Fred okemwa.
THST 520 Works of God.
Final exam. 1st part.
7/29/2009.

Q.A.Describe how your perspective on the works of God has changed or progressed this summer?
I wish to start in answering this question by saying that we cannot understand the works of God unless he reveals them to us. By this I mean that in away the works of God are similar to our works and dissimilar in some ways. For instance God is the creator and we are the creatures, in the book of Isaiah 64:8 he is the potter we are the clay. In the book of Isaiah 55:8-9 he says his thought and ways are not our thoughts and ways as the heavens are far from the earth so are his ways and thoughts. In 1st Thessalonians 2:13, we see that there is a similarity between our works and God’s works.
A according to Gunton, he says that the works of God can be best understood from the perspective of Trinitarian approach. By that I mean that the three members of the Godhead are involved. For instance, in the incarnation, john 1:14 God the son is mentioned whereas in the book of Luke 1:35 both the father and the spirit are mentioned in the entire process of incarnation. In the Illumination of the churches, ephesians 1:15-22 the father son and the spirit are mentioned in the process. in the salvation, Romans 1:16-17 the father and the son are mentioned while in the book of 1st thessalonians5:13 the spirit is mentioned as the sanctification agent. In inspiration as well as creation we see the entire three active in doing the work.
I also understood God’s work to be primordial and eschatological. Primordial means the works of God which we cannot contribute anything to it for instance his foreknowledge and predestination. Eschatological means the works of God at the end of time. In a sense I also progressed in understanding that God works monergistically and synergistically. By that I mean that monergy is the aspect of God working alone and synergy is the aspect of God working together with the cosmos and when he does so there is a distinction between what God does and what the cosmos does through the power given to it by God.

B.Mention some relevant bible texts show how your understanding of this text has progressed?
The texts that in particular I have progressed to understand is Romans 8:28-30 which talks about foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification. The term predestination as used here, sincerely speaking I could not understand it till it was explained from the freedom approach perspective. Now I can say that I believe in predestination. I also have progressed in understanding by connecting the text in Galatians 5:6-8 which mentions about faith, love and hope with Romans 8:28-30. While love remains the central governor of both foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification, it is easy to link justification with faith Romans 5:1-2, Grolification with hope Romans 5:2, calling with love Romans 8:28, foreknowledge with faith and predestination with hope. This linking was fascinating and it helped me a lot in understanding this order of salvation and the work of God as well.