God and Time

There are 6 conceivable views one could hold regarding God’s relationship to time:

1. God is timeless and time began

2. God is timeless and time didn’t begin

3. God is temporal and time began

4. God is temporal and time didn’t begin

5. God existed temporally without time and existed atemporally with time

6. God existed atemporally without time and existed temporally with time

5 and 6 are hybrid views which don’t get much attention, one of them for good reason, 5 seems pretty unlikely unless God existed in his own separate time before he created time and once he created time he became timeless.  That is indeed a strange view.  6 is not so strange for it is plausible that God existed timelessly without creation but temporally with time.  3 is not very plausible either since that would imply that God came into existence with the first moment of time and thus would have a finite past history, thus violating his eternality.

So we are left with 1,2,4, and 6 as options available to the traditional theist.  So which one is correct?

Does Satan really do anything?

So I was thinking about this topic today, and I noticed that anytime someone said anything like: “Satan did such and so;”   I always seemed to brush it off by thinking: “Well Satan didn’t really do anything because God is the one who controls Satan, so really God is the one who did it.”  I have come to the realization that my reasoning was false.

For consider, if Satan is a free agent, that is, minimally, his actions are not caused or determined by God, then Satan is free to choose to do something or not.  If he is, then God isn’t controlling him.  But since God is the master of the universe, he is sovereign, which means nothing comes to pass except either through God determining it to happen or God allowing it to happen.  I have already supposed that God doesn’t determine Satan’s actions, so God must allow Satan to do what he wishes.  If this is true, I can now find reason to say that Satan really does have power in the world.  For consider some action that Satan does, say possessing some pigs and making them drown in the river.  God allowed that action to happen.  But what if Satan would not have existed?  That directly implies that the pigs then wouldn’t be drowned in the river.  So there is at least one action that would not have occurred if Satan didn’t exist.  God allowed Satan’s action, but didn’t determine that he do it.

Now I can see why Satan has causal power in the world, when before I most likely would have dismissed such talk as nonsense.

Once Saved, Always Saved

The issue of “once saved always saved” and “ one can lose their salvation” is the topic that drove me into theology. Being brought up in a Baptist church, one of the core doctrines taught me is eternal security. As I began to examine Scripture more closely I found within the writings of Paul conditional statements “He has reconciled you…if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith” (Col 1:22-23); “If you remain in His kindness” (Ro 11:22). These (and other passages) made me question and doubt the idea about “once saved, always saved.” In response to my doubts I began asking “Are people saved at the moment they have faith?” Hebrews 9:28 says that “the Messiah…will appear a 2nd time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Also, in Romans 13:11 Paul writes “Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” Technically, we are not saved until Christ’s return and our faith is the assurance of the salvation we will receive at that time. So when I went forward to accept Jesus into my heart, I did not receive salvation at that time but I accepted in faith that salvation will be provided in the glorious day of Christ’s return. Perhaps the reason why we could speak of it in a past-tense form is that because anything we ask for in faith we are to act as if we’ve already received it (Mark 11:24). To accept the phrase “once saved, always saved” literally leaves the phrase useless because salvation has not yet been received. What I have accepted through my faith and belief is that salvation will be brought to me. Ergo, I cannot lose something which I have not yet received nor can I permanently keep something which I have not yet obtained.

Could I have been born in 1200 BC?

An interesting to think about is whether I could have been born at a different time and place, perhaps 1200 BC to pick a date.  As far as I can tell, a dualist approach to identity has an easy time with this question.  A dualist can answer an easy yes.  

Leibniz’s Law

There are two logical laws that G.W. Leibniz formulated and held:

(1) The Indiscerniblility of Identicals: If x and y are identical, then they have all the same properties.

(2) The Identity of Indiscernibles: If x and y have all the same properties, then they are identical.

The first is pretty uncontroversial, I’ve yet to meet anyone that denies it. All it really says that if you compare something with itself, it will have all the same properties as itself.

Do Numbers Exist?

One question that I have always pondered is whether numbers exist or not. I’m tempted to think no they don’t. What would it mean for a number to exist? How would a number exist? The number 3 sure looks like a particular, but it also looks like it can be a universal. There can be 3 apples here in my room and 3 bananas in your room. Does that mean they both possess threeness? There is a view called Fictionalism about numbers. This view says numbers are useful fictions that we invent. Thus, strictly speaking, 3 + 3 = 6 is literally false because there are no such things as 3 and 6. This seems like an absurd consequence but I think that Fictionalism can account for this by just reinterpreting “3 + 3 = 6″ as “in the natural system of numbers, 3 + 3 = 6.” This leaves the option open as to whether the natural system of numbers is a fiction or not.

Happy Birthday to Jeremiah

In honor of Jeremiah’s birthday, I will post here for the first time in a long time. Game on!