Week 5

This week Al McBryan taught on the Nature and Character of God. I had a hard time getting into the teaching. I will admit I didn't follow him very well until yesterday. His teaching style is hard to take notes on because he's a little bit all over the place. But he just challenged us in our thinking of God. Yesterday he talked about the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man (Genesis 3). It was really interesting b/c he brought up some things that have never even entered my mind. For instance, Adam and Eve being like children in their thinking, like not knowing they were naked b/c like small children, they weren't aware of being naked. When the serpent lied to Eve, there was an element of truth in what he said. In Gen. 3:5 the serpent says, 5"For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." And in v.22 God says, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil;..." But the connotation that the serpent used he meant, 'God doesn't really love you. He's keeping something from you that is good and He doesn't want you to have it." Al introduced the idea that God did eventually want man to have the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but not yet for the same reason little children are forbidden to do certain things or have certain things (touch a hot burner, have a knife, etc.). He wanted us to have the knowledge without ever being evil. Hebrews 5:12-14 says,
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Adam and Eve became aware of good and evil and then were punished because they struck out on their own. There is a word play in the Hebrew language in this passage. I didn't write it all down, so I can't explain it, but I remember Al talking about it. I really want to learn Hebrew!!! I had never thought about these things, but it does make sense. He told us not to take his word for it, but to hold it before God and see what He says about it.

He also talked about predestination and stuff like that. God is not the one decreeing the things(evil) we see going on around us. He thinks it is nonsense to believe that God already knows if we will spend eternity in Heaven or Hell. He says that God designed the world and has made the future somewhat open and unknown, with some things being predestined. He believes that Omniscient means God knows all things, both actual and possible. Meaning that yes, God is all-knowing, but since we have free will, He doesn't know what we'll choose, but whatever we do choose, He knows what the outcome of that decision will be. Isaiah 5:1-4 says, 1Let me sing now for my well-beloved
A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard.
My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill.
2He dug it all around, removed its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine
And He built a tower in the middle of it
And also hewed out a wine vat in it;
Then He expected it to produce good grapes,
But it produced only worthless ones.
3"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
Judge between Me and My vineyard.
4"What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
Then v. 7 says, 7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
Al asks, how can God honestly ask the questions in v. 4 if He is the one causing everything. Evil didn't have to happen! Jeremiah 26:3 says, 3'Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.' If God already knows everything, why would He say "that I may repent?"
Anyway, I'm not really sure how I feel about these things, but I just thought I'd share what I'm thinking through. Please pray that I'll be able to figure out what I think I feel about it! Love you all!!!