Qumran and the Sovereign God, Athanasius and Context

Welcome to the dividing line. James white along with you on a Thursday. I am the popular internet apologist joined today by the popular internet producer in the other room. And we are here with you again during the great panic of 2020 and that's exactly what it is the takeover of the technocratic totalitarians and Yeah, so here we all are some of you are working your eyeballs out.

It is strange just really briefly, I'm not gonna dive into this don't have enough time to but I Know some people are doing really really well right now. And then I then we the new numbers out today 26 million unemployed 26 million gone from record employment to record unemployment in only two months.

All to the benefit of one particular organization interestingly enough called the CCP just just just get Get used to the CCP. They are now everywhere and if you don't know what the CCP is You're not even in the fight yet, it's called the Chinese Communist Party anyway.

The the reality is there are there's there's some people who just work and work and work and work and Evidently, whoever delivers toilet paper to the closest Target store to me. It's not working because I Can go back two months on my phone and every time I walk over that aisle and it's completely empty.

I take a picture. And so I can go back and it's there there ain't no they they are they're falling down the job. No, two ways, but but the reality is there's there's certain people doing real well. And I just hope those of you who are will remember those who are not.

That's that's just gonna be what we're gonna have to do amongst believers to help each other out by the way real quick announcement tomorrow. We have another guest going to be on the program. I know we this will be our third guest in only two weeks.

That's for us. That's pretty unusual I'm about I have about as many guests as Rush Limbaugh has on which isn't a lot but I am going to be joined tomorrow by the Smartest guy I've ever met the smartest man.

I know Who combines he's the only person I know who combines massive intelligence with massive humility and that is really unusual. Really really unusual a dear brother-in-law. Dr. Jason Lyle of Biblical Science Institute will be with us tomorrow on The program and we're gonna be talking stars and stuff like that.

I've asked him specifically. I Have a favorite star. There are hundreds of billions of stars though interesting enough. I was looking at something I Wrote up this thing for one of the sisters at our church real special lady.

It was her birthday. And so I wrote up the longest birthday greeting ever to be posted on Facebook. Well, it was for me anyways and I went through all this stuff about How big the how the distance of the planets orbit around the Sun and then I talked about, you know, the 600 million tons of Hydrogen being fused into helium and the core of the Sun and how long it takes that energy to escape and then travel out to the planet and the plants moving at this speed and the Sun's moving at this speed and the Galaxy's moving at this speed and then by the time I got through with all that I said, what were we talking about again?

But so I'm I really like that kind of stuff and I broke out the scope again last week and Was was looking at stuff got up really early Last week and actually it's new moon was last night. So this would be a good time for viewing there's some stuff I need to be doing on that too, but long story short, I Took a glance Stared for a while at my favorite star and like I said when I was doing some reading There while we know there are hundreds of billions of stars in actuality to the naked eye There are only about 9 ,900 visible that you can actually pick out.

Otherwise, you just get fuzz now, of course my naked eyes a whole lot worse There's only a couple hundred anymore but We know they're out there billions of millions of stars. How could you have a favorite star?

Well, I do it's called Albireo look it up it is To our view through a telescope a Binary star actually, that's what things we talking about. Is it really a binary? Is it a triple quad? There are there are questions about that.

I've asked if he has time For Jason to look a little bit more into Albireo. We can talk a little bit about that But we're talking about other stuff as well Saturn and Jupiter are Are close by Mars right now in the mornings and we can take a look at that Talking about God's beautiful creation out there with Jason Lyle tomorrow At the same time on the dividing line.

So make sure to Join us at that particular point in time now today on the program I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm clearly enjoying The work that I'm doing in responding to The Provisionists and specifically Ken Wilson's dissertation.

I'm enjoying it far too much. I'm enjoying it far more than they are Let's put it that way. I understand that yesterday a day for yesterday Layton Flowers posted a three hour Video three hour video. Yes, sir What?

Oh.

No, I was just gonna say you're clearly in your element. I can see it. As soon as you started digging into this, it's like this is this is something he loves.

Oh, I love you eat it like candy. Yeah, love it. And it's like You you walk into.

They walked right into the wall and the wall loved it.

They invited me to do it. They challenged me to do it. They they made it very clear. They didn't think anybody could could put a dent in this thing and it's like, okay. Hey, I'm getting to I'm getting to study stuff and go deeper into stuff that I've I've studied in the past.

