This is a very disorientating question to inquire into. From one perspective, in our woke, politically correct culture, rape jokes seem to be the devil’s liquor. Of course, can anyone still see the hidden irony in that? Aren’t there people who would love the drink of the devil ‘s liquor? like, for real? I know I’m a Christian and I do not drink but this is the essence of the argument that I am making
One Man’s poison is another man’s food
One Man’s trash is another man’s treasure
Quote (1)
Isnt this the spirit behind multiculturalism? Isnt this the spirit behing diversity? So, what is happening here? Isn’t diversity our strength anymore? I know I do not believe that diversity is our strength but those who pander this rhethric always say this. So why the change of heart all of a sudden?
Look! Consider this:
There are people in the military who say FAR WORSE jokes than rape jokes. Talk of Necrophilia jokes. Talk of Beastial jokes. Talk of incest jokes. Talk of sex with people with Blue Waffles in their private parts. Why do military men tend to resort to these kind of jokes? Well, imagine rigorous training that nearly kills you. Now imagine going to war and holding the body of your comrad in your hands as he lifelessly dies in your hands. Imagine seeing limbs and heads fly off before your very eyes, imagine standing face to face with the grim reaper – death – like seriously.
There are people in our culture that do not understand this.
RAPE JOKES ARE NOT DEBASING TO ALL!
Quote (2)
Imagine 2 different people get rapped and actually suffer the demonic Trauma of being raped. One of them sees a reminder of their rape from rape jokes as something to be fearful about. The other sees it as empowering! As a means to clear out the phobia from their psychie. As a means to tell that traumatic demon disturbing them that “You have no power over me” … and this way, Rape Jokes become empowering!
Now I’m not saying that rape jokes are empowering for all. But I refer you back to Quote (1). If rape jokes actually empowers some, and seeing that Carl Benjamin has admitted to be sexually assaulted himself, why would deny the salvation of rape jokes to others at the expense of others who are still thin skinned.
Now I am not saying that we should not have empathy. People with rape traumas ACTUALLY want “out” from their demonic/ psychological oppression. They do. And if they don’t or act in such a way as though they didnt want “out” or a “solution” to their trauma, as a moral human being you would encourage them towards the path of the solution rather than cater to their demise. Now, I do understand that many people are on different levels of progress on the path to their sexual-assault recovery. Carl Benjamin just seems to be on a different recovery resolution than other thin-skinned individuals. And I am not insulting being thin-skinned – i know that life is tough and becoming tough-skinned can be very difficult. But I would not let me thin-skinned nature stand in the way nor disturb anyone’s path to recovery no matter what level of resolution of recovery they may be on. Has Carl Benjamin actually recovered from his sexaul assault trauma? Is that why he can joke about it? Well? Who is to say? Does he even know? Even if he says he is alright – is he truly? really? A human’s psychological realm is a very funny and tricky place. As te bible tells us
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Romans 7:19
You can’t trust human psychology
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9
When you come to psychologists to solve your phobia, they do not solve it for you by cuddling your mind into safe spaces – every fibre of the solution orientated moral mind, actually exposes you, in little success-manageable, to your fear, until you actually CONQUER it as a victor and not a victim.
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The @BBCNews Media is not doing anyone any favour by virtue signalling in their low-brain-high-feelings outgoings to kill everyone. in the WRONG SOLUTION to Rape Trauma.
Its funny how the @OriginalMuslimDefenceLeagueMDL (Muslim Defence League) is allowed on @facebook but the English Defence League is not allowed on facebook.This is very much hypocritical of facebook. Now, what was the EDL banned on facebook for that the MDL cannot be blammed for?(1) Was the EDL banned for claiming SUPREMACY? Well, the MDL also outrightly believes in that same style of ideology. Here is proof: Arabs are the most noble people in lineage, the most prominent, and the best in deeds. We were the first to respond to the call of the Prophet. We are Allah’s helpers and the viziers of His Messenger. We fight people until they believe in Allah. He who believes in Allah and His Messenger has protected his life and possessions from us. As for one who disbelieves, we will fight him forever in Allah’s Cause. Killing him is a small matter to us.Al-Tabari, Vol. 9, p. 69
(2) Was the EDL RACIST against black people? Well, the MDL likewise hold to the same undeniable ideology. Here is proof: Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported: There came a slave and pledged allegiance to Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) on migration; he (the Holy Prophet) did not know that he was a slave. Then there came his master and demanded him back, whereupon Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: Sell him to me. And he bought him for two black slaves, and he did not afterwards take allegiance from anyone until he had asked him whether he was a slave (or a free man)Sahih Muslim 10:3901
(3) Was the EDL banned for hate? or Hate Speeches? Well, this is the SAME IDEOLOGY that MDL wholly believes: Indeed, there is for you a good example in Ibrahim and those with him when they said to their people: Surely we are clear of you and of what you serve besides Allah; we declare ourselves to be clear of you, and enmity and hatred have appeared between us and you forever until you believe in Allah alone– but not in what Ibrahim said to his father: I would certainly ask forgiveness for you, and I do not control for you aught from Allah– Our Lord! on Thee do we rely, and to Thee do we turn, and to Thee is the eventual coming:Quran 60:4
