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DR. CARLSON CRYSTALLIZES CMI'S CORE THEOLOGICAL TENETS IN A 20-¶ TREATISE
. .CRUCIFORM GOD: A CMI-CHAMPIONED THEOLOGICAL TREATISE . By Rev. Dr. David J. Carlson, CMI Founder/CEO . . INTRO: EMBRACING THE ECUMENICAL ORTHODOXY OF THE APOSTLES' CREED
Although forging a comprehensive theology necessitates multitudinous volumes, this author, as CMI's founder, believes all religious charities -- like CMI -- should at least crystallize, and publish for the public, all core theological tenets. This 20-¶ treatise does just that. Foundationally, CMI embraces the Apostles' Creed (AC), shown below, as being a solid epitome of ecumenical (universal) Christian orthodoxy. The earliest known mention of the AC's indelible title occurred in an AD 390 letter from a synod in Milan and may have been linked to the belief, broadly accepted in the 4th century, that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit each of the 12 apostles contributed one specific article to the AC's 12 distinctive articles. Intriguingly, the AC is the only creed that Trinitarians, Unitarians & Modalistic Monarchianists each universally accept as asserting axioms of Truth. CMI contends it indeed encompasses the essentials of sound Christian theology.
. CORNERSTONE CREDO: ADOPTING THE CRUCIFORM & CENTRAL MOTIF OF AGAPE
CMI also espouses a cruciform theology, a cornerstone credo which claims that the sacrificial, enemy-embracing, non-violent Agape love Christ demonstrated on the cross embodies the full revelation of God's true eternal character, as well as the character all believers are called to cultivate. This is why CMI adopted its motto, Sharing Christ & His Agape Love, as these words encapsulate CMI's core ethos, namely, that Christ & his unconditional Agape love is all-important in ministry. In fact, since God = pure Agape (1 John 4:8), CFLI opines that AGAPE LOVE, which is defined by sacrificial, unconditional, other-centered giving, sets the central motif behind all theological truth-claims, explaining a giving God's motive for human creation (Gen. 1:27) & redemption (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8), his divine blueprint for human ethics (Matt. 22:37-40) & marriage (Eph. 5:25), and the eschatological MO of his forever family (Rev. 21). Put simply, Agape explains why humans exist, how they are meant to live, and what heaven is like. . . SOTERIOLOGY (PART 1): THE SYNERGY OF UNIVERSAL GRACE & PERSONAL FAITH
CMI's cruciform theology also informs its viewpoints concerning soteriology & bibliology. Regarding the former, CMI contends that the sacrificial, Agape love that Christ demonstrated on Calvary reveals that God's beautiful salvific work can be understood not just via traditional biblical metaphors -- e.g., such as redemption, regeneration, reconciliation, justification and propitiation -- but also as theosis. This is a common theme in the Eastern Orthodox church. In this perspective, the kenosis of God was actualized for the theosis of humanity, meaning that God, out of agape love, emptied himself to become human like us (Phil. 2:8), even becoming "sin for us" upon Calvary's cross (2 Cor. 5:21), ultimately so that we could become like him in character, spiritually perfect (Matt. 5:48). But theosis, the God-desired end-state of sanctification, can ultimately only come to fruition via God's proactive offer of universal grace (His unmerited favor extended to all), grace which only then becomes operative (or has salvific power) as it becomes "synergistically" coupled to one's genuine faith (Eph. 2:8). Ergo, although grace is BIG enough to save all, it cannot be forced, since humans, the acme of creation, possess free power to act (as shown by the adjacent verses). 
