Blue Petals Afloat

Blue Petals Afloat
Logic informs us the corollas are not afloat

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Two Builders/Makers, but Only One Creator

If the designer of a certain project is also the only one who could manufacture a certain instrument that makes possible all operations carried out for completion of the project, and if the designer of the project and manufacturer of that instrument is the only one who could be the source of certain knowledge needed for operation of the instrument -- and that knowledge is knowledge that he makes sure is graciously and sufficiently imparted to, let us say, but only one other person in order that he (the student) be able to use the instrument --, then you have two persons responsible for building the project; two builders built the project. Only one of them, however, was the crucial source of knowledge and abilities necessary to the project's successful completion. We can say that he is the creator of the project (that was carried out in a certain way, namely, through use of another person) because he is: (1) the designer of the project, and (2) the gracious, unconstrained instructor of another person for him to become involved as a builder, too, for completion of the project (cf. Col. 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:2, 3; John 1:3, 10). One able to use this tool is no puppet on a string. 


We must make certain accommodation in any illustration we might present as a (rough) sort of parallel to some of what transpired in the Son's involvement with his Father for the making of all things meant to bring honor both to the Father and to the Son. An illustration meant to offer us a logical parallel to the Son's involvement with the Father in His (the Father's) creative activity must accommodate the fact that the Father used His holy spirit in order that He might graciously and sufficiently qualify His Son for him to be a co-worker with Him (the Father) for the manufacture of all things meant to bring them honor. Accordingly, we are not constrained to think that the Son's spirit-empowered involvement with His Father's creative works makes the Son's role as a co-laboring agent in the Father's service merely to be like the role that a puppet is made to assume. (Nor should we think that the Creator necessarily had to qualify His Son as a maker with his Father before the Father might enjoy relationship with many more sons besides His Firstborn Son. The Father could have chosen not to use a Firstborn Son in order to create through him other sons for them to love their Father and to experience His love for them.) Both the Father and the Son are makers, but only one (the Father) is the Creator, the One Who is the Source of certain knowledge and power graciously given over to an appreciative Son for him to use for bringing into existence the things referred to above. 



Saturday, June 26, 2021

What JW.ORG Teaches, and What It Does Not Teach

If you want to learn about the monarch butterfly for free, you can find pertinent material on a venue free of evolutionistic pseudoscience; you have only to search links available on JW.ORG. For example, there is this one:
And there are other references to the intelligently designed monarch butterfly in material produced by Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Pertinent references are: "Life--How Did It Get Here? By Evolution or By Creation?" (p. 166); "Awake!" (December 22, 1978, pp. 24-6).
JW.ORG's materials clearly identify what another venue has called "transcendent intelligence." The real referent for that phrase is Jehovah, the God of the Bible, because His is the "transcendent intelligence" manifested in 'intelligently designed/created' life forms. The concern of some publishing institution -- but not JW.ORG -- is that it not be challenged by credible argument that its materials are openly "Christian" or "Biblical," for if that can be successfully argued, then a non-profit, religious academy that uses it -- uses it instead of using material that endorses evolutionism -- might be liable to having its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS.
In fact, the IRS has recently become much less tolerant of any tax-exempt institution that would, in the opinion of the IRS, teach something that, as the argument goes, leads readers/students to identify with the Republican party. Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses is apolitical; it endorses no political party / political philosophy. Therefore, we Jehovah's Witnesses ought not to come under the kind of scrutiny that the IRS on June 21, 2021 stated was its concern for a certain religious institution's policies. We read this:
"The Internal Revenue Service denied a Christian nonprofit group tax-exempt status because the Bible’s “teachings are typically affiliated with” the GOP and its candidates.
“Specifically, you educate Christians on what the Bible says in areas where they can be instrumental including the areas of sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, biblical justice, freedom of speech, defense, and borders and immigration, U.S. and Israel relations,” read a letter from IRS Exempt Organizations Director Stephen Martin to Christians Engaged, a nonprofit group seeking tax-exempt status. “The Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican Party] and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under IRC Section 501(c)(3).”
[IRS denies tax-exempt status to Christian nonprofit group because ‘Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the Republican Party’](https://news.yahoo.com/irs-denies-tax-exempt-status...)
There are no political motivations behind any of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses. (However, we do not hesitate to show from the Bible what the God of the Bible has put in His Word (the Bible) that condemns homosexuality and elective abortion.) Bible study aids used by Jehovah's Witnesses give reasonable argument in support of the contention that intelligent design informs nature, and all of those Bible study aids are free of any political agenda; they are free of any endorsement of any political party or political philosophy. Those Bible study aids do, however, fearlessly, straightforwardly, and publicly identify that which another venue -- one not associated with Jehovah's Witnesses -- merely (namelessly) referred to as a "transcendent intelligence": the Bible study aids we use show from the Bible that that "transcendent intelligence" is a person, the Supreme Being who is the only Creator, the God of the Bible, whose name is Jehovah.