A lot of Christian people have bought into the unbiblical idea of constant (discrete) creation as opposed to immediate and enduring creation (analog) that is described in the Bible. Constant creation establishes a God who is making everything constantly and making everything happen that comes to pass. The reason that many people think that this is a good description of God’s way of doing things is because it is the way they would do it if they were God. Obviously, the enduring creation way of doing things leaves room for trouble. After all, the stuff that God makes might have the capacity to forget Him and do something stupid…or evil…or sinful. You see, there are only 2 ways of looking at this situation if you believe in God. Either the constant creation idea is correct and God becomes the author of evil, or, the enduring creation position is truly descriptive of reality and creatures are able to rebel.
A really good example of the idea of discrete creation is the Big Bang theory. Attempts to make the Genesis description of creation fit in with the Big Bang cosmology are foolish. It is like trying to make an elevator arrive more quickly by continuing to push the lighted button. An analog result cannot be derived from a discrete condition.
In 2 Kings 4:1-7 we find Elisha giving a widow the opportunity to save her children from captivity. Her dead husband owed money and she has nothing with which to pay except to turn over her two small boys to the creditor. The picture that results from this story is a wonderful image of salvation. Certainly the widow saves her boys, but there is also the picture of how salvation works in the world. The oil does not cease until the last vessel is filled. There is more available but nowhere to put it…analog condition. (The discrete idea would be that a certain amount was destined and was made during each nanosecond of the pouring – Calvinism and Open Theism).
Notice that the oil does not stop flowing after the fifth pot is filled and the widow has to return unused vessels to their owners.
Notice that the prophet does not tell the widow to only fill the pots that have handles and skip the jars.
Notice that the woman does not fill only copper vessels and leaves the clay pots out on the front porch.
In her need and in her desire to save her boys, she is obedient to the prophet’s word and fills all. The oil is still flowing when she calls for another jar and all have been filled. Then “the oil stayed” (verse 7). This incident is not a picture of calvinistic pre-selection. “Whosoever will” may be filled with oil. Salvation is abundant beyond the need! Calvinists lie when they say there is only enough for them (assuming they can produce proof of their certification of eternal pre-selection…something that the Bible does not guarantee) and everyone else was chosen to go to hell.
Here is the problem. The calvinist wants to have both types of creation operating simultaneously. Discrete and analog. When they need to prove a difficulty they have caused themselves in one area, they switch universes and have God bail them out. Look at the idea of de facto sovereignty. Calvinists want a God who is constantly making everything and, as a result, making them perfect from before creation and injected into this corrupt creation that is the fault of evil --- evil that came about as a part of the analog creation and for which God is not responsible. When you boil it down, it is just a new expression of the old heresy of dualism.
Is there any way that humans can describe exactly how God made the oil continue when, scientifically, the amount in the original jar should have been all there was? If we are incapable of describing how God makes something as simple as extra oil, how are calvinists so confident in describing who gets saved and who goes to hell? Is their God big enough to keep oil flowing but has to put discrete limits on salvation to humans that He cares enough for that He will die on a cross (Jesus is God!!). Oil from a jar can flow and flow…blood from His own body has to be measured out drop by drop to the pre-selected, exclusive, special ones that God lets in on the game of hating reprobates?
There is a place where blood has been provided to wash any and all of humanity from our sins. Jesus Christ died on a bloody Roman cross to provide salvation for people that is only limited by the total number of people that live from Adam to the return of Jesus. No calvinist knows that number. They, like all others who obey Jesus, are under orders to bring vessels that can contain oil – the ministry of reconciliation.
Come to the cross.
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