Genuine faith is thus not generated from God's power or will (as Calvinism falsely purports). Rather, faith stems from a person's God-given volition (i.e., the power God gifted humans to utilize). Faith is NOT a work, however. It is the humble acceptance of grace. As Dr. Joachim Jeremias once stated, "faith is not an achievement in itself, rather it is the hand which grasps the work of Christ and holds it out to God." But when grace is embraced by a genuine believer, four automatic choices -- or aspects of faith -- then emerge, namely, (a) repentance of sins, as publicly confirmed by water baptism (see Acts 2:38), (b) confession of & trust in Jesus Christ as the risen Lord (see Rom. 10:9), (c) the practice of Agape love of God & others (see 1 John 4:8), and obedience to Jesus' teaching (see John 14:15). So, although "God desires none should perish" (2 Peter 3:9) & offers his grace to "whosoever will may come" (Rev. 22:17), it is clear that God cannot force faith upon anyone. Neither can force heaven upon anyone. Heaven will be full of people from "every tribe & nation" (Rev. 7:9), to be sure, but these people will freely want to be there, and they'll never feel the need to be obsequious in their heavenly devotion. Sadly, by contrast, some will never desire to take hold of Jesus' Agape-filled gift of grace, even though it is free. They will never desire to soften their hearts. Such an action becomes abhorrent to them due to vanity. As C.S. Lewis once allegorized in The Great Divorce, the impenitent could take a tour bus around heaven, and they'd all return to the bus and depart due to proud hearts. This fact is difficult to imagine. But pride is a real and pervasive vice. As 1 Peter 5:5 says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
. SOTERIOLOGY (PART 2): SEEING THE CROSS AS BEING ONTOLOGICALLY SALVIFIC
On this point, CMI believes the humble heart is the key to grasping why God's grace is only made operative by faith, since the humble heart & faith are always synonymous in the Scripture. One who possess a contrite & humble heart, which God cannot control or dictate, will automatically have faith, and thus will automatically repent when convicted by the Holy Spirit, will trust in Christ (if Christ is ever presented), will love God & others, and will be obedient to God. This fact is also why CMI believes the cross of Christ is ontologically salvific, instead of being epistemologically salvific, meaning that, although the cross is indeed the ONLY WAY to salvation (Acts 4:12), the cross saves by the fact that it happened and not due to any knowledge of the event. In other words, a person with no knowledge of the cross or of Jesus, can still be saved by the cross (as Abraham was) if this person, like Abraham, pivots toward cultivating a humble & contrite heart (Rom. 4:16), as the heart is the only thing at which God looks (1 Sam. 16:7) in every culture & in every generation. Saying the heart is all-important makes perfect sense since the heart is a synonym for one's soul, one's consciousness, one's will. The heart is the the battlefield where virtue & vice compete (2 Cor. 10:3-6) and the seat where God's very image resides (Gen. 2:7). But the heart is also FREE. One can choose to harden the heart, as Egypt's Pharaoh did, (Ex. 8:32), or choose to desire God with a malleable & noble heart, one that possesses "good soil" which ultimately produces good fruit (Luke 8:15). In short, one can possess a heart that would embrace Jesus' grace, and God surely "sees" this, despite this person's potential lack of knowledge concerning Christ's name.
That being said, regarding evangelism, of course Christians should preach the Gospel to the world & "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19), since Jesus is "the Way, the Truth & the Life" for all of humanity (John 14:6). But if by chance one dies never hearing of the salvific work of Jesus, this does not mean this person cannot be saved. Not at all! Christ's atoning blood covered all humanity's sin --- past, present & future (Heb. 10:14). So the only reason a pagan would not be able to possess grace (if they never heard of Jesus) is that God judged that their heart would have refused this grace, And, as previously alluded to, God cannot force grace on anyone. Ergo, CMI contends that those who will one day have to face what is called "eternal destruction" (2 Thess. 1:6) or the "second death" (Rev. 21:8) are those people who do not desire to live a life of faith -- even though they likely know that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6). They also don't want to live with God forever. By contrast, one who has a contrite heart, but has never heard of Jesus, God still knows this person would receive Jesus' gift of eternal life (Rom. 6:23), since their faith lies in the same vein as Abraham, who never met Jesus, yet "rejoiced to see [his] day" (John 8:56) and whose genuine faith was "credited to him as righteousness" (Rom. 4:3). This is why, regarding the subject of faith, Rom. 4:16 points to Abraham as a universal archetype or father of faith. The Amplified Bible version of Rom. 4:16 (placed in the "cohesive verse flow" to the right) is particularly insightful on this point. Paul aptly writes these potent words: "Therefore, [inheriting] the promise depends entirely on faith [that is, confident trust in the unseen God], in order that it may be given as an act of grace [His unmerited favor and mercy], so that the promise will be [legally] guaranteed to all the descendants [of Abraham] --- not only for those [Jewish believers] who keep the Law, but also for those [Gentile believers] who share the faith of Abraham, who is the [spiritual] father of us all." . . . BIBLIOLOGY: EMBRACING A CRUCIFORM NOTION OF "GOD-BREATHED" SCRIPTURE
Regarding bibliology, CMI firmly believes all Scripture is "God-breathed" (as 2 Tim. 3:16 asserts), but CFLI has come to embrace a cross-centered conception of exactly what "God-breathed" means. At his website -- reknew.org -- erudite pastor/theologian, Dr. Gregory Boyd, perfectly delineates CFLI's cruciform bibliology in the following exposition: .gif?477)
. The humble, self-sacrificial, sin-bearing God who is fully revealed on the cross was not above stooping
to meet his people where they were by bearing their sin. With this step, we ask: What does it mean for
the Scriptures to be "God-breathed." Insofar as the cross is beautiful, it reflects God acting toward us.