(4) Was the EDL banned for inciting violence? Well, well, well … listen to the very same ideology the MDL believes: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.Qur’an 9:29 If Facebook desired ti stay neutral in its broad application of its fair principles – it would would be:- anti muslim supremacy – anti arab supremacy- anti Islamic racism- anti islamic hate speech- anti islamic incitation of violence But its not. Why is this? This means that Facebook sides with islam, allowing the taqiyah of muslim leaders to whisper “sweet speeches” into the ears of what facebook wants to hear but fail to see the spirit behind them. But when western white supremacists try doing sweet-speeches to facebook, that’s when they really want to see the spirit behind them. Can facebook honestly stand in a court of law on why it favours on but vehemently bans another? There is only one answer to this: FACEBOOK IS SCARED to apply its banning ideology in COURAGEOUS Truth … because Islam is a tougher demon to appease than white supremacy. Shame of Facebook I can’t believe I need to say this because the logic of facebook officials is too low: I’m a black guy -_- #RestHard
The word #Nazi! means is short for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei which when translated means National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
Nowadays, the term Nazi is being used to describe someone on the “right” of the political spectrum. However, when you look at the full meaning of Nazi, you see the word “SOCIALIST” there. Here is the issue. “Socialism” is not a concept from the “right”. Socialism is a concept of the “left”. So, we see people on the “left” of the political spectrum insulting and accusing people on the “right” of the political spectrum for being Nazis when Nazism is a “left” ideology.
Mind blown! How is this even possible!!?? How did no one even see this? Nazis cannot rise from rightist ideologies. What we see in political pop-culture is nothing my a psychological projection smear campaign and many lefties have lost their minds not even seeing the fallacies in their reasonings.
Now, there is the word “National” in front of “Socialism” and someone cold say, “Nationalism” is a rightist ideology. However, that’s an adjective qualifying the TYPE of socialism we get – its a “National Socialism”. This has to be pointed out so that you do not automatically fall into the slippery slope that #merely seeing the word “national” indicates “nationalism” or “nationalist”; not different than how brain dead it is to see the word “social” and equivocate it to “socialism” or “socialist”. Think about it
– not every social person is a socialist and likewise
– not every national person is a nationalist
What’s a social person? Well, someone who like going out and beinf social
What’s a national person? Well, someone who is the citizen of a country.
Nelson Mandella was a nationalist.
Mahatma Gandhi was a nationalist.
Donald Trump is a nationalist.
Merely being a nationalist, does not automatically make you demon lord. You need other specific arguments to migrate you from “nationalist” to “new specific case argument/ analogy” to “therefore, evil man”.
Are there any good “socialist”? No
Are there any good “social safety net”? Yes
Socialism is not a social safety net … both are normally conflated but they are not the same. Conflating them shows that you don’t even know the first thing that comes to their differences.
So I do not think it is wise to conflate Nazis as a rightist ideology. Its a leftist ideaology. And merely seeing seeing the word “National” there and smearing the shame of the left, to be as if it were on the right of the political spectrum.
This is why people conflate “Democratic Socialism” and “Social Democracy” because they do not know what an adjective means.
So I’m writing this post to gather my mind around MGTOW. I, personally, I love women – well, as a Child of God lol … but I have watched some of these MGTOW videos and they have actually caused me to think.
Many of them actually point to the difference between men and women in general and the rise of neo-feminism – i.e., third wave feminism, spiting into the hurt and injury of MGTOW men, such as the #MeToo hashtage movement; have not seem, in pop-culture, to add an ounce of betterment to the affairs of men.
So what should be done regarding these RedPilled men. There other redpilled men such as PUA (Pick Up Artists), MRA (Men’s Rights Activists) etc.
I personally take issue with the claims of the MGTOW community: that women (in a statistical generality sense) are hypergamous in nature and cannot be trusted to “actually” love you for who you are – in the good times and in the bad time. Alas, this is blinded by the fact that men are polygamous in nature too. This is why I do not favour that men treat women like objects to be manipulated by money, fame or status or anything. I think that women need to be treated as subjects … thinking, intellectual subjects. Now there are times when women are irrational and an argument can be made that a woman could be more irrational than a man (again, of course, in a statistical generality sense). Now let us face the facts here like adults; women do have their time in the month when they go through their periods and more credit should be given to them for managing to hold on and hold through, through out the pain, and trying their best to maintain their mind and heart through out their period. This is where men and women need to communicate together in self-awareness.
I feel like what men and women need is just marriage counselling. Now, its not like you really need a marriage counsellor, but there are books that you could read. I personally recommend God-fearing books; and I personally recommend that you pray during your study of marriage and how to build your marriage relationship togehter prayerfully as the Holy Spirit helps you.
Now, its not just the biology of women that makes them irrational, but lets talk about psychcological baggages. Such as personality, atitude, psychological or mental health problems that both parties could have. Self-awareness is very important in marriage and the ability to communicate it to yourselves together is likewise very important. It could be that the man is not in touch with his feminie side and the woman is not in touch with her masculine side – this is what leads to animus/ anima posessions and this could ruin marriages.