But it's great to be able to go deeper get more resources and explain it to everybody else. It's a lot of fun. By the way, there's nothing on the screen. Oh. So yeah, I'm I'm enjoying it. I love seeing all the interconnectedness and like I said Investing this time is going to help.

If you listen if you take notes if you're willing to learn we are going to create a better grounded group of Apologists to deal with all sorts of subjects whether it's Mormonism atheism Islam. What's been my mantra for years there are two classes I took in college and seminary that helped me the most in apologetics it was Greek and church history and so yeah, we're gonna.

I'm enjoying it. I I've had a few people contact us and say you're enjoying it, too. It seems though that people who enjoy this kind of stuff are not the most talkative people. They just enjoy it and go on about their business.

If you're not enjoying it, I apologize ahead of time. But be as it may I'm enjoying it. And so as I work through the the dissertation primarily in its PDF form online actually and in fact Why don't you why don't you show this this is.

It's Strange as I said, we purchased the PDF version Dr. Wilson had sent the paper version and so. But you know paper is paper is tough. And so here is the online version now, it's it's not technically a PDF.

This is from the more Cybex Um website where once you purchase it it goes into your library and so you can see you've got uh, you can you know Click on chapters of stuff over here move around and the the search engine is okay.

It will search the entire document that's somewhat helpful, but it doesn't uh give specific numbers um. So like if you export as a PDF and then search it that way. You can actually get numbers instead of having to sort of like guesstimate which um, it's weird but um, so this is uh, right at the beginning this is in.

This to me is one of the key issues. You'll notice over here uh, the philosophical religious context 2000 BCE to 400 CE. Um, and you've got Gnosticism, Stoicism, Kikoro, Judaism, including the Qumran sect, Neoplatonism and Manichaeism.

So since obviously the assertion being made in the popularized version, uh the book Uh and being promoted in interviews with Layton Flowers Uh is that Reformed Theology is Manichaeism. Um, and so even to the point of calling us Manichae, Manichaean Christians.

Um and that kind of thing then obviously this section is extremely important what is established and especially what is established in regards to the hermeneutical methodologies, interpretations, and worldviews of these various groups because if you're going to say that your central thesis, Dupied uh, you're you're That's Ken Wilson's self-proclaimed definitional statement, Dupied D-u-p-i-e-d uh, divine unilateral Predestination of individuals eternal destinies um.

Some people suggest dropping the I so it's just duped but fairly close, um then you're going to have to provide that kind of argumentation you're gonna have to If you're gonna say If you put Stoic Gnostic Manichaean In a single row in regards to determinism when Everybody who comments on any of these areas recognizes fundamental distinctions differences and category differences between different Developments of Manichaeism different kinds of Gnosticism, etc, etc.

Um, then this is where your argumentations you have to be is in this particular portion of the uh of material so Um, one of the um Things that i'm looking at looking at a number of things at the same time obviously Is the commentaries about the Qumran community it is Providential to use that term it is providential that um I had the opportunity to visit Qumran um Not too long ago and to lead a bible study um on the person of christ With the background right behind me being cave one, uh from Qumran um Which is just I mean I really hope we get to go back there.

I really do um I i'm hoping You know, please people start thinking this through and Drag us out of this, uh, this this depression, but I There there are powerful political forces that want to use this to fundamentally Change the world and uh, unfortunately, we're all going along going.

Okay. Yeah. We gotta flatten the curve doesn't matter about the other curves, but It doesn't matter how many more lives will be lost doing it this way, but but but we gotta flatten the curve. We we we've been being prepared for this I guess anyway, um I hope we get a chance to go back there, but it was a bucket list thing to do uh to be staying there, uh right at Qumran and and to think about what man living in a place like that.

Um, I live in a desert but it's a beautiful desert and it's got stuff growing in it there is Out there. It's just whoo. Not very far from sodom and gomorrah actually, which is rather interesting. Anyhow, um.

So i'm looking at the discussion of and remember it came up in the interview. We've played the interview um. And it it came up in the interview the discussion of the Qumran community. That's how it's pronounced um and the Idea of They're being you know, just determined by stoic deterministic philosophy and things like this.

And so once I started digging into this I ran across um this discussion and it's very interesting um that Wilson has a particular perspective and Anything that disagrees this perspective has already been refuted now.

It doesn't have to explain how it's been refuted. Just all I gotta do is put footnote in and and he uses most scholarly works would say Such and such as a perspective was disputed by so-and-so who pointed out this.

Uh in wilson's work, it's so-and-so was refuted. Footnote no explanation. No, it's just. And so you can't make a judgment on just by someone saying well, he was refuted. I found again very i've read a lot of dissertations.

