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LeonardDeNoblac
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Some Calvinists argue that human free will is impossible because it introduces potentiality in God, who is Pure Act, as His action would rely on something contingent. How can we respond?
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johnjacob2004
Guest
God is not a part of his creation (God created ex nihil) out of nothing. God is not a part of His creation, if he is, then when man sins, God sins… God entered into creation through Jesus and manifested through the burning Bush etc.
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johnjacob2004
Guest
These Calvinists think that God is pantheistic. He is pure act. Creation is in a state of potency, waiting to be recreated into new heavens and new earth
Creation is potentially nothing. If God does decide this
Creation is potentially nothing. If God does decide this
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fhansen
Guest
God can sovreignly decree that man have free will. In His wisdom, for His purposes.
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Latin
Guest
There is a supernatural intervention of God in the faculties of the soul, which precedes the free act of the will, (De fide).
In reality God has given us an AIDED FREE WILL and God AIDES/ CAUSES our free wills and we all FREELY WILL that God wills us to will.
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The Mystery of Predestination by John Salza.
Page 84. "St. Thomas properly explains the chain of causality:
"It is to be observed that where there are several agents in order, the second always acts in virtue of the first: for the agent moves the second to act.
And thus all agents act in virtue of God Himself: and therefore He is the cause of action in every agent. ST, Pt I, Q 105, Art 5.
Because God is the cause of action in every agent, even man’s free will determination to do good comes from God.”
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St. Augustine on Grace and Predestination
I. (1) On human interaction with grace : Every good work, even good will, is the work of God:
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De gratia Christi 25, 26: "For not only has God given us our ability and helps it, but He even works [brings about] willing and acting in us; not that we do not will or that we do not act, but that without His help we neither will anything good nor do it"
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De gratia et libero arbitrio 16, 32: "It is certain that we will when we will; but He brings it about that we will good… . It is certain that we act when we act, but He brings it about that we act, providing most effective powers to the will."
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Ibid. 6. 15: "If then your merits are God’s gifts, God does not crown your merits as your merits, but as His gifts."
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Ep. 154, 5. 16: "What then is the merit of man before grace by which merit he should receive grace? Since only grace makes every good merit of ours, and when God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing else but His own gifts."
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St. Augustine is called, rightly, the Doctor of Grace, for his great work.
Augustine showed very well our total and utter dependence on God.
301 God does not abandon his creatures to themselves.
He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, utter dependence enables them to act and brings them to their final end .
Recognizing this with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence.
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Aquinas said, "God changes the will without forcing it . But he can change the will from the fact that he himself operates in the will as he does in nature," De Veritatis 22:9. 31. ST I-II:112:3. 32. Gaudium et Spes 22; "being …
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CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Divine Providence explains;
His wisdom He so orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized.
He directs all, even evil and sin itself, to the final end for which the universe was created.
Evil, therefore, ministers to God’s design (St. Gregory the Great, op. cit., VI, xxxii in “P.L.”,
.
303 The sacred books powerfully affirm God’s absolute sovereignty over the course of events.
.
God bless
In reality God has given us an AIDED FREE WILL and God AIDES/ CAUSES our free wills and we all FREELY WILL that God wills us to will.
.
The Mystery of Predestination by John Salza.
Page 84. "St. Thomas properly explains the chain of causality:
"It is to be observed that where there are several agents in order, the second always acts in virtue of the first: for the agent moves the second to act.
And thus all agents act in virtue of God Himself: and therefore He is the cause of action in every agent. ST, Pt I, Q 105, Art 5.
Because God is the cause of action in every agent, even man’s free will determination to do good comes from God.”
.
St. Augustine on Grace and Predestination
I. (1) On human interaction with grace : Every good work, even good will, is the work of God:
.
De gratia Christi 25, 26: "For not only has God given us our ability and helps it, but He even works [brings about] willing and acting in us; not that we do not will or that we do not act, but that without His help we neither will anything good nor do it"
.
De gratia et libero arbitrio 16, 32: "It is certain that we will when we will; but He brings it about that we will good… . It is certain that we act when we act, but He brings it about that we act, providing most effective powers to the will."
.
Ibid. 6. 15: "If then your merits are God’s gifts, God does not crown your merits as your merits, but as His gifts."
.
Ep. 154, 5. 16: "What then is the merit of man before grace by which merit he should receive grace? Since only grace makes every good merit of ours, and when God crowns our merits, He crowns nothing else but His own gifts."
.
St. Augustine is called, rightly, the Doctor of Grace, for his great work.
Augustine showed very well our total and utter dependence on God.
301 God does not abandon his creatures to themselves.
He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, utter dependence enables them to act and brings them to their final end .
Recognizing this with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence.
.
Aquinas said, "God changes the will without forcing it . But he can change the will from the fact that he himself operates in the will as he does in nature," De Veritatis 22:9. 31. ST I-II:112:3. 32. Gaudium et Spes 22; "being …
.
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Divine Providence explains;
His wisdom He so orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized.
He directs all, even evil and sin itself, to the final end for which the universe was created.
Evil, therefore, ministers to God’s design (St. Gregory the Great, op. cit., VI, xxxii in “P.L.”,
.
303 The sacred books powerfully affirm God’s absolute sovereignty over the course of events.
.
God bless
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Wesrock
Guest
I think they doubt God’s omniscience, omnipotence, and eternity.Some Calvinists argue that human free will is impossible because it introduces potentiality in God, who is Pure Act, as His action would rely on something contingent. How can we respond?
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Vico
Guest
Rather, angelic and human free will action is contingent upon the permissive will of God.Some Calvinists argue that human free will is impossible because it introduces potentiality in God, who is Pure Act, as His action would rely on something contingent. How can we respond?
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tafan2
Guest
God’s plan for creation was created in eternity, accounting for every choice ever to be made by any of His creatures. He doesn’t have to adjust His plan due to our actions. The best we can image is that He created and planned everything that ever happens in an instant, but in that same instant his plan included all the decisions we make. It’s not quite accurate, because He did not do it in an instant (which implies at a point in time) but He did that in eternity.
It’s sort of the same argument as to why God could have used evolution to produce the exact world of living beings He always wanted, without being a “designer”. He did not need to reach into His creation to fix things that went wrong, or guide things as they develop, or wait billions of years before He created man.
It’s sort of the same argument as to why God could have used evolution to produce the exact world of living beings He always wanted, without being a “designer”. He did not need to reach into His creation to fix things that went wrong, or guide things as they develop, or wait billions of years before He created man.
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rom
Guest
The solution to this difficulty lies in understanding that God does not live in time, but in His eternal NOW.Some Calvinists argue that human free will is impossible because it introduces potentiality in God, who is Pure Act, as His action would rely on something contingent. How can we respond?
Of course, God’s response to a creature’s free act depends on the creature’s free act, but not in the sense that God has to pass from potency to act in the act of responding. Such passage cannot happen in a Being whose existence is non-temporal but eternal. God’s existence is not like ours. We creatures continue to exist by continuously and successively losing existence and receiving it again. This is what is meant by living in time. It means not possessing the fullness of existence all at once, but successively. God’s duration, or His continuance in being, does not happen that way. He possesses the fullness of His existence all at once. This is why Boethius defines eternity, not as “an infinitely long time,” but as the “simultaneous and perfect possession of interminable life.”
On the part of the creature there is a passage from potency to act, from not choosing to actually choosing, which happens in time. But in God such passage is not necessary. God, who lives above and outside of time, sees the free act of the creature, and responds to it, from His non-temporal duration, which is the eternal NOW. Therefore, the free act of a creature does not introduce potentiality in God.
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