Or we could talk about SOCIAL SKILLS. In a relationship, this is very important. This is why counselling in marriages are very important. For example, when the husband comes back from a hard day of work, this is probably not the best time to tell him about all the people who you dont like at your workplace. Maybe he just wants to hear your sweet voice telling him that its ok; or snuggle up to him and watch netflix or something. Or bring him a good meal and make the atmostphere of the house positive. In bed, there are many hard topics you can present to your husband peacefully while kissing him. Now, this is just my advise; you study your own husband and find out if he acutally likes you hear you complain about your work place, when he just comes back from work – to each their own.
Or imagine the wife who is grieving because someone she knew – but that you didnt know – died recently. Thats not the time to diminish her feelings; to be upbeat and positive in the house as if nothing is really bothering your darling wife. Now, again, to each their own … if being upbeat and disregarding the feelings of your wife actually turns her on – good for you. All I’m saying is that you need to optimise your marriage programme and gear it more and more towards the “ideal”. What does an ideal marriage mean to “both of you”? Maybe you cannot voice it out directly. But you’ve got days, weeks, months, to indirectly find out from yourselves.
“Hey! Darling, I gotta go to hang out with my friend John, we’re going football/ golf/ fishing … if you don’t want me to go, just say so and I’ll call it off”
Considerate things like that.
Now just saying it is not enough. But you need to watch her body language, and probe for the spirit behind her – yes, marriage also means that you have to get good at reading minds, get used to it, marriage is not for kids. But hey! don’t think I’m being unfair. If your love is genuine, you’d ACTUALLY want to know what your lover is thinking at every point in time and in what way you can make their “thinking” all the more better/ positive.
I have said all this because, yes, marriage is difficult. People actually fall out of love with themselves. Many times, marriages come together in all the euphoria of love, but after 18 months or so, dissolves because both parties are not “feeling it again”. Or let’s just say that one of them is outright abusive. What should be done? Hate the other gender because you have been denied access to see your children? Become a victim just becuse you’re gonna be paying alimony for the REST OF YOUR LIFE!? Yes, I know how bad that is. I think this is where men and women need to take a stand and come to know the tragic existence of MGTOW men and how it doesnt just ruin men, but also ruins women. “How does it ruin women? In most cases, they seem to move right to the next victim man” … i hear you say. Well, a man’s sexual past may not matter as much as a woman. First of all, a woman has a womb. The sexual organ of a woman is biologically made to accept DNA especially from sperm cells. So, the more sperm cells have been through her, then more chances that her womb is washed with imprints of other people. Also, in the woman’s brain, the bonding chemicals are extremly strong – even stronger than that of men. When a woman gives birth to a baby, the bonding she has with that baby is almost unbreakable. During a woman’s orgasm, the bonding she has with her husband is also very binding, emotionally/ psychologically. This is why hot flashes are very common among women – mildly to put, a woman’s biology can be really complicated, even for her. And also, this is why they smell of perfume from an ex-husband can also trigger deep memories in a woman – its just the bonding of the woman to the man already. This is why as a conservative christian, I hate the sexual liberation era where women where not gided properly into the virtues of keeping themselves in such a way that makes men into responsible adults. The sexual liberation has hurt women by deceiving them that they had the same libido as men. This is why I believe that the #MeToo movement was a backlash against the sexual liberation movement. Women are more affected by sex even if it does not result in having children and that’s a fact.
Can a woman live like this? Receiving money alone and no love from an innocent man she is refusing to show his children to but yet, taking alimony from him? Maybe she can. Maybe she has thrown away her ideal of ACTUAL love. Maybe she does not want to hold on tight to this man and try everything in her power to make it work, make the marriage work, for the children. But one thing I can be sure of – she will never be the same and she would have to learn how to live with another man’s DNA in her and the inability to emotionally/ deeply bond with another in faithful commitment; because, unless by the fear of God or the Grace of God, no man wants to treat another man’s “whore” like a princess.
Now I’m not saying that women should not leave scumbag husbands who mistreat them – but I am suggesting that you try not to go down without a fight from ALL perspectives. If you have to pray, and fast and walking into hell to get back your God-given marriage, you do that. If after all that, its still not working… or you hear the Holy Spirit tell you, “no, don’t go back”… then you obey. There are marriage counselling, books you can read, strategies you can try, communications you can talk to your spouse about – just dont resort to divorce without the near death experience of a good Godly fight. In most cases, I personally believe, you’ll win.
My message to MGTOW men is that, they should stop being bitter. I do not see a lot of men’s hearts that are sweet and pleasant in the MGTOW men. Yes, they have every right to be bitter, they have every right to hold unforgiveness in their heart, they have all the reason and logic to justify and back it all up; but all you are doing is turning yourself into a monster by demonising another specie. There are good women out there. Many of them have heard your voice MGTOW men and women too are also well aware of how extremely nasty and toxic other women can be.