Insofar as the cross is ugly, however, it reflects God humbly allowing other agents to act upon him. In
this light, I [Greg Boyd] submit that we should read our "God-breathed" Scripture with the awareness that it was "breathed" in a relational, rather than a unilateral, manner. It not only reflects God acting
toward this people; it also reflects God humby allowing the foolishness and weakness of his fallen and
culturally-conditioned people to act upon him, thereby conditioning the way he appears in his written
revelation. Therefore, the degree that any portrait of God reflects the non-violent, self-sacrificial, enemy-
embracing character of God that was most fully revealed on Calvary, we should conclude that if reflects
God acting toward his people. But to the degree that any portrait depicts God's character in ways that
are inconsistent with the character he revealed on Calvary, we must conclude it reflects God humbly
stooping to allow his fallen people to act on him, thereby conditioning how he appears within the written revelation that he "breathed."
..
In short, CMI contends, in line with Dr. Boyd, that the Bible was never meant to be read as the exact dictation of God. That said, the Bible -- despite being a work of 66 books written by 40 authors in three languages over a span of 1500+ years across three continents -- shows an undeniable thematic unity: the redemption of a fallen humanity by Christ. It is clearly from God. That said, although CFLI believes the Bible to be God's inspired Word, CMI never assumes this is true when employing any type of apologetics. Instead, CMI assesses the veracity & reliability of all biblical passages exactly as it would any other secular records of antiquity. Because CMI contends that the Deity of Christ can be proven to be cogent solely through historical & scientific evidence, CMI does not need to embrace a prior assumption of biblical infallibility. Instead, CMI postulates that the Old Testament & New Testament can be deemed as being totally reliable & trustworthy based on Christ's prior divine status and his stance re these texts. In other words, based upon Christ's divine authority, CMI believes the Bible to be God-breathed. Since Jesus considered the entire OT to be God's Word (see Matt. 15:1-6), and promised his disciples, who either wrote or had control over the writing of the NT, that the Holy Spirit would bring all things back to their remembrance (see John 14:26), one can trust the Bible is divinely inspired.
. ESCHATOLOGY: WHY EARTH HELPS EFFECTUATE THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS
Regarding eschatology (the theology of end things), because it is cogent to purport that a perfect God, if He desires to create, would ultimately actualize a perfect world, CMI contends that this present Earth, a world full of sin & suffering over which Lucifer is the prince (see John 12:31), must be a necessary means, even for God, to ultimately effectuate the best of all possible worlds (i.e., heaven) -- an eternal endstate where free & loving beings will always choose the good, an endstate where there will be no more sin or pain or death (Rev. 21:4). This idea is cogent. It make sense that humans would first need to experience a transitional soul-building world of good & evil to fully grasp the nuances of divine goodness & its absence and thus be able to forever appreciate a new world where only the former reigns. But this still begs the question as to why God could not create heaven (a perfect existence) instantaneously, a world where free beings would always choose the good. The answer appears to lie in what renowned philosopher Alvin Plantinga has called "transworld depravity", referring to the possible logical enigma that, no matter what free-being-filled reality God could actualize, there would ultimately be, in every conceivable world, at least one being who would, at some point, choose to abuse their freedom. Re: the vernacular eschatological topics of the Rapture, the Tribulation & the Great White Throne Judgment, CFLI contends that it doesn't matter how or when all of these apocalyptic events will transpire. What is critically important is whether one's heart is prepared to meet Christ, the Creator of the Cosmos & ultimate Judge of humankind who is ascribed the title "King of Kings" (Rev. 19:16). Curiously, the options for Jesus' true eschatological identity are more restricted than anyone who's ever lived. Indeed, given his claims to Deity & his credible resurrection, Jesus is an unparalleled figure who, if false, is of absolutely ZERO importance, and, if true, of absolutely INFINITE importance. One thing Jesus can never possess is moderate or MIDDLING importance. He is either Lord of all, or not at all. Because Christ is indeed Lord of all, it is befitting that Paul, echoing the words of Isaiah 45:23, would prophesy in Philippians 2:10-11 that "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow ... and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". Persecuted Roman Christians knew this core truth and acknowledged Jesus' lordship by using a secret code -- the I-C-T-H-U-S epithet. See adjacent explanation.