This one is Way way out of the mainstream way out of the mainstream um in on on many many levels, um. So a discussion is taking place In regards to the perspective that you'll find In the Dead Sea Scrolls what we would call the Dead Sea Scrolls the the Qumran communities library and yes, there are.

You must understand We're less than 100 years out From the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What that means is there's there would be an initial flurry of scholarship. Depending on how fast things are being released for examination.

Initial flurry of theory. Then the next step is the analysis of these things you get synthesis. Uh, one scholar notes this one scholar notes that hey, you put those two together and there's this um. And then there's the debate.

And then you start getting some settled conclusions um. But then a next generation is going to come along and say hey have you noticed this and so there's still Good valid important work being done in regards to what was discovered at Qumran.

That's now generally completely available. It wasn't initially but pretty much now and so um. Very thankfully, like I said, I've got you know books. I've got paper um, my Accordance library is thoroughly furnished with Everything from Qumran, thankfully um and so one of the Statements that was I found in the in the dissertation caught my caught my eye.

And so Uh, Wilson is quoting from various sources, uh including uh, Charlesworth and Merrill and and and others who have uh written on this particular subject and uh Let me just read you what says but Merrill tries to salvage belief in the free will and Accountability despite his own substantial evidence questioning his conclusion.

God creates the wicked For the sole purpose of destruction for his glory as an example to the non-elect and then there are references given um 1qh 15 17 19 through 20 1qs now The when you when you hear 1q 4q followed by a letter or sometimes a series of letters um.

These are the designations used to identify the various scrolls now those scrolls those sources May have names assigned to them, but they also have an index. Because some people use different names. And of course when you're reading earlier materials um They may only have the names before the index.

Became the popular way of identifying things so on and so forth. Um Wilson is not consistent on this. For example, he he his site he gets those citations, right? But then afterwards starts just citing um 10 5 through 7 2 2 .25 without giving the scroll.

So you're not even sure exactly what he's referring to at this particular point in time. Maybe he just assumes it's the last thing he cited. I don't know. I haven't checked it out yet. Anyways, so you get the Get that context god creates the wicked for the sole purpose of destruction for his glory as an example of the non-elect quote all aspects of Of creation have been formed.

Yet sad it looks like that's a Dalit, not a rash given the way it's appearing on the screen to to achieve god's purposes With yet sad meaning to implant a tendency god controlling man's knowledge and plans and assigning humans Lots or destinies before birth.

Because every action of man is predestined even his thoughts and knowledge must be given by god merrill 35. He summarizes God has sovereignly determined without any merit on the part of any man To save some of them from destruction in the eschaton and from moral and spiritual bondage in the here and now.

Everything man has for which to be thankful is the result of grace. This leaves the reader unprepared for merrill's conclusion god's foreknowledge preserves free will. In qumran, here's here's what we're focusing on.

Here's the statement this is A wilson statement. This is not a merrill statement in qumran. God's foreknowledge was irrelevant to humans now A reference is given. We're going to look at the reference from qumran but once again One of the problems is that what we have here Is confusing theological terminology on the part of ken wilson.

There's a lot to be discussed in regards to what foreknowledge is supposed to mean what it means biblically what it meant historically. Foreknowledge Is one of the gnostic eons? So That obviously has a completely different you have forethought you have the afterthought you have for not.

Obviously, that's a completely different context or is it we don't know we can't tell from From wilson's statement, but I want to look at the phrase in qumran. God's foreknowledge was irrelevant to humans.

The reference is 1 q h 18 .3 9. So we're talking about cave 1 h 18 3 through 9. What is that? Well, uh that. Thank you very much. Would you please? Thank you very much. There you go the. That particular program won't take over the whole computer uh 1 q h there's 1 q h a 1 q h b um.

Actually, there's one q h a there's one. Is is the hadayoth it is the psalms of thanksgiving? Psalms of thanksgiving. Uh described in the dead sea scrolls index as a list of personal prayers and psalms.

Which some scholars have suggested may have been composed by the teacher of righteousness written in hebrew uh. And clearly popular amongst the qumran community. I want to read some of this to you. I hope you don't mind uh, we've been reading you stuff that you've Otherwise probably would not read um, but I think it's important.

Uh, i'm going to start back in 17. Uh 23 17 23 we're going to be reading into 18. Now there are these are fragmentary. There are holes uh, some parts are better than other parts this isn't as is in as good a shape as the isaiah scroll, for example.