Using sweet voices to manipulate husbands
using the children to manipulate husbands
refusing sex until demands are met
provocing and nagging the husbands
character defamation etc
However, its courageous to balance that out with how pathetic men can be too. Then MGTOW men can teach others, both men and women, how to live in marriage happily rather than being bitter against everyman who is in a marriage. I would love to see a more sweet MGTOW generation.
I am listening to Kevin Wesley because I have a very precious friend of mine whom I love very much who said that she has been discouraged from being a Christian because she has was listening to Kevin Wesley. She has not told me the specificity as to whch part of what Kevin said actually gave her the final push from “believer” to “unbeliever”. So with this blog, I wish to reach out to her and see if I can debunk Kevin Wesley using logic, common sense and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit; so help me God.
PRAYER: Holy Spirit, help me write this blog and grant me wisdom to hear your word and what you may be teaching me from all this. Let no one fall for false teaching again and if possible, save Kevin Wesley too by YOUR Grace. Show him and his family mercy in Jesus’ Name. Amen
Hyping Drums
In the video, Kevin Wesley opens up with saying that the drums are there to get everyone in the church of Bishop T. D. Jakes excited when he was preaching. I am liberterian about this. I personally think that Church should be a fun place and not ordinarily a somber place. However, there are somber churches I go to too such as the catholic church. I must say, its a beautiful place to sleep. The preaching of the gospel is going out through out the whole world – as prophesised by Jesus in Matthew 24:14 – and what is likely is that you may hear the same sermon repackaged in many different ways. Sometimes, what you want is a something different. This is what the bible says about making noise and playing the drums in the church:
Psalm 98:4 – Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
So I do not see why Kevin is speaking against the drums. The bible in Psalm 149:3 and Psalm 150:4-6 tells us to praise the Lord with drums. Now, what is Kevin trying to achieve here? That these people are not praising the Lord? That praise should ONLY always be achieved in a somber attitude? Or is Kevin totally against being “hyped up” in Church? What is the issue or sin about being hyped up in Church? I don’t get him. You can’t have praise without the hype – that’s like asking for the logical impossiblity of a married-bachelor or square-circle …. or the dishonest requirements that damns you if you do and damns you if you dont. Kevin is irrational at this point.
But we should not also forget that this is an African American Church. There is a whole history of racial segregation in the historic african church. This means that preaching styles became different. I remember a quote from someone that said
Don’t move the ancient landmarks unless, ask yourself and think long, deep and hard about why they were kept there in the first palce. – Anonymous
Kevin is free to criticize Bishop T. D. Jakes american-black style of preaching all he wants but that does not mean that he has said anything of rational value.
Teaching VS Preaching
But Kevin later draws from that foundational laid-groundwork of hyping drums to bring out this point: Teaching VS Preaching. This is the title and seems to be the crux of his whole argument. This is Kevin’s contextual definitions from time 1:03 in the video
Teaching: … where you are actually trying to get someone to understand and actual dialogue
Preaching: … where you’re trying to raise someone’s energy, sort of like a pep-rally
First and foremost, lets just point out the obvious fallacy. This is a False Dilemma fallacy. Who is to say that Preaching AND Teaching cannot occur together? Even at pep-rallies of those such as Tony Robbins, a well known motivational speaker and teacher, he is known to hype the crowd up and clap his hands too
but he is also know to “teach”.
Or consider other live concerts you go to such as this where you clap:
Does clapping get you hypnotise? Well this is what Kevin is doing: He has captured your focus to focus on preaching, being radically distinct from teaching (which it isn’t) and then demonised preaching to be falsely associated with hypnotism – then finalising that impression he is presenting you with to be ACTUALLY hypnotism. With that line of logic, you can say that
All Nike employees wear nike branded cothes
Kevin wears a Nike branded shirt in the video
Therefore, Kevin is a Nike employee
This is a false equivalce fallacy – an underhanded sly tactive he is using to mesmerise his listeners who are not strong christians intellectually. No, just because something “resembles” something else, does not necessrily equate them together no different than just because Kevin resembles a nike employee, does not necessarily mean that he should be equivated to one.
Lastly, there is the issue of repeating things over and over again. The same fallacy as above applies here. Just because you repeat things over and over again, does not necessarily equivocate you to being a hypnotist.
You see, Kevin is taking a technical word “Hypnotist” … which means a specific thing – and we know one when we see one; and then magically stretching that defintion to mean “Preacher”. This is laughable logic. Both of the have many things in common
they are both humans
they both speak
they both have families
they both wear clothes (hopefully lol)
but just because you find “some similarities” in certain things, does not mean that you should throw your brain away from seeing their distinctive differences. This is as stupid as equating new babies to adults just because you fail to see their distinctions but only biasedly choose to ONLY see their similarities. If you did that, babies will die because adults can fend for themselves but babies cannot.
But notice this … as Kevin is trying to change the topic very quickly because maybe he notices how stupid what his is “trying to imply” into young impressionable baby christian minds. Bishop T. D. Jakes is hyping people up, correct? Well, how many hypnotists do you know that hypes up a crowd like T. D. Jakes was doing in that video? I dare you to show me one if you can. The only hypnotists i know, make you feel calm, not hyped, make you feel sleepy, not hyped – in what way is what is what T. D. Jakes doing comparable to hypnotism? Kevin, at this point in time, has failed the test of logic in the first 2 minutes of his video.
