If God's plan is perfect it needs no adjusting. It is playing itself out exactly the way God wanted. It only appears to us (your famous POV approach) that for some things God intervenes and in some cases He doesn't. I think that would reflect Reformed theology accurately.
God's plan is perfect and needs no adjusting, as you said. But, it still has to be carried out within time. When I'm born, I have no inclination to come to God at all, indeed I cannot. Therefore, if part of God's plan is that I come to Him. then He MUST act within time during my lifetime. He did act by changing my heart after I was born. And you are right, this is from the human POV. :)From God's POV one could say that everything is already "done". However, from God's POV we can't even talk about the director/observer issue because time is required to do either.
And allowing your children to be tempted, knowing they will sin and die is love?
God loves HIS children, not the lost.
Allowing evil is love?
Sure. Without evil, how would I recognize my need for Him?
Then sacrificing your own Son to fulfill the "divine justice" is love?
It's the greatest act of love in the history of creation, and goes right with the quote from my last post [John 15:13].
Why not make it perfect the first time and never have to "fix" it? It seems there have been constant "patch-up" jobs throughout the Bible.
God DID make it perfect the first time. I am certainly a better Christian today for having known of the mistakes of those who went before me. The "patch-up" jobs were planned changes in course, not corrections. I agree with the Orthodox Church, which says that God is unchanging.
God is perfect and what He does is perfect. He cannot be but perfect and His work cannot be but perfect. His creation is therefore perfect and His plan is playing itself out perfectly without any need for correction or adjustment or replacement or plan B, right?
Right.
How do you explain interventions when the Plan is perfect unless you admit that God intentionally created evil and allowed it to disturb His perfect plan so that He has something to do.
I don't know what you mean by "interventions". God is always intervening in the implementation of His plan. We are all born dead in sin. If He did not intervene, then all would perish. ...... God did not create evil, but He allowed it to form as part of His plan. Evil does not disturb God's plan, it is part of it.
He could have just created Adam and Eve without having them fall and they would have been perfect and their offspring would be in heaven without all the bloodshed and suffering and pain and injustice and poverty and hunger, dying etc.
That's exactly right, He could have. But for His own reasons, which I am not privy to, He decided not to.
And creating a Paradise and putting a man and a woman in it and telling them "be fruitful and multiply" while knowing they will commit a sin because of a temptation He placed in the Garden and having decided before they were born that they will disobey Him and be cursed and become corrupt, is love? Strange love it is!
All those in Heaven and destined to go there can thank God for exactly that kind of love. :)
Has it ever occurred to you that maybe they were right and you are wrong?
Sure it has, that would only be fair. But, then I get over it. :) Plus, of course they were not wrong about everything. In fact, they got the most important stuff right.
You (plural you) are "legitimate" Christians; your assemblies are not "legitimate" churches, by definition. There is a difference. The Pope is not expressing his personal "opinion," but a historical fact. The Church was defined before any of you (plural) existed. That definition came from the authority given to the ordained priesthood by the Savior and their successors ever since, in an unbroken lineage.
I understand what you're saying and try not to take the Pope's remarks personally. However, he appears to have changed the definition from how Jesus used it. When Jesus says my "Church" in Matt. 16:18, this is Strong's:
NT:1577 ekklesia (ek-klay-see'-ah); from a compound of NT:1537 and a derivative of NT:2564; a calling out, i.e. (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both): KJV - assembly, church.
So, I suppose I can take solace in that as Jesus used the word, we are included. :)
Remember that Reformation started over abuses and not theology.
Well, they go together. Bad practices came from bad theology. Luther's Theses were full of theological disagreements.
Forest Keeper said: That's exactly right, He could have. But for His own reasons, which I am not privy to, He decided not to.
Kosta said: And creating a Paradise and putting a man and a woman in it and telling them "be fruitful and multiply" while knowing they will commit a sin because of a temptation He placed in the Garden and having decided before they were born that they will disobey Him and be cursed and become corrupt, is love? Strange love it is!
This age, our time on earth, is to see who we will follow. Adam and Eve were to be fruitful and multiply so all the souls could be born during this age. He did place the "serpent" there but it is our choice to disobey, be cursed and become corrupt just as it is our choice to follow Him. He wants to see who is worthy to spend eternity with Him. I don't think that is strange at all.
He didn't "have" Adam and Eve fall. He warned them and they made a choice. He gives all of us that choice and the wheat will be separated from the chaff. In His infinite grace He saw how very weak we are and made it even easier for us. He sent Christ. We only need to believe and repent. That is love.
I believe the Bible tells us that there was an age before this one. That was the time Satan rebelled and took many of God's children with him. This age is a chance for us to make the right decision but many won't. The time that Kosta speaks of, a time of peace, no death, no disease, no hunger, is prepared for us too. We must be found worthy to be part of it.