So I will. There will be some breaks some skips some things like that. But you oh my god for you plead my case for in the mystery of your wisdom you have reproved me. You hide the truth in its time until it's appointed time.

Your chastisement has become joy and gladness to me. And my agony my agonies have become an eternal healing and unending break. The contempt of my enemies has become a glorious crown for me and my stumbling eternal strength for by your Break and your glory.

My light has shined forth for you have caused light From darkness to shine for me. You bring healing from my wounds for my stumbling wonderful strength and infinite space the distress of my soul. You are my place of refuge my stronghold the rock of my strength and my fortress and you.

I take refuge from all blank for an eternal escape. For you from my father. Have known me from the womb you have set me apart and from the belly of my mother you have rendered good to me. From the breast of she who conceived me your compassion has been mine and the embrace of my nurse.

Blank and from my youth you have shined the inside of your judgment on me. With a sure truth you have supported me and by your holy spirit. You have delighted me even until this day. Break your righteous chastisement is with my break and the protection of your peace delivers my soul.

With my steps is abundant forgiveness and bountiful compassion when you enter into judgment with me until old age. You shall provide for me for my father did not know me and my mother abandoned me to you.

For you are a father to all the children of your truth and you rejoice over them as a loving mother over her nursing child. As a guardian with his embrace you provide for all your creatures. Then there we move from a um full portion of the scroll.

To a very damaged portion. Okay, but it gets better. It just right now um I give thanks to your lord for you have increased without number break your name by doing wonders break without ceasing break.

His insight and they praised break. And then you have 18 -3, which is the beginning of the citation in the dissertation. Okay. So now we're to the we've gotten the previous context. I wanted to give you a flavor of what?

Was in the previous context? So 18 -3 is the plan of your heart. Break on both sides so you can imagine what this looks like if you're thinking of if you're if you're thinking about you know p45 here.

Here's your breaks. And so as you get farther down, you're gonna have more breaks more breaks more breaks as you get farther down into a fragmented Uh ancient manuscript, which is what we're dealing with here.

So the plan of your heart is the first line. Uh, and without your will it shall not be. No one so there's the first without your will. It shall not be. No one understands all your wisdom. And the counsel of your mysteries no one observes.

What then is man? He is but dirt break. From dust he was formed and to dust he returns. But you give him insight into wonders such as these and make him know the counsel of your truth. I am but dust and ashes.

What can I plan? Unless you delight in it. And what can I consider for myself? Apart from your will. How can I show myself strong unless you maintain me? How can I understand? Unless you have formed it for me.

How what can I speak unless you have opened my mouth and how can I reply? Unless you have given me insight. Now that's through the end of the citation. That's the whole citation from the dissertation.

Three through nine i'm going to read a little bit past that. Behold you are chief of the gods and king of the glorious lord of every spirit and ruler over every creature. Apart from you nothing is done nor is there any knowing without your will?

There is no one beside you and no one approaches you in strength. No one can compare to your glory and as to your strength. There is no price who among all the celebrated creatures of your wonder can summon the strength to stand.

Oh, it skipped to stand before your glory. So what then is he who returns to his dust that he should summon strength? Only for your glory you have done all these things blessed. Are you oh lord god of compassion and rich in mercy.

For you have made these things known that I might declare your wondrous works and not keep silent day and night. Okay hymns of thanksgiving. Now a couple observations. Be honest with me. If we were to put that take the brakes out make it smooth it out a little bit but if we were to put that.

And. Some quotations from isaiah. The psalter. Maybe jeremiah into a test. How many christians. Honestly, we'll be able to tell the difference between that and what's canon scripture, honestly. Honestly.

Was there was there anything there that stood out. That would make you go. Ah, see. No, not really. Not really why. Because what you heard is steeped in biblical language. Steeped in biblical language now part of the Scholarly discussion is well, what were the influences upon the qumran community.

And there's nothing wrong with asking those questions. Don't get me wrong. But isn't there a real obvious? Primary influence. Isn't it rather clear? Um. This was this is one qha. That means it was found in cave one.

What else was found in cave one? Well, let me let me show you what else was found in uh in cave one. Um. Did I put that in a different? Oh, oh I didn't. Okay. You got that. Um, this was found in cave one.

And if you recognize it, it's the great isaiah scroll. In fact, I queued it up for you here. Um, let me zoom in. Sorry for those of you who are listening but um right here. This is from isaiah chapter 40.

