Two Theological Words
By Lenny Cacchio

God is often described as “omnipotent” and “omniscient”. What do these two terms mean, and is it possible for God to be both?

First, some definitions.

In their simplest forms omnipotent means “all-powerful” and omniscient means “all-knowing”. To most of us who are believers these two terms can rightfully be applied to God. Why would anyone worship a god who isn’t all-powerful? If your god is not all-powerful, why not find the God who is and worship him? And if your God is all-powerful, wouldn’t he have the power to know everything?

It might be surprising, but biblically speaking, there are some things that an all-powerful God can’t do.

God can’t lie. “… it is impossible for God to lie …” (Hebrews 6:18)

God cannot be tempted. “God cannot be tempted by evil.” (James 1:13)

God cannot deny himself. “He cannot deny himself.” (II Timothy 2:13)

Wayne Grudem is his book Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith says, “God cannot will or do anything that will deny his character. It is not absolutely everything that God is able to do, but everything that is consistent with his character.”

All-powerful, yes. But God has self-imposed limits on his power. There are certain things that he won’t do because they are the opposite of who he is, and he simply will not act that way.

So what about the all-knowing attribute? Does God see the entire sweep of history from beginning to end, knowing about everything that is now and everything that will ever happen, including those people, both born and unborn, who will and will not have salvation?

If God is all-powerful, he certainly has the authority and power to create such a universe, one where nothing is left to chance, where nothing is out of his complete control, where the unfolding of history is predetermined as sure as every cause leads to a predetermined effect.

But if God is all-powerful, he could also choose to create a world that has the freedom to make its own choices independently of God’s will. He could create a world where he chooses not to know what choices people will make. He could create a world where the beings he creates have the freedom to make their own choices. More than that, he could create a universe with a specific, predetermined end in mind (let’s call it the Kingdom of God), but an end or destiny where not every turn in the road in planned for in advance.

Put differently, an all-powerful God could create a universe and a plan that is sure, but at the same time not determine in advance whether you or me or anyone else will choose to accept that plan.

In fact there are hints of this throughout scripture.

When God tested Abraham, and Abraham showed his faithfulness to God through that test (Genesis 22), God sent this message: “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (verse 12). “Now I know”? Did not an all-knowing God know in advance what Abraham’s actions would be?

When Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, God sets a choice before the nation. He lays before them two ways of life: the way of following God or the way of following the world around them. “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil” (Deuteronomy 30:15). Just as in the garden, where the first man and the first woman had the choice of choosing the fruit that God had given them or the fruit of the one tree that was forbidden, Israel was given the freedom to make a choice.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19)

“Choose”! It’s all up to you! God’s Kingdom is sure. God has predetermined it. It’s baked in the cake. Things will happen because God has already decided some things. But he has not decided everything, and one of those things he has decided is how you and I will live our lives. That’s up to us. We have the freedom to choose roads we take.

God is all powerful, and therefore he has the power to give up control and yield some to us. We get to decide how to exercise it.

 

You can follow Lenny through his blog Morning Companion: http://morningcompanion.blogspot.com/
(Originally Published April 15, 2018)

 

The Seventh-day Sabbath is the Tree of Life, and Sunday is the Forbidden Fruit is the Forbidden Fruit

by Isaac Kofi Eshun

“In Christendom today there are a lot of controversies over which day is the Lord’s day, that is, the day our Lord and Savior must be worshiped for salvation. But, it is hidden from many salvation seekers that the all-wise God at creation gave man a particular day on which He should be worshiped as a memorial of His creation. As a result of this, God Himself plainly said in Isaiah 58:13 that the seventh-day Sabbath is His own day; thus, the phrases “My Holy Day” and “The Holy Day of the Lord” were used in that context.

Why the seventh-day became the day of God can be seen from Genesis 2:3: “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

This text shows that before God gave man the authority to worship Him on the seventh-day of the week, He Himself rested on that day as an example to all mankind….”

(this article is an excerpt from the January-February 2002 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)

 

To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 12, click this link:

http://biblesabbath.org/tss/493/tss_493.pdf

 

How to get off work on the Sabbath

 

The Sabbath is from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. It is a day to gather and fellowship with like-minded believers. At the same time, it is a day to rest from work. The first and obvious question with observance of the Sabbath is how you can get off work from your employer. We live in a fallen world. The greater part of humanity does not acknowledge or observe the Sabbath. This means we have to request or make arrangements to have Sabbath off from work. There are some ways to do this.

The first and easiest way is to see if you can trade shifts with someone else. Let’s say a friend or co-worker wants off on Sunday to go to church. You want off on the Sabbath, so you offer to work their Sunday shift as long as they agree to work your Saturday. This is just an example –there may be someone at work who wants another day of the week off like Monday or Tuesday. The key to this first strategy is to find someone at work and trade shifts.

