I am a former Baptist who is now a non-denom charismatic who holds to (both) the ideas of dispensationalism and open theology. I reject the teaching of Eternal security and individual predestination. I do hold that, as a group, it was predestined for there to be Christian believers, and that the scriptural references to predestination all talk about Christian believers in the plural, not supporting the idea of individual predestination.
I like to use the toy balloon analogy when it comes to predestination: Consider a toy balloon. You own the balloon and have determined in your heart, mind, and will that the balloon will be blown up. You take a deep breath of the air around you and blow it into the balloon. Eventually, the balloon becomes filled. If you had the time and the knowledge you could have predicted approximately how many air molecules would occupy the blown up balloon. In that capacity it could have even been predicted (predestined) by you how many air molecules were to be in the filled up balloon. However, you did not, molecule by molecule choose which ones would be inside the balloon, and which ones would not. Just as God has predestined that there would be humans who choose to be in Christ, but leaves that choice to us.
I may sound a bit like a Platonic Idealist, but I am starting to believe that all things physical can (at best) only be containers of Truth - that absolute truth (Truth, with a capital "T") exists outside physical space-time.
I am also a fideist in that I hold that the persuit of God via intellectual means is a fruitless endeavor. I hold that God has engineered our (potential) relationship to Him to be only through Faith via the Spirit of God in relationship to our human spirit (Romans 8:16).
I believe that efforts of men to force God to relate to us through the intellect of man will not be rewarded by God (Hebrews 11:6).
This does not prevent God from dealing with us in an intellectual way (Romans 12:2). However it does mean that the basis for our relationship to God, and the authority of God in our lives, is first, and foremost via His Spirit to our spirit.
Theopedia History
editTheopedia was created 15:54, 8 Jun 2004.
I found Theopedia at 18:25, 16 Oct 2004, a little more than four months after its creation.
KeyStroke has determined that it is best to leave Theopedia at 18:59, 22 Oct 2004, after an unproductive disagreement with Aaronshaf on the talk page for Holy Spirit.