I hate to write about videos like this. But I shall take a rest now. Kevin Wesly, continues to use this Zeitgeist tricks of false equivalences through out his videos and I am going to be debunking them one by one. #RestHard
To recall the big picture, we’ve been looking at the attributes of God. We’ve discussed the infinite attributes of God, and then we began to discuss the personal attributes of God. The first of those that we’ve been looking at most recently is God’s incorporeality, that is to say, God’s being a spiritual, immaterial being rather than a physical, extended being. We argued that God is best understood as an infinite unembodied mind and that we as finite minds are created in his image even though we are embodied in this physical world.
Application
I want to close this section by drawing out three applications from God’s incorporeality.
That which is ultimate is not material in nature. The ultimate reality is spiritual in nature, not material. That is to say, persons are the locus of value whether these be the divine persons of the Trinity or human persons created in God’s image. Persons are the locus of value. Therefore, one single person is worth more than all of the material universe combined. Think of that. That means that you as an individual person are worth more than the entire material universe in God’s economy. Things have value only insofar as they serve the purposes of persons; only insofar as they are useful to persons. Therefore as St. Augustine said
“…we should love people and use things…”not vice versa. Of course the two great commandments that Jesus reiterated points to this. The first of these is to love the Lord our God with all our strength, soul, heart, and mind. Second, to love our neighbor as ourselves. These two great commandments capture what is of ultimate value in the universe – namely, persons.
We should have a spiritual focus in our lives and not a material focus. Since the greatest and most important realities in life are immaterial or spiritual, that ought to be our focus. Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-21, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says,
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
So many of us, I think, are preoccupied with amassing material wealth and material goods – a fine house, a big car, fancy clothes – and yet in the end these are trivialities compared to the spiritual concerns that we ought to have. I remember a remark by the author C. P. Snow that the most horrible thing that could happen would not be worldwide famine. He said the most horrible thing that could be happening would be worldwide famine and we in the West would sit and watch it on our televisions. It is that disproportion between the incredible wealth that we have here and the poverty of so many people in the world that I think ought to move us to be concerned about their lot. We ought to not be hording up material things for ourselves; we ought to be thinking about how we can use our wealth and our material goods for the benefit of others and for the advancement of God’s Kingdom in this world.
Our most important needs are spiritual, not physical. Our most important needs are not the needs of our bodies but the needs of our souls. Therefore we need to attend closely to these.
Look at what Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:7b-8. Paul says,
discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Bodily training or exercise is useful for this life, but this life is short and transitory. Godliness is valuable not only for this life but also for eternal life, everlasting life, and is therefore something that we should exercise ourselves to develop.
Similarly, over in 1 Corinthians 9:25 Paul writes,
“Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.”
Paul thinks of the Olympic athletes who train so rigorously for the sports in which they compete. They do it for just a perishable crown – an olive garland
An Olive Garland
in those days. But Paul says we are striving for an imperishable crown of righteousness that the Lord will give us on that day when we go to be with him. Think of how much time we lavish on our bodies. Exercising, working out, women making up their faces, getting your hair done, the clothes that we wear, how we look. And yet how much time and effort and concern do we lavish upon the care of our souls? Our bodies beautiful and pampered but our souls undernourished, flabby, and ugly. Our most important needs, I think we need to be reminded, are spiritual and not physical. Therefore we need, as Paul says, to train ourselves like an athlete in developing godliness in our lives. This will carry over for the life to come.
So I think there is important application of this attribute of God’s incorporeality because it shows us that the ultimate things in life, the most important things in life, are spiritual and not material.
God’s Personhood
As spirit, as self-conscious mind, God possesses all of the attributes of personhood to an infinite degree. He possesses intellectual attributes, volitional attributes, and emotional attributes. So we want to turn now to a discussion of those.
God’s Intellectual Attribute – Divine Omniscience
Scriptural Data
First, God’s intellectual attributes can be described under the heading of his omniscience. Omniscience, from the Latin, means literally all-knowledge. Omni-science – all-knowledge. Let’s look at the scriptural data with respect to God’s omniscience. Before looking at specific facets of it, I want to simply read Psalm 139:1-6 because this is such a wonderful summary of the omniscience of God.
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
Here the psalmist extolls God for his infinite knowledge of all things and especially God’s intimate knowledge of the psalmist himself. In fact, when we look more closely at what the Scripture has to teach about God’s omniscience, we find that God does indeed know all things.
First of all, the Scriptures indicate that God knows everything that happens. He knows everything that is going on in the universe. Let’s look at some Scriptures together.
Job 28:24,
“For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.” Here God is described as looking down from heaven and seeing everything that transpires upon the face of the Earth. Similarly, two chapters later in Job 31:4, Job asks,
“Does He not see my ways and number all my steps?” Of course, the answer is yes. God knows every step that Job might take. He numbers all his steps and knows all his ways. Then over in Job 34:21-23,
For His eyes are upon the ways of a man,And He sees all his steps.There is no darkness or deep shadowWhere the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.For He does not need to consider a man further,That he should go before God in judgment.So God knows all things as he looks down from heaven and sees all things that transpire on the Earth.
