Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Logical Order of Decrees

In the Supralapsarian camp God determines to save some (The elect unto salvation) and others not to be saved (The reprobate unto condemnation). According to the Supralapsarian position, "God, even in the decree to create and permit the fall, had his eye fixed on His elect individually, so that there was not a single moment in the divine decree, when they did not stand in a special relation to God as His beloved ones." Louis Berkhof. Thus although the divine decrees are different and distinct nothing frusterates His plan in accordance to the Supra position for God's plan to magnify his glory by the salvation of some and pertition of others will be played out. Where as in the infralapsarian position the decree are distinct and seperate. "Infralapsarians, on the other hand, hold that this personal element did not appear in the decree till after the decree to create and to permit the fall. In these decrees themselves the elect are simply included in the whole mass, and do not appear as the special objects of God's love. In other words all of humanity were sinners and so from the mass of fallen (sinful) man God's elect were chosen. This is ultimately the question which comes out of this - was "the fall in reality a frustration of his plan?" because in the scheme of things God first "decrees to create the world for the glory of His name, which means among other things also that He determined that His rational creatures should live according to the divine law implanted in their hearts and should praise their maker. Then He decrees to permit the fall, whereby sin enters the world. This seems to be a frusteration of the original plan, or at least an important modification of it, since God no more decrees to glorify, Himself by the voluntary obedience of all His rational Creatures." So that in the Infralapsarian position God is changing what He wills.

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