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Tag Archives: god’s strategy

Interview: Roger Forster on ‘God’s Strategy in Human History’

Posted on April 28, 2015 by prayerwalk Posted in Authors, Books, Roger Forster
GSiHH
All the editions of God’s Strategy in Human History…

God’s Strategy in Human History by Roger T Forster and Paul Marston was first published in 1973. and a revised and expanded third edition was released in 2013.  I recently was able to ask Roger a few questions about the book.

Could you briefly summarise what God’s purpose and plan is throughout the history of humanity?

Firstly, to defeat and rout out evil from the universe.  Secondly, to conform to the image of Christ as many people as will let God do it to them.  Thirdly, to bring in a new heaven and a new earth.

Why did you and Paul Marston originally write God’s Strategy in Human History?

I found myself continuously teaching, correcting and instructing concerning God’s character, which in popular evangelical circles was presenting God as ordaining everything that happens. I felt this caricature of God unacceptable and unbiblical. So I wrote concerning the truths of predestination, meaning God’s purpose or destiny for man is Christ likeness which we can reject.  Election is the office of servanthood that God has appointed for the church (compare Jesus the elect suffering servant of God). Election is nothing to do with going to heaven or hell: it is to do with washing feet.

What have been the main changes to the new edition?

The basic concepts of Augustinian Calvinism and the answers to these assertions in our exegesis has remained virtually unchanged, but we have added other sections, mainly ones on the intermediate state after death before the resurrection and tackled the thorny issue of eternal conscious torment. Most of the intricate and sometimes heavy scholarship lying behind our arguments are separated into the second volume which many people may find unnecessary to engage with. Although for ourselves it is very important.  A third addition are the key concepts and definitions where many of the ideas are listed conveniently together at the end of volume one.

To what extent do you think the ideas/concepts from the 1973 book have impacted the theology of the ‘average’ Christian over the years?

I find this one almost impossible to answer. Of course we get many eulogies of people who have been delivered from wrong views of God after reading our book. I think there are more student minds today willing to see there is an alternative to Augustinian Calvinism, perhaps more than there were. However, to comment on the average Christian is extremely difficult: popular ideas will always continue however carefully they might be refuted.

What topics from God’s Strategy in Human History do you consider are the most vital for people to grasp today?

Firstly, that God is not ordaining everything and controlling everything that happens. Although He is the first cause in creation of everything, including the Devil, He does not ordain everything that the devil does or that mankind should sin.

Secondly, that God is love and has given us free will which is necessary for us to love.

Thirdly, that God is to be preached as like Jesus and not like a despotic tyrannical torturer of human beings.

Has the Calvinist vs Arminian debate changed since God’s Strategy in Human History was first written?

This again is a difficult one to answer, in some parts of the world the issue is hardly ever considered. In Europe, Calvinism is still the dominant view, but the debates seem to be less frequent since large numbers of Christians are very shallow in their grasp of scripture and don’t therefore have the ability to engage in depth with the subjects. Biblical interest in the church is less than it was, however, one finds the occasional person like the gentleman who was a Calvinist and did a PhD on my theology. After he had gained his PhD he came to tell me that he had changed his position to Arminianism. Perhaps there are some other people like him around.

God’s Strategy in Human History is published by Push Publishing and available in two volumes.

calvinism election god's strategy god's strategy in human history kingdom of god paul marston predestination Roger Forster

Is Christendom Dying?

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Ben Trigg Posted in Books

Death_of_ChristendomWhat is Christendom? Christendom is seen by many as the ‘church triumphant and militaristic’, the church that is allied with the state and will use earthly powers, even the power of the sword (history has shown), to bend society to its will. It is often seen as having begun with the ‘conversion’ of the Roman emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD. The mindset it creates tends to lament the time when Christians lose control over civil and governmental powers.

Is it dying? For a long time now, on various parts of the theological spectrum, an answer has begun to resound: ‘Yes. And that’s no bad thing.’ For example, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon wrote about its death, and how releasing it is for the true church, in their little book Resident Aliens: Life In The Christian Colony.

But they weren’t the first to notice the final throes of Christendom in the West. Greg Boyd in his foreword to the third edition of God’s Strategy in Human History champions this book (by Roger Forster and Paul Marston) for its influence early in his life as a theologian and pastor, and hopes that the seeds it sowed in its first and second editions will now be reaped by the third.

He reckons its timing is perfect. ‘The religion of Christendom with its vision of the “church triumphant” is on its way out!’ People are starting to wake up to the fact that Jesus is not a conquering Caesar but a humble, crucified Saviour, says Boyd.

A Kingdom Revolution

Gods Strategy in Human History Volumes 1&2
God’s Strategy in Human History (3rd edn) – Volumes 1&2

God’s Strategy was first published in 1973. Before the New Perspective on Paul was making waves, or Open Theologians such as Clark Pinnock, Greg Boyd or Richard Rice were reflecting on God’s relationship with the future, Roger Forster and Paul Marston were striding ahead with their bold challenges to the traditional views on concepts such as predestination, foreknowledge, free will and more.

In this new third edition they have been able to interact with some of the more recent, welcome developments in Pauline and New Testament studies, including the New Perspective on Paul. They have highlighted where their points are now being reinforced, and noted where they would still differ and offer further challenges. Ever careful in their approach, they also issue the occasional note of caution in regard to Open Theology, preferring a ‘middle way’ between Arminianism and Openness, known as ‘Relational Theology’.

As Greg Boyd states in his introduction, their work speaks right to the core of the ‘kingdom revolution’ that is taking place. People are rediscovering the true nature of Jesus’ kingdom, that it is ‘not of this world’. Thus also the picture of God that went with Christendom – an all-determining, fatalistic moral monster – is fading into

nothingness as people discover what he’s really like. Forster and Marston’s work helps us to do this, and in so doing offers a new manifesto for being ‘in the world, not of it’, offering a view of God that is better than anyone could possibly imagine, seeing off the worldly mindset of Christendom, and encouraging a fresh devotion to the way of Christ’s heavenly kingdom.

book calvinism christendom god's strategy god's strategy in human history greg boyd kingdom of god kingdom revolution paul marston reformation reformed theology Roger Forster theology theology book

Recent blog posts

  • Interview: Paul Marston – Why did you write “God’s Strategy in Human History”? October 17, 2015
  • Why do bad things happen to good people? (Part 2) September 8, 2015
  • Why do bad things happen to good people? Pt.1 June 8, 2015
  • God’s Foreknowledge – How much does God know about the future? May 8, 2015
  • Interview: Roger Forster on ‘God’s Strategy in Human History’ April 28, 2015
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