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To: Forest Keeper; D-fendr; Dr. Eckleburg; MarkBsnr; suzyjaruki; blue-duncan; Alamo-Girl; xzins
Do you simply "define" God's image as having the possibility of going to Heaven based on free will? If true, that seems pretty arbitrary to me. Under anyone's soteriology, some humans go to Heaven and some humans to hell

 I don't know where you are coming up with these conclusions, FK. If god made all human in His image, I have trouble believeing he created some for destruction and evil and other for righteousness and salvation. They are all His creation and what he creates is good. Whether you hold on to the Gnostic idea of precreated souls or whether God puts a soul in every new human being at conception, those created souls are not made defective by God's hands.

We are destined to hell because we lost our likeness to God by our own choices. Those who come to God are saved. Those who don't are lost. God did not predestin any human being to hell. Where does the Bible say that God predestined us to hell?

2,115 posted on 08/10/2007 8:56:39 PM PDT by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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To: kosta50; D-fendr; Dr. Eckleburg; MarkBsnr; suzyjaruki; blue-duncan; Alamo-Girl; xzins; ...
If God made all humans in His image, I have trouble believing he created some for destruction and evil and other for righteousness and salvation.

He creates all for His purposes. What about Judas? Unless we attribute his actions to "lucky" happenstance, then we have to say that he was created for one major purpose:

John 17:12 : While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

While this is certainly unfortunate for Judas, it still IS what it is. This was God's plan, and there are going to be casualties along the way. I suppose He "could" have done it any other way He wanted to, but we know that He chose to do it "THIS" way. All we can do is nod our heads and accept it, even if it doesn't seem fair to us. Judas was made just as much "in His image" as anyone else, but he was predestined to perdition nonetheless.

They are all His creation and what he creates is good.

Yes, that which God creates is good because it is destined to serve His purpose. For this, it is irrelevant whether God created "sour souls", because it was appointed that Judas would betray Jesus from before he was born.

2,181 posted on 08/11/2007 6:20:52 PM PDT by Forest Keeper (It is a joy to me to know that God had my number, before He created numbers.)
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