[P-Marlowe]

It is God’s grace that gives us faith. But we have the freewill to accept or reject that grace.

Why then would a loving God give us free will?

I feel sorry for those who say no to God’s grace. What a wonderful gift they spurn.

Does God feel sorry for them? Or does he exercise his free will and throw them into hell?

[Steve_Seattle]

Mother Theresa spent many years of her life caring for the destitute of India, a job which was brought her into daily contact with filth, stench, excrement, and disease. She persisted, not out of a sense of her own righteousness, but in response to the command of Jesus to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, and minister to the sick.

If God denied her an intimate sense of His presence, that is no moral fault of hers, nor did she see it as an excuse to abandon the work she had been given. Whose reward should be greater, the one who has "faith" but lives an ordinary life devoted to personal fulfillment, or one who persists in heroic works of charity despite a lifelong struggle with faith? The Book of Job clearly shows that even a righteous person can expereince calamity, a calamity allowed by God for His inscrutable purposes.

I do not claim to be "saved", but I think I know what Jesus would say to Mother Theresa, "Well done." The idea that God would condemn Mother Theresa to eternal hell because of her struggle with faith is blasphemous - it turns God into the devil.

[lastchance]

All will be known on the Last Day. Till then I will keep my lamp lit.