It is proper to acknowledge Jesus as the Lord, as Christ is the only source able to fully satisfy the longings of the human heart. When the Rolling Stones came out with the song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in 1965, it rang true & became a #1 hit, as many had indeed experienced that no amount of money, fame, power, sex, drugs or rock-n-roll could bring ultimate satisfaction to the human heart. The main reason for this is that, inexplicably to science, the heart (or sentient essence of a person) bears 10 core attributes that only human beings possess, personal attributes such as conscious self-awareness, abstract reasoning, emotive capacity, creative artistry, linguistic ability, moral conscience, sovereign free will, worship desire, altruistic capability and, in relation to satisfaction, a deep longing for eternity and eternal significance. Yet in the human heart's undying quest to discover eternal verity, meaning & significance, all man-generated options are found to be totally deficient & wanting, incl. naturalism, humanism, and all man-made religions. Not one can truly satisfy humanity's unique longing for eternity, that indelible and ubiquitous yearning that, according to Eccl. 3:11, has been placed "in the hearts of men". Naturalism uses science as its pathfinder, but in the end can offer only a heartless, finite. something-from-nothing Cosmos, one barren of any bona fide meaning and fated for a cold cataclysmic demise where max entropy is reached in circa 100 quintillion years; Humanism tries to fabricate meaning in philanthropy, patriotism and/or self-actualization, but can offer only a finite, flawed, here-by-chance species, one plagued by epistemic & ethical relativity & destined for a desolate, hopeless & forlorn future of inexorable annihilation; Religions too have all tried to capture eternal Truth & vouchsafe satisfaction, but in the end offer only dogma & ritual, all too often fraught with rigid intolerance & judgmentalism and rife with rank hypocrisy, fraud & bondage; then Christ appears in history and offers to effectuate an enduring & thriving eternity, one of absolute satisfaction, of veracious meaning, of flawless existence, all to whosoever will come. But can he? Absolutely. Through his salvific work, Christ, the Cosmos' true Creator, is the ONLY wellspring who can quench humanity's insatiable thirst for eternal meaning. Why?--Because he is the author of both eternity & meaning. Thus, those who place their trust in Christ can have absolute confidence that their quest to touch eternity can/will find both (a) temporary fulfillment w/in this present, sin-corrupted, forged-as-a-means-to-an-end world, and (b) final consummation in the perfect eschatological endstate world which Christ, from the beginning of time, always meant to actualize. This will be a faultless world of eternal substantiality, where free beings from every tribe will conjointly flourish and always choose only what is good, where entropy, sin, suffering & death shall bear no more sting, where sacred worship & creativity shall thrive in perpetuity, and where life will be forever marked only by robust love, joy, purity, serenity, beauty & bliss, all in the endless and holy presence of the one loving Creator known by a myriad of fitting & exquisite epithets -- Emmanuel (God with us), the great "I AM", the Lion & the Lamb, the Word of God, the Alpha & Omega, the King of Kings & Lord of Lords -- Christ Jesus himself.
. A NEW POSTULATION: SOLVING THE FOREKNOWLEDGE & FREE WILL CONUNDRUM
Regarding the suppositious belief that God has exact "foreknowledge" of all future events, such as the eschatological events described heretofore, CMI believes it is vital to clarify how the two concepts of time & omniscience -- the divine attribute whereby God knows everything knowable -- precisely relate to each other. The essence of time is an age-old conundrum that has preoccupied not just a myriad of theologians, but also many astrophysicists. After many decades of researching the Bible, theology, and science, especially Einstein's theories, this author has developed a radical, but entirely orthodox & biblical, perspective regarding time & God's omniscience. Theologically-speaking, the Calvinism-vs-Arminianism debate has raged between theologians for centuries. Nowadays a view called "Open Theism" has gained many adherents. It is in this theological landscape that CMI proposes a new perspective, one that embraces the best virtues, yet discards all of the quandaries, of the three main theories above. CMI calls this new postulation Open Refurbished Arminianism (ORA), since it is a view that promulgates an amalgamation of Open Theism & Arminianism, yet avoids the pitfalls of both. In this ORA view, CMI contends that Jacobus Arminius was correct in purporting that God has perfect knowledge of all future choices and yet in no way determines these choices, as free will was meant by God to be libertarian. That being said, CMI asserts that pure Arminianism is logically fallacious, since the absolute foreknowledge of any event will always necessitate the actualization of that event. The event MUST happen. In fact, even God can't stop it, since he already "saw" it happen. He is in essence "bound" by his own foreknowledge. What is foreknown will always transpire. Like Calvinistic predestination, then, Arminian foreknowledge does limit God's power to be able to do something other than what he foreknew he would do. Technically, this means God cannot even change his mind. But this is not how time is portrayed in the Bible. Although God can exist beyond time, God did fashion the current space-time continuum, and he decided to interact with humans in this continuum. In biblical space-time, God can & does change his mind. For example, God decided to answer Hezekiah's prayer by granting him 15 additional years of life, even though God had already said Hezekiah would die (see Is. 38:1-6). So open theists appear correct when claiming that the future is not fixed. God appears not to be bound by foreknowledge and can actualize variant possible futures. Ergo, ORA postulates that there is technically no such thing as foreknowledge of a specific choice (i.e., a choice that someone is bound to make in the future). Rather, God can do even better. God possesses ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE of all choices due to these being actually already seen by God from a unique space-time vantage point. How can this be? The answer can be found in what Einstein called "time dilation" -- a mind-blowing reality.