And it reads just like what we have in the hebrew masoretic text today, this is one of the great things about The isaiah scroll we've talked about this before the isaiah scroll clearly. Part of what becomes the masoretic tradition the leviticus scroll that has now been digitally uh unwound.

Um and read same thing part of the masoretic tradition very very clear. What this proves is the text does not have to change over time. It doesn't mean all texts didn't change. What it proves is the text does not of necessity have to change over the course of a thousand years.

And so here is. Uh the isaiah scroll and here is isaiah 40 26. Now, what why do I say that. Because I want you To hear i'm going to read. And you can leave it up. I mean. Well, I don't. I don't care um.

If people want to look at the ugly scotsman reading that's fine, too. Um I just want to read a portion of scripture to you here. And I want you to compare it to what we were just reading and what is. On the screen and i'm going to be reading from an english text.

Read a lot faster that way um. Some of what you have on this in fact. All of this is on the screen right now. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? And marked off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by measure.

And weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills and a pair of scales. Who has directed the spirit of the lord or as his counselor has informed him. With whom did he consult and who gave him understanding and who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge?

And informed him of the way of understanding. Behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Behold he lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even lebanon is not enough to burn for its beasts enough nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless. To whom then will you like in god? Or what likeness will you compare with him. As for the idol a craftsman casts it a goldsmith plates it with gold and the silversmith?

Fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot. He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter. Do you not know?

Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the vault of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in? He it is who reduces rulers to nothing. Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted.

Scarcely have they been sown. Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth. But he merely blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like stubble. To whom then will you like in me?

That I should be his equal Says the holy one. And then finish with verse 26, which is right down here right in front of me right there. Lift up your eyes on high. And see who has created these. Now some translations will put the word stars in the word stars doesn't appear but that's obvious.

Who is referring to. The one who leads forth their host by number. He calls them all by name. Because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power not one of them is missing now. Let me Remind you as well of Another text that is vitally important we can there you go.

I have read it in your hearing before let me just read because it it fits ident directly with the qumran. Hymn of thanksgiving let all the earth fear. Yahweh psalm 33 8. That all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke and it was done.

He commanded and it stood fast. Yahweh nullifies the councils of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The council of yahweh stands forever the plans of his heart from generation to generation.

Direct parallelism. We've gone through psalm 33 before but let me just again point it out to you. It says that yahweh nullifies the council of the nations. Frustrates the plans of the peoples. The council of yahweh stands forever the plans of his heart from generation to generation.

That is a direct statement. That the sovereignty of god is not based upon foreknowledge. It's not based upon looking down the corridors of time and acting in light of that. It is his counsel and his plans that stands forever and he nullifies and frustrates.

The human counterpart to that. And so when you look at isaiah. When you look at what is said there you have the one true god Who is the creator of all things who's accomplishing his purpose in his will?

That's what's going on in isaiah. His purpose and his will Is accomplished in the created world and in the world of man as well? And so as a given isaiah 40 26, which is what we are looking at in the dead sea scrolls in the isaiah scroll itself.

Lift up your eyes on high. And see who has created these stars these just literally these things but if you look up your You're not gonna be doing that during the day obviously so the stars who has created these things.

Well in many of the religions of Ancient the ancient world those were actually divine beings themselves part of a pantheon. But from a biblical perspective This is the one true god. He leads forth their host by number.

In other words, there's organization there's purpose. Perfect knowledge of the entirety because of the greatness of his might. I'm, sorry, he calls them all by name. Because the greatness of his might and the strength of his power not one of them is missing in other words is out of Might we say they out of orbit out of his control.

This is amazing because. And maybe maybe uh, jason I can talk about this tomorrow um but Sagittarius a star the massive black hole At the center of our galaxy, which we've only known about for less than 20 years less than 20 years.

We have Um Images Of how this thing Can take stars that are five times the size of our own. And whip them around at over a million miles per hour whip them around at over a million miles. That's how powerful it is.

Not one of them's missing none of that activity is random. In the scientific perspective, it's all random. What the scripture is telling is is none of it's random when a star Falls into a black hole. There are some fascinating images now of stars Getting torn apart by a black hole and sucked into it.

Do you think god didn't know about that? Oh, this is this is where you find out whether you really believe whether this is where we've. Seriously folks. Those of us who have gone through education and stuff.

Do you really? Really Believe this is divine. Or do you automatically do what biologos does? And put a filter over this that filters out certain elements of the supernatural nature of this revelation.

