And when God created Lucifer, did He predestine that Lucifer shall fall or not? Did Lucifer really have a "free choice" in his "rebellion" or was it something that, as FK says, God said must happen?
Did Lucifer have a choice to disobey God and not rebel? May I remind you that Judaism considers Satan a loyal servant of God, and not a rebel?
Do you believe Judas, then, was merely obeying what God commanded? Is Hitler, by the same logic, a mere servant of God, who "obeyed" what God "commanded?"
My impression is that Reformed Protestants either don't seem to realize that their theology implies that God is the author of sin, or they find it so threatening that they unconsciously deny it.
"I create weal and I create woe." (Isaiah)
I get that "evil" and "woe" are not the same as sin, but still, the verses give one pause. Mind you, across the gates of Hell, says Dante, are these words:
GIUSTIZIA MOSSE IL MIO ALTO FATTOREAnd, finally, "Knowing and seeing aren't causing." Everything is "now" to God. He doesn't "foresee" my sin, He sees it in His now but my future.
FECEMI LA DIVINI POTESTATE
LA SOMMA SAPIENZA E 'L PRIMO AMORE.Justice moved my High Maker and Divine Power and the First Love made me
These are not offered as refutations nor as red herrings but as statements about what keeps me chewing on these questions.
Yes, it was no accident. Omniscience means that when God created lucifer, He knew that if He did so exactly in the way He did, that the result would be as it happened. He chose to create anyway. When lucifer fell, God was not surprised.
Did Lucifer really have a "free choice" in his "rebellion" or was it something that, as FK says, God said must happen?
In all honesty, I don't know how to answer that. I don't know how grace works with angels. All I can say is that lucifer's fall was just as predestined as man's. No surprises to God, and God always gets what He wants.
May I remind you that Judaism considers Satan a loyal servant of God, and not a rebel?
Really? I've never heard that. Do you have a reference?
My impression is that Reformed Protestants either don't seem to realize that their theology implies that God is the author of sin, or they find it so threatening that they unconsciously deny it.
Our theology does not at all imply that God is the author of sin. It holds directly against that. Others choose to draw their own conclusions on our theology which are not in concordance with it. I hope that some recent posting has helped to shed some light on this.