"Bill Hamilton sent us on 27 July, responding to Stephen Jones, the old
poem
> For lack of a nail the shoe was lost;
> For lack of a shoe the horse was lost;
> For lack of a horse the rider was lost;
> For lack of a rider the battle was lost;
> For lack of a victory the kingdom was lost.
Is this a good example of nonlinearity? Chaos theory (after all, many
nails could be missing, but because of the lack of *this* nail the
kingdom was lost, surely an unpredictable result)?
Sort of seriously..."
Serious for whom? While unpredictability is a real problem for our local
weatherman, I am sure God knows exactly what weather each of us will have
in our various communities a month from now, indeed a century from now.
I am not trying to be cute. This issue is obviously important when we are
trying to assess how God has done this or that. For we frequently find our
deductive processes hung up by thinking in terms of OUR limitations, not
God's. Indeed, I believe much of the debate that occurs on the reflector
traces to this problem.
For instance, purposeful action for me requires that I think about the
relevant issues in relatively close time proximity to the events for which
the action is relevant. But with God, purposeful action for an event
today might have been worked out yesterday, or in the remote past.
(Indeed, maybe tomorrow! Who's to say? This is not completely fanciful.)
In each case, we have the same loving God purposefully looking after his
creation.
In this regard, the only problem is a self-imposed problem: a problem for
us when we attempt to minutely analyze WHEN God chose to act in a
particular situation (in order to draw deductions, and/or, perhaps, to
score debating points).
Sorry, Russ, if I have gotten too far afield from your train of thought.
Gordie