Re: [asa] God as Cause

If these are specific statements about primary causation, rather than more
general statements about God's sovereignty, what would you make of this part
of the Amos passage: "[the Lord]* declares to man what his thought is"*?
Are we really thinking this over right now, or is God in fact dictating the
conversation?

On 1/4/07, Bill Green <wgreen82004@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> How many of you believe that God cause all things?
>
> It seems that the Bible has a lot to say about causes.
>
> Isaiah 45:7
> I form the light and create darkness,
> I make peace and create calamity;
> I, the Lord, do all these things.'
>
>
> Amos 4:13
> For behold,
> He who forms mountains,
> And creates the wind,
> Who declares to man what his thought is,
> And makes the morning darkness,
> Who treads the high places of the earth—
> The Lord God of hosts is His name.
>
>
> Psalm 147:8—9
> Who covers the heavens with clouds,
> Who prepares rain for the earth,
> Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.
> He gives to the beast its food,
> And to the young ravens that cry.
>
>
> Psalm 147: 15—18
>
> He sends out His command to the earth;
> His word runs very swiftly.
> He gives snow like wool;
> He scatters the frost like ashes;
> He casts out His hail like morsels;
> Who can stand before His cold?
> He sends out His word and melts them;
> He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.
>
>
> These verses seem to teach that God causes all natural processes, from
plate tectonics (mountains) to wind and frost, growing grass and running
water.
>
> I have read some articles about "complementarity" on your website, but I
am not clear as to whether many of you believe that God actually directly
controls natural processes.
>
> The "complementarity" view, it seems, could include a view in which the
theological perspective is superfluous or only necessary for certain
purposes. It seems to me that in order to avoid this situation, and in
order to affirm the Scriptural definitions given above, we must ascribe to
God the direct causation of all of these processes, and the scientific
explanations as descriptions of his activity. Scientific or material
"causes" are not "causes," but only sequential events, all caused by God.
How can we say, for example, that God causes the grass to grow when we are
in church, but then say that auxins and cytokinins cause it when we are in
the lab? If auxins and cytokinins are sufficient, then why invoke God at
all?
>
>
> Thanks for your input.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Bill Green
>
>
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-- 
David W. Opderbeck
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