Here is what you said in 153:
"Well, you've got two separate questions here that don't fit in with each other, or don't flow from one to the other."
Sounds like I had it right the first time.
Now, as to your contentions about attributing "evil" to God. I think that you have reacted in a knee-jerk kind of way to CCWoody's posts. He never said that God committed "evil", but he did attempt to get you to understand that you call "evil" some things that Scripture rightly attributes to God. The fact that you stated that you didn't know my point of view shows that you haven't read this thread very carefully. May I suggest you do a re-read and ask for a "do over"?
Would you agree that God is the "first cause" of everything in the universe? After all, couldn't God have kept Lucifer from becoming Satanic had He chosen not to create Lucifer in the first place?
of which I said --
Well, you've got two separate questions here that don't fit in with each other, or don't flow from one to the other."
Now you say --
Sounds like I had it right the first time.
as you were referring to your previous comments of --
Re. 153. And you complain that my post didn't have a logical flow !?!
and my answer of --
Well now..., I don't believe I quite said that. You might look again. Perhaps you're interpreting that I meant that.
And so -- I looked at that, from my last post, in answering you. And I don't see it that way. That is not saying that your "post didn't have a logical flow..."
It simply doesn't seem like they are necessarily linked in that one will be intimately tied in with the other. And the reason why is that God can create Lucifer and not be the first cause of evil and unrighteousness. And you don't include the issue of Lucifer not being a "machine" but rather a being who does have choice -- otherwise he couldn't be held "responsible" (and he is held responsible).
Therefore it doesn't necessarily relate together in terms of one flowing from the other.
So,again, to me -- that is not saying that your post is not logical. You jump on something that is not intended in order to produce some "slight" which is not there.
Even so, how much is it worth going into the way you saw it -- versus -- the way I saw it. I'll simply leave it at the fact that they don't fit in with each other (as flowing from one to the other) and that is the extent of what I said.
Now, as to your contentions about attributing "evil" to God. I think that you have reacted in a knee-jerk kind of way to CCWoody's posts. He never said that God committed "evil", but he did attempt to get you to understand that you call "evil" some things that Scripture rightly attributes to God. The fact that you stated that you didn't know my point of view shows that you haven't read this thread very carefully. May I suggest you do a re-read and ask for a "do over"?
You say... "but he did attempt to get you to understand that you call "evil" some things that Scripture rightly attributes to God." And that is the problem, in that people use the English word of "evil" as in the meaning of unrighteousness -- and that is therefore the wrong word, because of the connotations involved.
Now, if people want to distinguish that word as "calamity" and "woe" -- as opposed to "moral evil" -- and therefore never attribute moral evil and unrighteousness to God -- then I have nothing more to say about it -- because that's the extent to which I'm going. There is nothing more beyond that.
So -- therefore -- if you're saying that CCWoody does not attribute any unrighteousness to God and that the word "evil" (in that context of Isaiah 45:7) has the meaning of "calamity" and "woe" -- even though it uses the "word" evil -- then that's fine. That would be exactly what I'm saying.
HOWEVER, when people take this "tack" and start attributing all meanings of the word "evil" (including "moral evil") to God -- then they are simply wrong.
Thus, it depends on which position CCWoody is taking. I've made mine clear by the fact that I'm saying that the English translation is wrong [if one is to take it as "moral evil"] -- and the word should be rendered "calamity" and/or "woe" and that's sufficient for me to correct the wrong position. It doesn't appear that CCWoody wishes to clarify the situation to the extent of eliminating unrighteousness from God's doing and God's hand.
As far as going back to reading the same things again... no need for me to do that, as I already know what we're talking about here, in regards to Isaiah 45:7 -- which is where this started.