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To: HarleyD

" So God doesn't know our choice???? Yet He foreknows us???? Doesn't this seem the least bit odd?"

No; "anticipate" in this instance means to act upon foreknowledge, not that he doesn't "know". The problem is language and unless one can accept, because we cannot ever understand or participate in, as humans, the the ineffable essence of God but rather only experience or encounter His energies, human language will never be enough to describe God. For this reason, the apophatic theology of the Cappadocian Fathers (and to an extent the experiences of those Eastern and Western Christians who have experienced the Uncreated Light of God as at Mount Tabor)is the only theology which gives a marginally satisfactory way to look at what God is in terms of theosis, or put another way, the fulfillment of why we were created, which, in the end, is precisely what we are talking about here.

When we use anthropormorphic terminology (which is pretty much all we have) and don't accept (again, we cannot "understand") the ineffability of God, we end up with a God who, in human terms and with a human heart, "damns" and "elects". The truth of the matter is that God does not "exist" in any sense that we can understand.


674 posted on 11/19/2005 5:13:09 PM PST by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: Kolokotronis
No; "anticipate" in this instance means to act upon foreknowledge, not that he doesn't "know". The problem is language

The problem isn't language. The problem is theology. If God knows WHO will be saved then why would the synergist say God wants all men saved? If God knows WHO will be damned then why did God create them in the first place?

When we use anthropormorphic terminology (which is pretty much all we have) and don't accept (again, we cannot "understand") the ineffability of God, we end up with a God who, in human terms and with a human heart, "damns" and "elects".

Did it ever occur to you that perhaps God does, in His sovereign will and right, elects and damns? Augustine, Calvin and Luther all came to this conclusion. So did I. People sure spend an awful lot of time telling God what is His business.

The truth of the matter is that God does not "exist" in any sense that we can understand.

Not in any sense of our preconceived ideas. It goes back to my earlier comment, you will never be able to understand many of the scriptural verses until you come to the conclusion of a God who "elects" and "damns". God is for the most part understandable if you're willing to listen.

684 posted on 11/20/2005 1:08:03 AM PST by HarleyD (Joh 8:36 "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.)
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