So am I right or not Puny? Why won't you answer a simple question? Does your god blind people or help them see? Which is it? It makes a big difference. Did your god blind me and all the other Catholics on purpose so he could watch us burn in hell for all eternity just for the fun of it? If that's the case do you really want to be with that kind of god for all eternity watching us all burn. Does the prospect of that give you joy? If your god blinded me, why do you think you can help me and other Catholics see? Are you more powerful than your own god? Wouldn't your efforts to undo his will get him angry at you? Why do you try so hard? Maybe your god told you there is no hell, in that case what difference does it make?
I guess you are right I am not just blasphemous to the puny gospel but I am a fool as well, Ahh but then I already knew that. What is the puny punishment for my insolence oh great after dark one?
Do you even know what the gospel is? You should. Since God has said, in Romans 2:16 "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." That was Paul writing through inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So there is a gospel you WILL be judged by. And Paul calls it "my gospel". Don't you think you should at least spend a little time trying to find out what it is?
God has blinded no one during this time of grace. But be warned, there IS coming a time: "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." (2 Thess. 2:11). WHY WOULD HE DO THIS?
"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received NOT the LOVE OF THE TRUTH, that they might be saved." (2 Thess. 2:10). And what is the LOVE OF THE TRUTH? THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD. Paul calls it "my gospel".
“So am I right or not Puny? Why won’t you answer a simple question?’
It’s not a matter of “why won’t I,” I simply didn’t give a detailed response since you ignored the scripture and my post. If you will not engage it, what good is it to talk to you? And it’s not as if what you wrote is so profound that it hasn’t been seen and answered for over 2,000 years, whether it is Augutine answering it, or Paul, or Christ, or Calvin and Luther.
But to answer your question now, Adam’s sin killed us all, so that all those who have been brought forth from his loins have been spiritually dead from the womb, incapable of seeing, already blind, and dumb, and doomed. In this we could say that man is his own killer, and chose to blind himself, and all men from thenceforth, inheriting the evil nature of Adam, now sin willingly and truly according to their own desires, which are utterly depraved unless God cause them to be renewed:
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”
(Eph 2:1-5)
Before that, there is no one who seeks after God, or who can understand Him, because we are depraved:
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
(Rom 3:9-12)
But on the other hand, God not only permitted Adam’s fall, and the birth of every individual whom He would not save, but actively decreed it:
Pro 16:4 The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble
Not only that, but even after this initial condemnation and decree of reprobation, He still holds the right to blind anyone even more, and harden them, and cause them to do His will, according to His own purpose:
Pro 21:1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.
Exo 4:21 And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
So on the one hand, man is responsible for His own sin; yet, God not only decreed their birth, but also, with His power, does not let them run free, but uses them for His own purpose, and raises them up accordingly. Whether that is to be hardened, like Pharaoh, or to be freed from shackles, as all the elect.
The reason why I called your post blasphemous is because you do not have a fear of God, but yet say these things freely without taking a moment to respond to the scripture. Why call God evil if God declares in Holy Writ, that “no man can come to me unless it is given to Him by my Father”?
Who are you to judge who God hardens and who He does not harden? I’ll give you the advice of two men, one greater than the other, but both our worthy Christians. The first, Paul:
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
(Rom 9:19-21)
And now Augustine, commenting from John 6:
“Murmur not among yourselves: no man can come unto me, except the Father that sent me draw him. Noble excellence of grace! No man comes unless drawn. There is whom He draws, and there is whom He draws not; why He draws one and draws not another, do not desire to judge, if you desire not to err.” (Augustine, Tractate 26)
” If your god blinded me, why do you think you can help me and other Catholics see? “
I cannot, as, obviously, no man can call Christ Lord but by the Holy Ghost (1 Co 12:3). Though, God works through the preaching of the Word, so that though a man isn’t converted through human reason, yet we who preach the Gospel move according to the will of God in How he reaches the elect:
Act_13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.