A thought on Milton’s God
I was reading my bible this morning (NKJ) 2 Thes Chaptter 2, in which Paul warns the beleivers not to be tricked into beleiving that Jesus has returned. He informes them that this will not happen until the “falling away” takes place and the “Man of perdition” (antichrist) is revealed. What interested me most were verses 7-12. In a nutshell The mystery of lawlessness is already at work, and will continue to be so until He God) is taken out of the way (I assume this is until God decides). it is at that time the lawless one will be revealled, this coming of the lawless one will be according to the works of Satan “with all power, sign, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteus deception” He will do these things among “those who perish” (unbeleivers) because they did not receive the “love of the truth that they might be saved”. What struck me most was verse 11-12 ” And for this reasonGod will send them strong delusion, that they should beleive the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not beleive the truth but had pleasures in unrighteousness.” I thought of Milton’s God when I read this passage, and of the arguments of Empson and Fish.
For Empson’s part I thought of his belief in a wicked God. That would coincide with God’s purposeful deception of the unbeleivers so that would be damned along with Satan, and not given another chance at redemption of their souls.
Then I thought of Fish who felt that through our failures we would eventually see the error of our ways and seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. I thought that perhaps if they were not purposfully deceived by God they might take this opportunity to repent.
However, there is the argument that if they haven’t repented of their immorality up to that point would they ever, and just continue on in their sin? It does have to stop somewhere, and how much time do people need?
July 9th, 2008 at 11:07 am
I feel like a God who truly believes in granting free will would HAVE to ‘give up’ on some people eventually. And maybe, since he is omniscient, he knows when that point should be? If he knows that John Doe is never going to repent, is it justified to speed his damnation along? Or might John Doe, without that little deception, suddenly turn good?
Maybe part of a “good temptation” is the idea that it is humbling, because only God can understand the whole picture. What seems like folly to us might be part of something logical to God–putting a small sin before us to keep us from choosing a larger one (practice makes perfect).
It’s all very baffling. But yes, “how much time to people need,” indeed!