Time dilation explains how & why clocks located at different locations in the Cosmos can & will run at different rates, depending on the measures of velocity and/or gravity present. The closer one gets to light speed, or to a massive gravitational force (such as a black hole), the slower time will tick. Given time dilation, then, God never foresees the future. With time dilation, God has already "seen" what humans would label as the "future," since wherever God is present in the Cosmos, his clock can tick so slow that it can actually match what a photon field experiences, no time whatsoever. Yet that which God "sees" still always occurs in an open, unfixed timeline. This is a critical point. What God "sees" is not foreknowledge. It's actually knowledge of an open timeline. For example, God has already seen all of the events from Earth's next calendar year, not because these were "foreknown" but because, from the vantage point of an omnipresent being, one who exists in every photon field, the events of the next year on Earth are already accessible for a being in motion at vast distances far away from Earth, even though, from the vantage point of an Earth clock, this calendar year is still open & still yet to exist. So time is extremely fickle. Time dilation explains why, to God, a day is like 1000 years and "a thousand years are like a day" (2 Pet. 3:8). It's not that 1000 years on Earth is closed. It's just that, from God's eternal vantage point, 1000 years on the Earth go by gargantuanly fast relative to all other beings on Earth. Why? Because God's vantage point is one analogous, but infinitely so, to the scenario of an astronaut looking back at Earth while moving near a black hole. Earth clocks would speed up drastically relative to this astronaut and, by contrast, she would age much slower than Earthlings. Since 1971, scientists have observed time dilation at work by measuring two identical atomic clocks, one put on a fast-moving vessel (like the Space Shuttle) and the other placed at rest. In all cases, Einstein's special relativity theory was substantiated. In fact, time dilation is so pervasive that, w/out understanding its effects, modern GPS technology wouldn't function. This is because GPS satellites travel through space at much faster rates relative to humans on Earth, thus making time run more slowly. In fact, due to velocity, GPS clocks lose 7 microseconds per day compared to Earth clocks. But that is not the only calibration needed. Since GPS clocks are also farther away from the massive gravity of the Earth that humans endure, time passes faster for GPS clocks relative to Earthlings, precisely 45 microseconds faster per day. Therefore, for GPS satellites to provide users with accurate location data on the Earth (e.g., to direct a car driver to her favorite café), all orbiting GPS clocks must account for a daily GPS net time dilation gain of 38 microseconds over Earth clocks. So time dilation is here to stay. Because of the relativity of space-time, it is entirely possible, if an omnipotent God indeed created the Cosmos, that the 4th day of creation (Gen. 1:14-19) took one day (as humans define it), but paradoxically reflects a Cosmos that appears billions of years old. With time dilation, young Earth theories are actually totally viable! On that point, whenever theistic young Earth (TYE) proponents, such as Jewish scientist Moshe Carmeli, or Christian physicist John Hartnett, have extended Einstein's dilation discovery to the entire Cosmos, in what is called cosmological relativity theory, their TYE model has showed that the notion that the Cosmos is young better accounts for the uniformity of the cosmic background radiation, a reality first observed by Edwin Hubble in 1929. In fact, if one starts with the presupposition of a young Cosmos, even as young as 6000 years, all quandaries of modern cosmology vanish (e.g., such as the need to concoct absurd amounts of imaginary dark energy to reconcile nature's numbers). 
Beyond the cosmological ramifications of time dilation, it is really the nature of God's omnipotence that is the key to unlocking the nature of the future. God is all-powerful -- yes -- but God also has the power to grant other beings power. And he has freely chosen to do this with his creation. In granting angels & humans free power, since this power is necessary for genuine love, God voluntarily limited his own power. Of course, at any time, God can instantly take all this back. But, as it stands, humans do have real power, power to love & power to destroy. And this power, to be truly free, must be libertarian. That is to say, this power must be able to actualize multiple possible futures. With this conceptualization of the future, all conceivable timelines allow free will to play out naturally with no predetermination on God's part. God designed the future to be "open" to allow for libertarian freedom. And this idea gels with what humans observe, as well as the way both the OT & NT speak of time & human duty. Although, as a sovereign Creator, God does indeed "sustain" the existence of every atom present in the Universe (Heb. 1:3), he nonetheless appears not to want to control any future free choices. That being said, God can certainly make a decision to intervene with his own power in any "timeline" in the Cosmos, and he certainly has done so in the case of prophesies fulfilled, miracles performed and the Incarnation actualized. But God seems not to want to control humans or angels. Herein is where Calvinism morphs God into a capricious & arbitrary monster, with its doctrines of "irresistible grace" & "limited atonement". In fact, with Calvinism, many individuals reading these words would actually be predestined for destruction. But don't fret. This was the will of God. Yet God dictating all human destinies in this manner annihilates any notion of real libertarian freedom. Real freedom necessitates real possibilities. This is why, if hypothetically, God existed only in Earth's space-time vantage point, the future would exist for God, as it does for humans, only as an infinite number of possibilities, albeit possibilities he would know exhaustively. Open theists possess sound reasoning in making this point, namely, that if limited to Earth only, God likely would not possess any real knowledge of the actual future, since the future would not be an object of knowing. Why? Because the future would not exist. Yet the reality is that God does exist beyond Earth's limited vantage point. God is everywhere, in every photon & black hole. As such, as CMI's ORA view contends, although God does not control beings to whom he has given libertarian power, he does still maintain omniscient knowledge. Although this assertion makes it appear God has total foreknowledge of all libertarian choices, this contention is an illusion given the way space-time was engineered by God. As Einstein once jocularly quipped, "The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." Perfect summary!