That's the question. That's the question. Do you believe this is oh, yes, this is one of my jeffrey rice rebinds, by the way, I just Just thought i'd hold it up. So you can see others. Has that beautiful cairo on the front.

Yeah. So soft so wonderful. Anyway, do we really believe it? Because the world says and the vast majority of teaching people teaching in old testament classes say That what we're reading in isaiah chapter 40 Is just simply ancient mythology Placed in hebrew scripture.

And has nothing to do With what we can now discover in regards to sagittarius a star The massive black hole the center of our galaxy and all the rest of that kind of stuff personally I think a lot of that cool stuff out.

There is what god's going to be revealing to us in eternity. I think that's gonna be awesome but. Do we believe it. Do we believe it. The point is this is a This is an awesome god who is accomplishing his purpose in the very mechanics of the created universe.

So how in the world can we be so incredibly arrogant As to think that he can control stars. That that he is accomplishing his purpose in black holes. And whipping massive stars around at a million miles per hour but but He can't control the will of man.

He wants to he wants to save. But he really can't unless man cooperates with him. Yeah. Okay, so there are people who really really do believe that now. The point of all this is. There was nothing. What when going back to the statement.

From the dissertation um. Something going on in twitter that i'm obviously not paying attention to um. Here the statement again in qumran god's foreknowledge was irrelevant to humans. And then we had what I read to you cited as the basis for that.

I don't see the connection to you. What it was talking about is yeah, I mean, there's there is a strong emphasis. Upon god is god. Man is made of dust. And god's will is all-encompassing um the plan of your heart.

Without your will it shall not be done. No one understands all your wisdom. The counsel of your mysteries. No one observes what that is a man he is but dirt he was formed. And to dust he returns. You give him insight into wonders such as these.

So here's here's part of The importance of revelation and make him know the counsel of your truth. So there's a reason why god is revealing his truth. He's accomplishing something in this world and we as his creatures Are to respond to these things.

I am but dust and ashes. What can I plan unless you delight in it. Isn't that psalm 33. Isn't that isaiah 40 41 42? Is isn't that exactly? What is what is said in scripture. The point is where is this coming from.

It's coming from scripture. This is the primary influence. This is the primary source. That is reflected In the thanksgiving hymns of the qumran community. Not stoicism. Why would you look? To stoicism.

The stoics don't have a god who does these things. They don't have personal revelation in this way. Why would you even think to look there? Oh the determinism thing. And we don't want to find that in isaiah.

We don't want to find that in the psalter. We don't find that in jeremiah. But it's there that's the point it's there and it's there clearly it's there compellingly. But they don't believe that the provisionists don't have a divine decree.

And so you've got to look elsewhere. You've got to look elsewhere there you go. So I got to show off the isaiah scroll got to talk about qumran. Read from that stuff and talk about god's absolute sovereignty.

It is Really really cool to get to do all that. I'm going to close these things out. So i've got my bible program back. Sometimes I just don't have enough room left on the screen. Um for for my bible all my bible stuff.

Okay now. Um, okay, that was 45 minutes, that's not. That's not too bad. I I was somewhat self-controlled. Um, you're wondering what i've got here. A little flavored water. Little apple cider vinegar.

Oh, yeah. Us old folks need that stuff. All right now. So I go back to the dissertation and you go. Oh, no, we're changing subjects though. I go to the conclusion. The conclusion. Now what's interesting is normally what you're going to present in your conclusion.

Means that you have substantiated The assertions you make in your conclusion. In the argumentation of your dissertation itself in the body um. Let me read the First portion of the Let me read the first two paragraphs of the conclusion.

This is for those of you want to look these things up page 273. At least in the pdf format. I didn't look at the paper didn't Should should be the same imagine the paper is just printed off the pdf anyways.

Early christian authors half scare quote unanimously half scare quote taught relational eternal predetermination. Where in god elected persons according to foreknowledge of their faith parentheses predestination parentheses.

In opposition to stoic providence and gnostic slash. Manichaean unilateral determinism. That's the first sentence while teaching predestination christians refuted divine unilateral predetermination Of individuals eternal destinies duped.

Identified in ancient iranian religion then chronologically in the kumranites. Gnosticism neoplatonism and manichaeism. Heretics such as basiledes. Who taught god's unilateral gift of faith were condemned?

Of the 84 pre-augustinian authors studied from 95 to 430 ce 50 addressed the topic. It's about 60 percent by that particular those particular numbers. All 50 these early christian authors champion traditional free choice against pagan and heretical divine unilateral Predetermination of individuals eternal destinies see appendix three.