Do you believe this, or don't you?
Please, oh please, tell me if I have misquoted you in any way.
If I have, THEN I shall understand your unhappiness.
But if I have only quoted your own words back to you (and Dave.. we know I have) -- it's not MY fault that your ashamed of your own beliefs, and don't want them brought up in discussion.
I am not ashamed of mine.
Do you believe this, or don't you?
I believe that the question of free will versus determinism is larger than our ability to understand.
That said, we must operate in the realm of free will. We have choices and we will be held responsible for them. In that fashion we must operate under the assumption that what we choose matters and that it can be opposite than God's will for us.
In this way, and this is what I meant way back when, God does not always get what He wants.
On a higher level, discussing aspects of creation and how God made the world to be, we have a different scenario. But in practical terms as a Christian living day-to-day, it is simply dangerous and preposterous to posit a world in which there is nothign we can do that will displease God, or which is not what God wants of us. How is sin possible if we are all just doing what God wants?
But if I have only quoted your own words back to you (and Dave.. we know I have) -- it's not MY fault that your ashamed of your own beliefs, and don't want them brought up in discussion.
Who said I am ashamed? My beliefs do not always serve as a good bumper sticker, and can be taken out of context and misunderstood. Necessitating long boring elaborations. But in this case, it's just irrelevant to bring up into a conversation where you won't even address the very first thing I said, that "the works of the law" means something specific.
SD