Einstein's incredible discovery substantiates the above ORA postulation. How? The existential reality is, regarding time, God's omnipresent NOW encompasses all the nows of every event & every vantage point in this Cosmos, and any others which might exist, yet still permits an OPEN FUTURE. Ergo, what human beings think God foreknows, he simply already saw from his unique, eternal "black-hole-light-speed-type" vantage point. This omnipresent vantage point enables God to simultaneously bounce back and forth, as it were, between all open timelines flowing out of every possible reference frame. But it's even more complex than that. The deeper answer which explains God's foresight ability lies in quantum mechanics (QM), specifically the concept of pre-programmed quantum non-locality, which in laymen's terms simply means that two quantum objects can "hold hands" (so to speak) no matter how far apart the objects get in space or even time. This is something that Einstein referred to as "spooky action at a distance." The implications of this for God's "foreknowledge" of future events is mindboggling. If everything in physical reality has a common origin in God (which it does), then everything in this reality is somehow entangled, which affects all the mathematical wave functions of all the objects that have ever existed (or ever will exist) within the created space-time of the Universe. And if God knows and comprehends the state of every mathematical function and its entanglement, then He also fully comprehends the entire future history of the Universe as one complex, simultaneous fact at the instant He created it, including (and this is the key point!) how every future free agent's free libertarian decisions affect every wave function back to the moment of ultimate entanglement at creation. And this is all connected through the weird, but very real, phenomenon of temporal non-locality entanglement. In fact, God's comprehension of the entire future of the Cosmos would actually be simultaneous with the moment at which He brought it into existence, thanks to His divine ability and vantage point to know the state of every wave function of reality at the moment of creation, as well as God's ability to know how these wave functions have been impacted by future events. This means God, at the instant of creation, foresaw the entire set of wave functions for all possible parts of the Cosmos and, as a consequence, God instantly knew everything about the Cosmos' entire future history due to the non-locality He himself initiated and "programmed" into the Cosmos' laws of quantum mechanics (QM). In sum, although Jacobus Arminius was a genius, adding the scientific realities of Einsteinian "time dilation" and QM's "temporal non-locality" refurbishes Arminius' view to be both entirely biblical AND cogent. But why draft such a long disquisition about ORA? It is because ORA explains how God can perfectly know all free future choices (due to time dilation and non-locality), yet still permit every possible future to unfold in a truly open, unfixed, libertarian fashion. ORA is thus a classic sound paradox, a delightful amalgamation of Open Theism & Arminianism. It is the ONLY view that does not limit God or freedom in any way, while still being able to align with what 21st-century physics purports about spacetime and quantum-level realities. As Paul Davies writes, "physicists now think of time as laid out in its entirety--a timescape analogous to a landscape." Clearly, if true, God engineered this unique timescape for God-human interaction & HIs divine glory and joy.
At this juncture, CMI believes it apropos to answer the retort of people who adhere to predestination. Calvinists, in one form or another, would likely point to their paramount proof-text, Romans 8:29, which includes these words in the NIV: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Given this phraseology, is this not a slam dunk for the Calvinist? No. A meticulous exegesis of this verse leads one to a conclusion that is actually more congruent with the aforementioned ORA viewpoint. Here is why. The Koine Greek word for "foreknew" used in Romans 8:29 is prognôsis and can mean "anticipated" or "predicted", not just the narrow "knowledge-of-the-future" connotation that has been adopted by most English versions. The best choice is that God "anticipated" a grouping who would follow Christ. In no way does this word mandate he caused any decision. Likewise, the Greek word for predestined, proorizo, is used 6x in the Bible, all in the NT (see Acts 4:28, Rom. 8:29-30, 1 Cor. 2:7, Eph. 1:5 & 1:11). Variant translations utilize various English words, but these all originate from this same Greek word, which can be translated either as "decreed, predestined, foreordained, decided beforehand, or destined." A literal rendering of the original text of Rom. 8:29 reads as follows: "For those [a group of believers] whom God anticipated, he decreed [this group] be jointly formed in the nature of the likeness of his Son [Jesus], who was the one who reached the point of existing as God's firstborn in a fixed position among many brethren." This literal translation is certainly much more nuanced than what is seen rendered by most English translations, which leads CMI to believe that perhaps a level of "eisegesis" was occurring in the minds of past translators. That aside, it is not a reverie to say that Rom. 8:29 can be soundly interpreted to refer to an anticipated group of believers, a group God decreed would be jointly formed to Jesus' likeness, with Jesus as the firstborn (or chief in position) in one body. Clearly, this verse refers to the corporate body of Christ, since it bestows no individual identities. What did God then decree? -- That this body shall be joined to Jesus. Undeniably, the literal rendering of the verse perfectly aligns with the entire context of Romans chapter 8. God can anticipate a corporate church that will be filled with future Christ-like people. If rightly grasped, then, this oft-cited verse is not a proof-text for predestination. Not at all. Rather, in a twist of theological irony, Rom. 8:29 appears to actually necessitate human libertarian freedom.
