who are chosen 2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
There are places in the scripture where paradoxes resolve in some measure.
When someone comes to the understanding of the salvation of all, for instance, a whole bunch of verses that used to seem contradictroy become the whole cloth of the plan of God regarding judgment and mercy.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The resolution is always further in than we have yet been(my opinion).
So I am perfectly comfortable saying “I don’t know” where the paradox resolves concerning free will and sovereign will, but …
The resolution of the paradox is the true paradigm, to whatever extent the mystery is revealed, usually on a windy path somewhere a good ways beyond the entrance to the discussion where the two opposing views, in their polarization, become the pillars holding up the “entryway”, neither of them alone presenting any legitimate destination or promise of a resolution of the conflict of ideas in each. Neither pole leading to “understanding” without the other.
I think 1 Peter 1:2 holds a wink at it tho.
I think there is a clue to it in 1 Peter 1:2
" chose according to the foreknowledge of God the Father"
The foreknowledge of God is an awesome thing. He could give someone(not saying he does) total freedom of will and still appear to control everything just because He forsaw everything and wrote down the road map to the destination and placed signs along the way. Allowing freedom does not have any reflection of omnipotence or omniciense, because God’s will is certainly free and He is not bound by the limitations of our logic, which is insufficient. All powerful and all-knowing He can aloow whatever He wishes, or not allow whatever He wishes… especially if the goal in all things is to produce a revelation and a relationship within the creation.
Like a father with a son who foresees the end of a path chosen and decides whether or not to intervene, whther or not the consequences are to severe to allow or whetehr it is a lesson ready to be learned, whether it is a test of stewardship and an opportunity to grow closer in love and relationship- or whether the son is about to hurt someone and in nedd of punidshment- etc.
In other words I think it is much more organic and personal than systematic theology conceives. You kno, every sparrow that falls, every hair on every hair, every prayer prayed, evry tear that falls, …in Him we live and move and have our being…
I think God has set the broad strokes like a frame work that will not change and is set as an administration suitable to the fulness of times. i think the actions of men are stretching a skin over that framework and filling the insides of it towards a grand and glorious building, or like a loom weaving a tapestry, both orderly and controled in the weaving yet free and as yet unrevealed in the image it will present.
To me that’s true in every life and true throughout all creation and time.
Time and cosmos the loom. (in the beginning the earth was without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep), the word provides the image,(let there be ligh, waters above separated from waters below, lights in the heavens and dry land appears), our lives provide the material from which the final image will be completed, and altho God sees it before it is rendered, I believe He will have the same satisfaction in its completion that an artist has when a sculpture or a painting is finished.
He is not the loom, He is not the mechanics of it, He is the artist, the craftsman and His vision transcends that and is centered in being and relationships andthe creation and realization of the joy of a process where spontaneous acts work according to the counsel of His will to reveal His kind intention, like a waterfall(deep calls unto deep)
Who has been the mind of the Lord and who has been His counselor, for From Him and thriough Him and To Him are all things to whom be the glory forever.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,** just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace**, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance,** having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, **to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—** if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard**, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
I maen, I know most folks think it must be “either, or” but I think its a lot deeper than that, and “both”, but like water flowing beyond the limits of logic and the mechanics one sees on the surface level of systematic theology.
) you will note that I am only disagreeing with your oversimplified and inaccurate characterization of the free will universalist’s perspective. it is clear you do not understand that viewpoint… not saying you should accept it… just saying you should be willing to understand what a viewpoint is before you mischaracterize it. As I said, my views on the relationship between the will of God and the will of man are to complex to do in short form… so i gave you some brief hints, which it doesnt really appear you read, or “got” and this oversimplification will be the weakness of your book, for many, because not all will see it as you do… but it will read well with those who see things just like you do. I prefer to share universalism as transcending some of the more common polarizations of orthodox doctrines… but that is just my perspective on that.