Proverbs 15:3 emphasizes this same truth:
“The eyes of the Lord are in every place,Watching the evil and the good.”Question: And there is a query here: The bible says in Habakkuk that the eyes of the Lord cannot behold iniquity. Yet, we see here in Psalms that God’s eyes is watching the evil and the Good. How would you clear this seemingly contradition?
Answer: You have to read Habakkuk in context. You have to know what the prophet here is actually saying. In the next verse, he is asking a question that why is God tolerating the evil of people. So here, it is pointing out that “God’s eyes seeing” has to do with his “tolerance” and not with the actuality that he actually “knows-about” (not to be confused with knows) evil.
In the New Testament Jesus similarly taught. Matthew 10:29-31 says, Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.Here Jesus says that God knows even the very hairs of our head and that even the little sparrow that falls to the ground does not do so without God’s knowledge. So literally everything that happens in the universe is known by God.
Secondly, not only does God see and know everything that happens in the world, but he also knows the secret thoughts of each individual. In other words, God literally reads your mind. He knows what you are thinking. 1 Chronicles 28:9 speaks of this truth. This is David’s charge to Solomon. David says,
As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.God searches all hearts and understands the intent of every thought. The heart in Hebrew terminology was conceived to be the center of the human personality – the very essence of a human person. Over and over again the Old Testament describes the hearts of men as open to God like a book to be read by him. So for example in Psalm 44:21 it says
the LORD “knows the secrets of the heart.”
Similarly in Jeremiah 17:9-10 the prophet says,
The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;Who can understand it?I, the Lord, search the heart,I test the mind,Even to give to each man according to his ways,According to the results of his deeds.So God knows the heart of every person and reads his thoughts.
In the New Testament we find this same truth reiterated in a very graphic manner in Hebrews 4:13. The writer says,
“And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” So there is no secret thought, no inner recess of our minds, no hidden corner of our hearts that isn’t open and transparent to God. He not only knows what is happening in the universe but he knows the very secret thoughts of every individual.
Thirdly, even more startling still, the Scriptures affirm that God knows the future. He knows what has not yet happened but will happen. Go back to Psalm 139 that we were looking at a moment ago. Psalm 139:4, 14b-16. There he says,
Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.. . .Wonderful are Your works,And my soul knows it very well.My frame was not hidden from You,When I was made in secret,And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;And in Your book were all writtenThe days that were ordained for me,When as yet there was not one of them.
Here the psalmist says even before he thinks a thought or says a word, God already knows it in advance and in fact while he was still being formed in his mother’s womb as an embryo or a fetus God knew and counted all of the days that the psalmist would live from his birth until his death when as yet there was none of them.
Isaiah also has a strong emphasis upon God’s foreknowledge of the future. In fact, for Isaiah, the characteristic earmark of the true God in contrast to the pagan false gods of Israel’s neighbors was God’s foreknowledge of the future. Look at Isaiah 41:21-24,
“Present your case,” the Lord says.“Bring forward your strong arguments,”The King of Jacob says.Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place;As for the former events, declare what they were,That we may consider them and know their outcome.Or announce to us what is coming;Declare the things that are going to come afterward,That we may know that you are gods;Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.Behold, you are of no account,And your work amounts to nothing;He who chooses you is an abomination.
Here Isaiah flings in the teeth of these pagan deities the challenge to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the future is so that we might know that you are true God. And he says they are nothing – those who choose these idols are an abomination, idols can tell us nothing about the future. This is why I don’t believe in astrology.
Also Isaiah 46:10, Isaiah says God, Yahweh, the true God,
Declaring the end from the beginning,And from ancient times things which have not been done,Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’
So in contrast to the idols and the pagan deities of Israel’s neighbors, Yahweh the true God was known by his foreknowledge of the future. So God knows the future.
Finally, number four, the Scripture also affirms that God cannot learn anything – he already knows everything and therefore it is impossible for God to learn anything.
Romans 11:33-36. Here Paul proclaims,
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
So there is no one who can teach God anything. There is no one who is his counselor for God knows all things.
Similarly, in Job 21:22 we read,
“Can anyone teach God knowledge, In that He judges those on high?”
The question is merely rhetorical. No one can teach God knowledge. Indeed in Job 37:16 God is declared perfect in knowledge.
Psalm 147:5 sums it up.
“Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”
That comprises it all, that says it all. God’s understanding is infinite. He is infinite; he is perfect in knowledge.
Systematic Summary
That is the scriptural data concerning divine omniscience. What we want to do now is begin a systematic summary of this attribute to try to understand this scriptural data.
Omniscience is usually understood in terms of truth. For any true statement or proposition, God knows and believes that proposition. He does not believe any false proposition. In other words, God knows only and all true propositions. By knowing only and all true propositions, God thereby knows the past, the present, and the future completely. Even before the creation of the world God foreknew the motion of every single electron in the history of the universe. He knew your very thoughts even before you think them. And specifically he even knows our free choices before we make them. So God’s omniscience entails that God knows only and all truths and believes no falsehoods.