. MISSIOLOGY: EMBRACING AN IRENIC ETHOS WHILE COMBATING FALSE HERESIES . Re: freedom-honoring missiology, in working alongside a myriad of denominations within 82 nations/territories on all seven continents, CMI has seen Christian "koinonia" forged through Agape-fueled praxis -- never dogma. Ergo, CMI adopts an irenic & ecumenical M.O. regarding all its apologetics & altruistic activities, and amicably collaborates with NGOs & churches from all "branches" of Christendom (RCC, Protestant & Orthodox). To concentrate on regions of the world where the Gospel seems foreign, CMI focuses its mission trips primarily within the "10/40 window", the main geographic section of the planet where there is present the majority of the 7000 ethnic groups who remain, according to missiologists, "unreached" to the Gospel. In all of its global mission efforts, CMI promulgates not just the virtue of Christian unity, but also eclectic broad-mindedness, asserting that there is no normative Christian worship style or liturgy, but an eclectic array of beautiful ecclesiastical traditions, all of which facilitate "worship in spirit and truth" (see John 4:24) and bring glory to Christ. CMI's eclectic ethos extends into the realm of theology as well, as CFLI believes that many hot-button theological perspectives being promulgated in the 21st century -- such as Open Future Theism Annihilationism or Soul Sleep -- can possibly present viable theological alternatives that believers should judiciously investigate. Therefore, CMI purports that solid believers must also always be sound thinkers, musers who never cease to learn & probe new insights, and who remain humble & pliable enough to embrace new & novel paradigm shifts whenever Reason justifies doing so, all the while conceding, as Blaise Pascal sagely espoused, that "the heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing." Put simply, CMI encourages engagement of both the heart & the head. . That being said, although CMI boldly embodies an irenic, eclectic & ecumenical ministry ethos, this does not mean that incontrovertible heresies are condoned. To the contrary, CMI denounces & combats as heresy any worldview or teaching inconsistent with the Apostles' Creed and/or incompatible with the cruciform character of God. One such false 21st-century teaching is that MULTIPLE RACES exist on Planet Earth. In fact, people still see a "race" category on gov't documents. But this is a huge lie! Only ONE RACE exists: the HUMAN RACE. In this race, there simply exist varying genetic heritage percentages. Indeed, what 21st-century DNA tests have revealed is that every human being possesses different ethnicities originating from multiple places on the planet. In fact, technically, all humans possess a certain % of DNA linked to Africa. The Bible supports this notion of one race. In Gen. 6:7 (NIV), God refers to "the human race" he created. Jesus also reinforces this notion when speaking with his disciples about what will transpire in the end times, saying in Matt. 24:34 that "this genea [which can be translated both as generation & race] will certainly not pass away until all things have happened." The word "race" best fits the context. Finally, in Revelation 7:9, John writes that he was shown "a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne" of God and crying out: "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (NIV). Although heaven's throng here is diverse, all humans present are of ONE voice in their heavenly praise. . A second 21st-century heresy circulating in some Christian spheres is PLURALISM, which says that every religion can offer a viable path to God. What a lie! The exclusivity of Christ, who says he is "the Way, the Truth & the Life," is undeniable. Granted, although every religion purports at least some basic "truths" about reality, the ultimate reality is that, re: Christ, "salvation is found in no one else, for there is no name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12), even though, as stated above, knowledge of this name is not requisite for salvation. , A third false 21st-century teaching rampant in the Christendom is PROSPERITY THEOLOGY, a belief tied to the motif of seed faith which promulgates that each believer, if they simply muster enough seed faith, can and should be healthy & wealthy & prosperous. What a lie! Jesus clearly told his disciples in Matt. 26:11, Mark 14:7 & John 12:8 that "the poor you will always have with you." Granted, although it is indeed true that Jesus revealed that he specifically came to Earth so that all human beings might "have and enjoy life and have it in abundance" (see John 10:10 AMP), this Christ-bestowed abundance refers to the copiousness of joy & fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) that are beget from knowing Jesus, the perfect human being, who was himself born in a lowly stable (Luke 2), who was raised in the poorest of villages (John 1:46), who fasted 40 days while being tempted in a desolate desert (Matt. 4:1-11), who chose to be homeless during his ministry (Luke 9:58), who tortuously suffered a horrific & wrongful execution (Mark 15), and who allowed himself to feel absolute abandonment, as evidenced by his shout on the cross of "Eloi, Eloi Lama Sabachthani" (the words of Psalm 22:2) -- all so that Jesus could not only bring redemption for humanity, but be able to relate to the lowest common realities of human existence, which include poverty, temptation and suffering.