Always remember, the Sabbath ends at sunset. This means you can work from Friday up until sunset and then Saturday after sunset. You may be able to re-arrange your schedule and get the Sabbath off that way. You can always try to find another position at your company that would allow you such freedom or look for a different shift within your same position.

If these strategies do not work, then you will need to talk to your supervisor. We are blessed in America in that we have laws that protect our religious beliefs. You can meet with your manager or boss and tell them that it is your religious conviction to have the Sabbath off from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. In this discussion, you can offer to make up the work on other time – say Sunday afternoon – or perhaps come in earlier or work later on a different day of the week. In the summer months, sunset is later. You can offer to work later on Friday in that season. In the winter, sunset is earlier. You can offer to come on Saturday after the sun sets.

When you talk to your employer, convey how important it is that you work for their company and that you enjoy working for them. As an example, you can say something to the effect of “Company ABC has been really good to me over the years. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the staff here, and I would love to continue to do so. I have a religious conviction where I need to have Friday sunset to Saturday sunset off of work to observe the Sabbath. I am willing to work earlier or later on other days to make up any hours, even if it means working on Sunday. I further desire to stay apart of the team here at Company ABC.”

If for some reason you cannot get through to the employer in any of these ways, then it would be time to find a new job! The phrase in this conversation is religious conviction. If Sabbath is merely a preference or is not absolutely necessary for you to be free from work, then you will have a hard time making any legal case.

This is a web link to help you understand your legal rights to have the Jewish Sabbath off from work:

http://www.jlaw.com/LawPolicy/accommodation.html

If you are ever discriminated against because of your religious beliefs, call the local EEOC – the equal employment opportunity center – or a local lawyer to file a law suit. There are laws that protect your religious liberties in this nation.

 

www.biblesabbath.org

@SabbathSentinel

 

Sabbath Meditation #1 – The Dominion of God and the Dominion of Man

by Kelly McDonald, Jr.

“27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth…. 31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen. 1:27-28, 31, KJV).

“1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen. 2:1-3, KJV).

Through Christ, all things were made (Col. 1:15-17). This includes visible things such as creatures and features that we see every day. It also includes invisible things such as the Sabbath.

When humans were created, we were given dominion over living creatures; we were asked to rule, replenish, and subdue this physical earth (Gen. 1:26-28). However, God did not give mankind dominion over time. “My times are in thy hand…” (Psalm 31:15a). Christ has dominion over all things, including time and the Sabbath. It was the only time in the week that was blessed and made holy by the sovereign act of an eternal being.

Since an eternal being endowed this day with perpetual spiritual blessing and holiness, it is something that no created being, such as a human, could create, edit, or have dominion over. What God has blessed cannot be cursed by man (Num. 22:6, 22:12, 23:11, 23:20). While no created being can affect the Sabbath, it is a day endued by God to affect created things. God intended for this day to spiritually affect humanity.

We are even required to grant rest to the animals that we have dominion over. “But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle…” (Deut. 5:14). God is literally commanding us to stop exerting dominion over the physical creation.

If someone works on the Sabbath, it extends the dominion of man into a realm that God never intended for it to be exerted. This is not God’s will. There is an eternal dominion that is greater than the earthly dominion given to humanity. Our practice of the Sabbath acknowledges and affirms this eternal fact. Let us honor that eternal dominion.

Selah.

Kelly McDonald, Jr

BSA President

www.biblesabbath.org

 

Keeping the Sabbath: Faith or Superstition

Dr. Daniel Botkin

One definition of superstition is “a belief or practice resulting from a false concept of causation” (Webster’s). Superstitious people believe that practicing certain habits or possessing certain objects can cause good luck or bad luck. The superstitious pagans of Bible times believed that certain days of the week were lucky or unlucky for certain activities. The Hebrews also had some beliefs about the days of the week. They believed that Sunday through Friday were good days to work, and Saturday, the 7th day of the week, was a day to cease working and assemble for worship. This belief, unlike the pagan beliefs, was not a superstition, though. Keeping the Sabbath was and is an act of faith, because it was and is based on a trust in the one true God who gave the Sabbath to be a sign between Himself and His people throughout their generations forever. (Ex. 31:1 2ff) Keeping the Sabbath can cause good things to happen and prevent bad things from happening. Breaking the Sabbath can cause bad things to happen and prevent good things from happening. This is not superstition. This is what the Bible teaches when it promises good things (“blessings”) for keeping the Sabbath and bad things (“curses”) for breaking it.

We may not always see how the blessings or curses are the result of our having kept or broken the Sabbath, but that does not matter to the spiritual man…”

 

(this article is an excerpt from the May-June 2001 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)

 

To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 7, click this link:

http://biblesabbath.org/tss/489/tss_489.pdf