tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19005814.post115764902357137294..comments2023-10-26T01:37:49.599-07:00Comments on The Evantine Abbey: You Are Quite WrongEvan B. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08070442133774056436noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19005814.post-1158601517165016332006-09-18T10:45:00.000-07:002006-09-18T10:45:00.000-07:00In that case how do you deal with the verb tenses ...In that case how do you deal with the verb tenses in Jhn 8:58 (after all he could have used aorist or perfect tenses)? As far as verb tenses in this passage go, the reference is to being (present tense) the God of Abraham, Yitzak, & Yaakov and he is communicating to an audience that experiences time in a (roughly) linear fashion. Therefore to say "am" rather than "was" requires an "afterlife" for communication of the correct idea to the audience; it does not preclude atemporality of God or even particularly indicate it since this phrasing is at least equally consistent with atemporality as with non-actuality of non-Present times. And this is key to determining the validity of this idea in Scripture. Scripture is to communicate with us (who are currently experiencing existence temporally) therefore the idea of correct communication within verb tenses is an interesting one.Nuallainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10284752933284385360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19005814.post-1158429187268752752006-09-16T10:53:00.000-07:002006-09-16T10:53:00.000-07:00And they are still present to Him.(This is all ass...And they are still present to Him.<BR/><BR/>(This is all assuming an "actual" atemporality, meaning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are actually always alive for God. My view is that the Past and Future are conceptual rather than actual for God.)Evan B. Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08070442133774056436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19005814.post-1158395156703855082006-09-16T01:25:00.000-07:002006-09-16T01:25:00.000-07:00Joe here. Trying for the 2nd time to track with y...Joe here. Trying for the 2nd time to track with you. I venture to summarize your brain-train:<BR/><BR/>"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."<BR/><BR/>If God is atemporal, he can still be the God of the living if people die, because he's still present to them before they died... ?<BR/><BR/>I'm taking this argument one step at a time. I'm taking my sympathetic hearing of heresy on the installment plan. Questions will wait politely until you respond or find them on your front porch reading 'something important.'eunoehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08377383063989100298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19005814.post-1157672114069428182006-09-07T16:35:00.000-07:002006-09-07T16:35:00.000-07:00Nope, you didn't miss a thing. I'll take the tent...Nope, you didn't miss a thing. I'll take the tentative nature of your breathing into consideration on future posts.Evan B. Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08070442133774056436noreply@blogger.com