Revelation 22:19 Revisited - A Walktrough of One of Many Proofs against Predestination

Just as the Pythagorean Theorem has had at least a thousand alternative proofs to it since Pythagorus, so also have there been MANY VALID DISPROOFS of Predestination that even predate Calvin, going back to St. Irenaeus who wrote Polemics against Calvin's Predecessors and proponents of Predestination, the Gnostics. I add my disproof to the alredy long list of disproofs, though there are other implicit disproofs in my original Edited-Not Translated post [i.e. That Contrary Evidence would be Edited Out of the Bible of Volition]. Here's the scripture in question, from page 567 of the EOB:

19 If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.

Let us suppose Predestination. If anyone would be Predestined, it would be William Whittington, John Calvin's Brother-in-Law that published the Geneva Bible. Let us further suppose that William Whittington expunged Revelation 22:19 from his Bible (as was shown in the original Edited-Not Translated post). This causes a Parodox in that William Whittington is both Predestined (SAVED) and Condemned for Violating Revelation 22:19 (LOST). Therefore William Whittington was both SAVED and LOST.

Of course, the only resolution for this Paradox is to put William Whittington in Purgatory. Since Orthodox and Protestants don't believe in Purgatory, Reduction to an Absurdity has been reached. [This is the Deductive Logic of the Mathematician and of Sherlock Holmes, where slowly, the possiblities considered and enumerated. As the possibilities are eliminated, that which remains must be the Truth. This is the opposite form of Inductive Logic of Hermeneutics, which I have been accused of ignoring.]

As per the comment that I have heard from Calvinists that "No One Predestined would ever remove this Verse from Scripture", I call their attention to William Whittington. Of course, since William Whittington was Totally Depraved like the rest of Humanity (ie., unable to advance the cause of his own Salvation in any way), his efforts in Bible Translation were DOOMED at the onset. Of course, how could he possibly be Illumined {Thanks, Matt!} if he expunged Revelation 22:19 from the Bible?

Another similar interesting Parodox is that of the Bodily Resurrection as it applies to Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the Planet Pluto, where his remains are being sent for his Eternal Rest. This reminds me of "When I soar to Worlds Unknown" in Rock of Ages. . . .

Doctrinal Paradoxes

We owe it to Mathematician Kurt Gödel that paradoxes derive from self-referentiality. This causes problems with the belief that the Bible being "self-authenticating". By construct, there are other holy books which must, of necessity, be self-authenticating. Even Mathematical Texts are self-authenticating. Such a weak claim of self-authentication detracts, rather than enhances, the Truth of the Bible. If I am to maintain my Christianity, I can have no use for "self-authentication".

Let us recognize that there have been several attempts to control the message of the Bible, either by the insertion of false books into the Bible as was tried by the Gnostics in the first three centuries of Christianity tried to do, or by the editing of Biblical content to maintain pet doctrines, such as the editing of the Bible to de-emphasize scripture, say Revelation 22:19 to protect a pet doctrine.

The main focus, however, is to investigate the underpinnings of if the Bible were true in relation to Doctrine. Case in point are the doctrines of Monergism and Total Depravity. If Mongerism and/or Total Depravity were true, than Man can in no way further the cause of his own salvation, or for that matter, the salvation of another. The translating, publishing, and commentary on the Bible are activities which, if competently done, furthers the salvation of Man. Therefore, the Bible cannot be competently translated, published, or commented upon. Since this is a conclusion that I cannot accept without the abandonment of the Bible or Christianity, I must discard Mongerism and Total Depravity.

The sieve I use to separate Wheat from Chaff is the Reduction to an Absurdity technique of Mathematicians. This blog's premise is that anything that undermines the Bible, its authority, and the Canonization process, from which the Bible was determined, is void. In consequence, I must oppose various forms of NeoGnosticism or premises that legitimatize NeoGnosticism as certain confessions of faith would do. Said compromises with NeoGnosticism opens the way for the inclusion of previously discarded books from the Bible, in particular, the gospels of Judas, Thomas, and Phillip, and the Apocalypse of St. Peter. Since Cannonization was a MetaScriptural Process, this blog must also be MetaScriptural. When Scripture is actually quoted, it will be generally be used to demonstrate that a particular version of the Bible is Edited, Not Translated in this blog.

Theological Responsibility requires that if a doctrine gets refuted, it must either be replaced by by a plausibe doctrine, or that it wasn't needed to begin with. To be Theologically Responsible, my refutation of Monergism has made me Synsegistic by default. Since there is Sin in this World, I have to account for it in consequence to debunking Total Depravity. I find both the Doctrine of Original Sin and the Doctrine of the Corruption of the Nature of Man both acceptable doctrines at this point.

I must make one last observation. There is an obscure "Doctrine of Illumination", apparently propounded by St. Augustine, that God can cause a person to be illumined. Illumination does not confer Holiness. It follows that an Illumined Sinner is still a Totally Depraved Sinner, and the incompetance to translate, copy, print, interpret, or comment upon the Bible still remains. Chapter XXXI of the Westminster Confession, to be discussed later, actually concedes the point by stating that ALL Church Councils are invalid because they are Sinful without imputing ANY Illumination to ANY Church Council.