Simulapsarianism

The name of the blog, as well as the soteriology to which I ascribe (and so far as I know I pioneered) ought to explained first. By A temporal eternalism I seek to designate the lack of temporality within my view of eternalism. This on the surface seems to be no large task within the realm of theological thought or that of philosophy of time. Calvin, in seeking to distinguish the persons of the trinity, affirms that we "..must not seek in eternity a before or an after." [Institutes XIII-19] Yet we have theories of the order of divine decrees, which would assert some temporality to their generation. We have discussions about how God "before time" existed and was active in decretive decree. I believe that we have falsely assumed a philosophical paradigm and because of this the great controversy of arminianism and calvinism, of free-will and determinism, has been all along asking and responding to wrong questions. My contention is two-fold. First that one cannot place an "eternal moment" before time in a linear fashion, without having that moment be relegated to time itself. Hence most theology makes God supra-temporal, but not eternal, though a simple misthinking of the problem. Secondly, I contend that by properly viewing the nature of God as being not before but "beside" time we solve many problems. If we may read this framework as a hermeneutical presupposition, we can explain many of the intractable verses of scripture which lead to the false dichotomy of free-will and determinism. We all assume a framework in scripture, both as to how God speaks, and from where. If we assume that he speaks "from before" in a linear sense, then we are forced to assume one of two options. Option one is that He speaks authoritatively from before and hence the universe is deterministic. Therefore man does not have a volitional choice outside of his contingency, and when a scripture seems to imply that he does, we must reinterpret it to fit the argument. Statements such as; "Choose this day whom you will serve," or "God wills that all men be saved," must be understood by appeal to a warning without a well meant offer, or we must construct God as having two wills, or define "all" as "all the saved." These answers create more problems than they solve. The ohter choice is to see God's beforeness as contingent on man's free choice, hence he only foreknows, but does not determine man's choice in salvation. This creates problems with the sovereignty of God and with the efficacy of his power. Furthermore we must read scripture eisogetically. When scripture says "Esau have I loved and Jacob have I hated, from their birth" we must make special arguments about nations not people (Im not sure how hating a whole nation, rather than just one person, free's God from determinism) or if scripture speaks of God choosing, we must add "according to his extensive foreknowledge" simply for the sake of keeping our framework. In short I contend that both of the highly developed and defended systems of Calvinism and Arminianism have erred because of their presuppositions. Both assume a "God linearly before time" and hence both fail to properly read scrpiture or arrive at a cogent and fair understanding of the issue.
Properly, God is positionally before and co-existant with time, so that at every moment he is present, "alongside" of, but not before. This requires much explanation, which will follow on this blog, but the primary contention is that when we ask questions of the ordo salutis, such as "Does God's regeneration preceed or procede faith?" we make a false dichotomy. The answer is regeneration is immediately simultanious to faith, because God is not before but intimitly beside time. The divine decrees are neither infra or supra lapsarian, but simulapsarian...For God (sans incarnation) events occur simutaniously...they just are. So the moment I believe, I choose, I create by my own volitional free will choice, at this very precise moment eternally God determines, regenerates, and rescues me. My free-will is coterminous with God's sovreign decree, so that I might neither rob God of his power, nor portray him as a mysterious and capricious God.