This is remarkable as it is. It would already require an infinite mind to be omniscient in that way. But even omniscience does not exhaust the scope and excellence of God’s knowledge. For philosophers have noted that in addition to propositional knowledge (that is to say, knowledge of true propositions), there also seems to be a sort of non-propositional knowledge. Proposition knowledge is knowledge of all true propositions. But there is a sort of non-propositional knowledge as well in addition to propositional knowledge. Let me illustrate. Suppose I am out hiking in the Kent woods this week and a ferocious deer chases me up a tree. Suppose I yell to a friend, “Go tell Alice that I’ve been treed by a deer!” Now, what does my friend go and repeat to Alice? Does he run breathlessly up to Alice and say, “Help, I’ve been treed by a deer?” No! He runs up and says, “Help, Ernest has been treed by a deer!” In other words, we use different words to express the same proposition. When I express that proposition I say “Tell her I’ve been treed by a deer.” But when my friend says it, he says, “Ernest has been treed by a deer.” We have the same propositional knowledge and yet expressed in a different way. He uses different words to express the same proposition that I do. Yet the knowledge that we have is not the same. For if I believe I’ve been treed by a deer then my reaction to that knowledge will be to hang on for dear life. But my friend in response to his knowledge that Ernest has been treed by a deer doesn’t react in that way. He doesn’t hang on for dear life. Rather he runs for help. So although we have the same propositional knowledge here, namely that Ernest has been treed by a deer, we have a different sort of non-propositional or self-knowledge in this case.
This self-knowledge is essential to timely action. For example, it is not enough for me to believe that Ernest is hungry in order for me to be motivated to go get something to eat. For suppose that I have been in an car accident and lying in the hospital suffering from temporary amnesia and I don’t know who I am. If somebody came up to me and said, “Ernest is hungry” well that knowledge wouldn’t do anything to motivate me to eat because I don’t know that I am Ernest. What I need in addition to the knowledge that Ernest is hungry is the self-knowledge “I am hungry.” Thus, even if somebody or even something (say, some great super-computer) had all the propositional knowledge in the universe but lacked this self-knowledge it could still never decide to take any timely action. It would never know when it should act. So what that means is that God is more than omniscient. He not only possesses all propositional knowledge but he also possesses his appropriate self-knowledge. He knows “I am the creator of the universe,” “I have sent my Son into the world,” “I am the second person of the Trinity incarnate in the flesh for the salvation of mankind,” and so forth.
But even still, Praise be to my God! The excellence of God’s knowledge is not yet exhausted. For what is also important here is not just the content of one’s knowledge even if one has all propositional knowledge and appropriate self-knowledge as well, what is also important here is the way in which one acquires one’s knowledge. Suppose that there were two beings who each had the appropriate self-knowledge as well as all of the propositional knowledge in the universe. But suppose that the second being only acquired his knowledge because the first being told him everything that the first being just knew innately. Clearly I think we would agree the second being who needed to be instructed and told everything is not as intellectually excellent or as great as the first being. So God, since he doesn’t have to learn anything from anyone but simply knows all truth innately, chai! must be maximally excellent intellectually.
This, I find, to be an absolutely stunning conclusion. Usually people think of God’s omniscience as one of the superlative attributes of God. But what our analysis discloses is that God’s intellectual capacities and his greatness actually even outstrips omniscience. This is how great your loving Father God is.
He has not only all propositional knowledge,
he has appropriate self-knowledge, and
he never acquires this knowledge by learning it from anyone else but simply knows innately only and all true facts about existence.
This is the greatness of God’s intellectual capacity.
I think that with that we will close our lesson. Next time we meet together I want to talk about two problems which are posed by God’s complete and infinite knowledge; namely,
how is God’s knowledge of our free choices compatible with our freedom. If God knows everything that you are going to do in advance, and God cannot be mistaken, he cannot err, then how is it that when the time arrives, are you really free to do anything other than what God foreknows? How is God’s foreknowledge compatible with human freedom?
Secondly, I want to discuss God’s hypothetical knowledge. Does God know what would have happened if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 presidential election? Or what would have happened if we never left the EU in Brexit? Does he know what would have happened if you were to have married John Doe instead of your husband or if you had married Susan instead of your wife? Does God have this kind of hypothetical knowledge
and if so what are the implications of that kind of knowledge for God’s providence. These are some of the problems that we will look at next time.
(1) God is that which selects among men in the eternal hierarchy of men.
So you know, men arrange themselves into hierarchies and men rise in the hierarchies and there’s principles that are so important that they #determine the probability of their rise and those principles aren’t tyrannical power. They’re something like
the ability to articulate truth
the ability to be competent
the ability to make appropriate moral judgements
And if you can gamely do that a consistent array of given situations, all the men will converge most times to vote you up that hierarchy. And that would rapidly increase your reproductive fitness.
The operation of that process across a long expanses of time looks to me to be codified in something like “God the Father”.
