Secret decree of God is none of our business and has no bearing on what's required of men! IF they do not repent they will perish and they can never use the Secret decree of God as an escape hatch! "But God... you can't send me to hell. It was you who decreed my sin and rejection of the gospel!" Anybody here believe such nonsense?
Ge 18:23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt
thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
24 Peradventure there be fifty
righteous
within the city: wilt thou also
destroy and not spare the place for the fifty
righteous that [are] therein?
26 And the LORD said, "Don't mess
my mind boy! Don't you understand I have decreed the destruction of
Sodom
n Gomorra from eternity? It don't matter even if I find a zillion
righteous,
they're all finished by my sovereign, eternal decree". Can you see the
folly of trying to understand God's activity in time on the basis of
His
Secret decree in eternity? It can't be done. What's the first word God
said in answer to Abraham's request? Behold...
"IF..... I find in Sodom fifty righteous within
the city, THEN I will spare all the place for their sakes."
If I find...? I say, didn't
Divine
Omniscience know how many of what class of people were in the city? All
you computer geeks know what the "if - then" concept is all about. It
determines
certain operations that will be carried out by the computer based
on
contingent conditions! But folks... contingency has no part
in
the Decree of God! All things are absolutely, ipso facto set in cement
in the eternal decree but... here I go again... The eternal decree is a
theological issue, not a practical one. He who tries to figure out
God's
Secret will and decree and attempts to live by it will fail miserably!
Now go read Deut. 28 and try to fit the Secret Decree of God into it.
Or...
Judges 2:20-23 Didn't God know Israel would
"transgress the covenant"? He ordained it. Yet when they did it God
"gets
angry" with them; just like when I cut you off on the hiway and you get
angry with me! Does this mean God was frustrated and didn't know Israel
would sin until they did so? Onward.
How can God ordain men to eternal perdition and at the same time command them to repent and be saved? By right of the dual realm activity of God I am talking about in this here paper. The fact that God decreed them to perdition has no bearing on either their responsibility or their ability to repent. The reason why men do not repent is because... they don't want to. The reason why they don't want to is... because God decreed it and made them sinners??? Not on your life! The reason why they don't want to is because they love their sin too much. "But God decreed it!" So what?! Didn't God decree roaches to taunt you? So why stepest thou on them?! He is not it and it is not He. His Secret decree is just as transcendent as He is! But enough. If you haven't seen it yet just re-read all this stuff and search the Scriptures.
It may be asked... in fact it is asked... is the command of the gospel to the non elect a genuine command? Since He has not decreed that they should repent they will certainly never repent. How then can God send the gospel of salvation and even command them to repent and really and truly mean that they do so if He knows they wont because He has already decreed it so? How can the following passage have any real meaning;
Eze 33:11 Say unto them, [As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
How many of the house
of Israel have died in their sins despite this verse?
Was God saddened and frustrated by their death?
From the standpoint of His Secret Eternal Decree... No! He determined
that
it would happen. But from an anthropomorphic standpoint the only sane
answer
is YES. God wanted them to repent and live! Now the Arminian
appears
out of the wings and accuses us of holding to contrariety in God, as if
one will of his contradicted another. What he fails to see is that he
himself
is subject to the same accusation by reason of God's foreknowledge,
which
he himself firmly believes in. If God foreknows that the reprobate will
not "exercise their free will and repent" how then in the world can
he
claim a 'sincere offer' of the gospel!? I say, the only sensible,
Biblical
answer is the Dual Realms of God! Loraine Boettner has a chapter on the
sincerity of God in his Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. It's
worth reading. Here I quote a bit;
"Yet while it is
certain that the non-elect will not turn to God... it is nevertheless
their
duty to do so. Though members of a fallen race, they are still free
moral
agents, responsible for their character and conduct. God is, therefore,
perfectly consistent in commanding them to repent." Some may
object
that God cannot really mean what He says because man, by his sinful
condition,
is unable to repent! Boettner remarks..
"If inability canceled obligation, then Satan,
with his inherent depravity would be under no obligation to do right,
and
his fiendish enmity toward God and men would be no sin. Sinners in
general
would then be lifted above the moral law."
Reformed Doctrine of Predestination.
chap XXI for both quotes.
From a practical approach,
if we were to attempt to operate on the basis of God's sovereign will
in
decreeing everything that comes to pass then what would be the sense or
need of prayer and preaching? The Arminian asks... "If you guys believe
in such sovereignty then why pray or preach?" A good question the
answer
to which cannot be based on the
sovereign decree of God! It can
only be... we pray and preach because it is the Revealed will of God
and
our duty to do so and it in no way contradicts the Divine Decree!
Prayer
and preaching are in accordence with the conditional
Revealed will of God while the
results of such activities are based upon the Unconditional,
Eternal Decree of God! The Arminian
would have us to operate on the basis of God's Secret decree and, as I
said, it cannot be done. We are NOT Muslums!
Read your Bible. Contact me at;
jamesjay@paonline.com
THEODICY
PERMISSION
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All Things
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