. SUMMARY THOUGHTS: THE EXQUISITE UNDENIABILITY & POTENCY OF ECCL. 3:11
In summation, the above core theological convictions are published here so that churches & colleges interested in hosting CMI fully understand the biblical & scientific positions CMI embraces & why. No theologian will ever publish a consummate theology, as human minds are innately limited. In fact, epistemologically-speaking, human truth-claims can at best only achieve undeniability, never 100% indubitable certainty. Even Descartes' famous "Cogito Ergo Sum" proposition (I think, therefore I am) is at best undeniable, not certain. To think otherwise is, epistemologically speaking, the height of naïveté. That being said, it is undeniable that solid truth-claims do exist, ones on which all theologians can agree. Ecclesiastes 3:11, alluded to above, is a case in point. This is an exquisite & riveting verse that elucidates three undeniable truths about God & his creation in a rhapsody of three potent thoughts, saying: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." What an eloquent, laconic & fitting verse to crown any theological treatise.  .
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 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | | . SALIENT, POTENT VERSES & QUOTES WHICH BUTTRESS TREATISE CLAIMS: ----------------------------------- A Cohesive Verse Flow of Core Theological Truths Which "Juxtapose" God's Character & M.O. with His Expectations of Humans ----------------------------------- "I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disgraced." -- 1 Samuel 2:30 (HCSB) "He has shown you, O Mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." -- Micah 6:8 (NIV) "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." -- 1 John 4:8 (NIV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." -- John 3:16 (NIV) . ."For man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart." -- 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV) "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." -- Romans 10:9 (NIV) "For by grace you are saved through faith. And this [salvation] is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." -- Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV). "Without faith it is impossible to please God." -- Hebrews 11:6 (NIV) . Therefore, [inheriting] the promise depends entirely on faith [that is, confident trust in the unseen God], in order that it may be given as an act of grace [His unmerited favor and mercy], so that the promise will be [legally] guaranteed to all the descendants [of Abraham]—not only for those [Jewish believers] who keep the Law, but also for those [Gentile believers] who share the faith of Abraham, who is the [spiritual] father of us all. -- Romans 4:16 (AMP) "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accom- panied by action, is dead." -- James 2:17 (NIV) "If you love me, you will obey my commandments." -- John 14:15 (GW) "If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." -- John 8:31-32 (GNT)
... ----------------------------------- In Why Christ?, Dr. Carlson describes the secret code of ancient Christians re: Christ's Deity: ----------------------------------- . . "Tied to Mark 1:18 where Jesus says he will make his disciples fishers of men, the five letters of the ancient Greek word for fish -- I-C-T-H-U-S -- spell out an ingenious acrostic for Iesous Christos Theou Uiou Soter, meaning in English, Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior, a five-word epithet that was used as a secret code by persecuted Christians residing in the Roman Empire from 64-313 AD to concisely capture the true identity of Jesus as God-incarnate. The code was simple: If two unfamiliar believers crossed paths, one would draw an arc in the dirt, while the other would then draw a parallel arc forming a fish image, thus confirming a shared faith in Christ. Even today, the ICTHUS fish is a beloved symbol of Christianity across the planet."
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---------------------------------- QUOTEWORTHY ---------------------------------- . "Given his claims to Deity & his credible & suasive resurrection, Jesus is an unparalleled figure who, if false, is of absolutely ZERO importance, and, if true, of absolutely INFINITE importance. One thing Jesus can never possess is moderate or MIDDLING importance." , - D.J.C. .
. SCIENTIFIC FACTS REGARDING TIME: . ALL GPS SATELLITES MUST FACTOR IN TIME DILATION, EXPLICITLY A NET GAIN OF 38 MICROSECONDS DAILY, IN ORDER TO ACCURATELY COMPUTE LOCATION DATA
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---------------------------------- QUOTEWORTHY --------------------------------- . "The existential reality is, regarding time, God's omnipresent NOW encompasses all of the nows of every event and every vantage point in this Cosmos, and any others which might exist, yet still permits an OPEN FUTURE." . - D.J.C. .
A BIBLICAL FACT: ONLY "1" HUMAN RACE EXISTS IN GOD'S CREATION . . 
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