It’s also the same thing that makes men attractive to women because women peel off the male hierarchy in hypergamy – the question is “what should be at the top of the Male hierarchy?”. The answer right now is tyranny as part of the patriarchy but the real answer is like the ability to use truthful speech in the service of … let’s say “well-being”. That’s something bag operates across tremendous expanses of time. And it plays a role in the selection for survival itself which makes it a fundamental reality.
(2) God is how we imaginatively and collectively represent the existence and action of consciousness across time; as the most real aspects of existence manifest themselves across the longest of time frames but are not necessarily apprehensible as objects in the here and now. So what that means in some sense is that you have conceptions of reality built into your biological and metaphysical structure that are a consequence of processes of evolution that occurred over unbelievably vast expanses of time. And it structured your perception of reality in ways that it won’t be structured if you only lived for the amount of time that you’re going to live. And that’s also part of the problem of deriving values from facts; because you’re evanescent and you can’t derive the right values from the facts that portray themselves to you in your life span which is why you have a biological structure that’s like 3.5 billion years old.
(3) God is that which eternally dies and is reborn in the pursuit of higher being and truth. That’s a fundamental element of the “Hero Mythology”.
(4) God is the highest value in the hierarchy of values. That’s another way of looking at it.
(5) God is what calls and what responds in the eternal call to adventure.
(6) God is the voice of conscience.
(7) God is the source of Judgement and mercy (and guilt) because HE is an ideal.
(8) God is the future to which we make sacrifices
(9) God is the something akin to the transcendental repository of reputation.
– Jordan Peterson in discussion with Sam Harris at Vancouver
God is that in which we have necessary faith
– Jordan Peterson in discussion with Matt Dilihaunty
It not like we don’t have a definition of God. God has been described through out many generations in the bible as human consciousness evolved in revelation of who God is. So in one part of the bible you will hear HIM described as “Elohim”. In another part you see HIM being described as “Adonai”. You see in Genesis where a presumption was made that Abraham has always known God as a “Mighty God” and God reveals to him, “I am the Almighty God”. So with each generation, you see a definition of God that looks like a description of HIS many applicabilities and utilities to man such as “King of kings” and “Lord of lords”. There are many more. But to dismiss these heavy concepts is to not even start to graduate the level of baby thinking regarding the huge nature of the concept of God.
In my obsession and thirst for knowledge … I wanted to study demonology.
As a Christian, I have vague ideas about it from teaching on exorcisms and a little more from the New Age Spirituality teachings but I wanted to go deeper.
I didn’t want to go into it without first getting to know “Jesus” because I feel safer there. Now I’m not gonna delve into the world of the demons without protection. Apart from getting my prayer life in order and getting my physical health life in order while mixing that with the teachings of Alchemy … I’m studying more about Carl Jung and psychology such as the works of Sigmund Freud and many other great thinkers including Jordan Peterson’s psychological classes.
Arming myself with all these … I’m excited to tap the knowledge of the world of demons (their mythologies and contemporary practices) … not necessarily practicing them etc For example, I want to know what it takes to summon a demon but NEVER in my life ever summon one lol. I just want to know how to not summon one by accident.
My thirst for knowledge moves me – it’s all such exciting things 😁. Because I believe in Jesus and trust in HIM, I can go into all these places and learn more … whoop whoop. I’m taking “know thy enemy” to a whole new Personal level lol #RestHard
Bishop Gregory of Nissan was the first person to institutionally protest slavery quoting all humans as the “image of God” around 370AD.
Imagine you were walking down a certain alley way and you saw and old lady walking in the evening with purse in her hand filled with money and precious jewels. Imagine with me in this archetypical thought experiment that in this location and time,
– it was legal (or there was no law) stopping you from taking her purse
– she could never resist you. She won’t even feel a thing
– she can’t even remember or recognise you so she cane report you not identify you to the police
Would you take it from her? If yes… then you’re a criminal but if no, continue with me with this moral thought experiment.
Do you choose not to take the purse from her because
(1) it is a shameful thing to prey on the weak? You will loose face with yourself for you being so weak to only prey on the weak… there is no honour or pride in that.
(2) she may need the money. She may be in trouble and want to use that money to pay for something life-changing and she will feel sad and distraught when she finds out that it is gone
(3) some other reason
Here’s the point I’m trying to make. Most cultures of the past, including the pre-British Anglo-Saxon had a (1) honour based culture. The Christian monks care over and the Pre-British didn’t understand it because the monks came over with their (2) Love morality culture. As you can see, the honour based culture didn’t win and we still have the love-based culture here today.
This is what I am trying to tell you… I don’t care who you are or where you have come from… I don’t care if you’re even an atheist … the deal is … if you live in the culture of England (or the west in general) … your whole psychology, from the subconscious to the conscious, has been shaped and will always be shaped by Christianity.
The Christian morality of a God who unconditionally and lovingly sacrifices HIMSELF for the sins of others (even HIS enemies) … but doesn’t just stop there … but moves one step further to rise from that death and conserve us till the day of eternal life/ goodness … has spread historically through out the whole world like a virus… and I don’t see it going anywhere else soon.
